Plastering of walls, composition of solutions for their leveling, general technology of work, surface finishing on beacons. Wall plastering is a time-tested and still popular way of leveling the surfaces of vertical enclosing structures. It allows you to create a continuous monolithic coating and provide conditions for its subsequent finishing.
Selection of materials for wall plastering
The composition of the plaster solution is selected depending on the material of the walls and the location of their treated surface: outside or inside the room.
Walls made of ordinary clay bricks are plastered with cement-sand mortar. In case of high humidity indoors or when working outside, a little lime is added to the mixture. The maximum thickness of the plaster layer on the walls should be no more than 30 mm. When its thickness is more than 20 mm, it is required to use a reinforcing mesh, which is located in the thickness of the plaster and prevents it from peeling off the base.
The composition of the lime-cement mortar for plastering walls includes: one part of cement, 1-3 hours of lime paste, 6-8 hours of sand. First, a dry mixture of sand and cement is prepared, and then lime dough diluted with water is added to it. Then the entire solution is mixed until a plastic homogeneous mass is obtained.
Cement-sand mortar consists of one part of cement and 2-5 hours of sand. Their dry mixture is mixed with water and mixed to a dough consistency.
Smooth concrete walls are plastered using lime-gypsum mortar, consisting of 3-4 parts of lime and one part of gypsum. To create roughness on the concrete wall for better adhesion to the plaster layer, the surface is pre-primed with a compound containing gypsum and quartz particles. Rough concrete walls can be plastered with cement or plaster.
Foam concrete walls are also leveled with gypsum and cement mortars, but they are pre-treated with a penetrating primer to reduce the diffusion of water from the applied plaster.
The correct choice of plaster mix is very important. The durability of the entire wall covering depends on it. A rich assortment of ready-made mixtures is present today in specialized stores. It is enough to mix the dry composition with water, the plaster will be immediately ready for use. One of the most common at present is the Rotband mixture.
DIY wall plastering technology
Plaster is a “wet” construction process that is characterized by the presence of dust and dirt. Therefore, it requires patience and strict adherence to technology. Then plastering the walls with your own hands will bring not only a high-quality result, but also moral satisfaction. For work, you will need a trowel (trowel), a short and long rule, a level, a square, a brush and a spatula, a mixer and a container for mixing mortar, a primer and a dry plaster mixture.
Preparation for plastering walls
First of all, it is necessary to clean the walls to their base from the old finish. After that, it is required to create conditions for the adhesion of the plaster mortar to the material of the enclosing structures.
To do this, samples of seams are made in a brick wall to a depth of 1 cm. Notches will have to be made on a smooth concrete wall. This work is done with a hammer and chisel. The depth of the notches should be about 3 mm, the length should be 15 mm, and the quantity should be 250 pcs. 1 m2 concrete wall.
On wooden walls, before plastering them, you need to stuff shingles. To do this, you can use plywood trims or thin strips, which are best placed in diagonal directions. Instead of shingles, you can use a mesh netting. It is attached to the wall through plywood strips, the thickness of which is selected so that the distance between the mesh and the wall surface is at least 3 mm.
After completing the above procedures, wooden or brick walls should be moistened with water before plastering. As a tool for this, you can use a garden sprayer or a regular broom.
Concrete walls are treated with Betonokontakt primer. For walls built from more porous building materials such as aerated concrete or sand-lime bricks, a deep-penetrating primer will be required. With a high diffusion capacity of the substrate, surface treatment should be carried out twice.
Preparation of mortar for plastering walls
If the solution is not prepared from individual components, then before work you need to study the instructions printed on the package with the finished mixture. It is usually indicated at 1 m2 walls plaster consumption and the procedure for its preparation.
For one bag of mixture, for example, "Rotband", weighing 30 kg, you will need 17-18 liters of water. It should be poured into a suitable container, add 1-1.5 kg of the composition and mix thoroughly. After that, you need to pour in the remaining mixture and knead it well using a mixing nozzle clamped in the chuck of an electric drill. In the process of mixing, you need to take a five-minute break for the solution to swell, and then continue the procedure until the lumps disappear completely.
A freshly prepared solution should be used within 20 minutes to half an hour. When its viscosity increases, the addition of water is unacceptable. Therefore, in the absence of experience and the speed of such work, it is recommended to prepare the mixture in smaller portions.
After preparing the mixture, you can start the main work. The production technology of plastering walls provides for the alternate application of three layers of the composition to their surface, performed intermittently.
Applying a plaster layer "spray" to the walls
The first layer of plaster is applied with a liquid solution of a creamy consistency. For stone and brick walls, the thickness of such a layer is 4-5 mm, for wood - 10 mm.
The work will need a painting tool called "falcon". You need to draw a solution into it and use it in small portions, picking up on a trowel and throwing it with force on the surface of the wall.
The spraying order is completely arbitrary, the movement should be performed not with the whole hand, but only with its brush. The swing should be short to avoid splashing. This method of plastering walls is good in that the particles of the mixture under shock pressure penetrate deeply into the cavities and pores of the wall material.
After a uniform sketch of the solution over its entire plane, there is no need to level the resulting coating, it is enough to remove the excess mixture from the areas protruding beyond the general relief.
Applying a plaster layer "primer" to walls
The priming layer of the plaster is made with a pasty solution. It is applied after the previous coat has dried. The mixture should be thrown onto the wall, filling in all the free areas.
After that, the surface must be smoothed with the movements of the rule from bottom to top. Excess solution is removed into a container. Empty areas that may appear in the process of working with the tool must be filled with a solution and re-leveled.
Further work is done with a trowel. Its movement should be vertical and horizontal. The even condition of the wall surface should be constantly checked using the rule. The thickness of the primer is up to 20 mm.
Applying a plaster layer "cover" to the walls
The third covering layer of plaster is carried out, like the first, with a liquid solution. Its purpose is finishing and masking the flaws of the previous layer, thickness - 2 mm.
To prepare the mixture, it must first be sieved through a fine mesh sieve. This will prevent the presence of large solids in the grout, which can interfere with a good grout.
The surface of the second layer must be moistened with water. The covering layer is applied with a trowel and smoothed with a semi-trowel in a circular or wave-like motion.
Grouting plaster on the walls
Round plaster grouting is carried out on a fresh third layer. The wooden trowel should be pressed firmly against the wall and performed in a circular motion counterclockwise. With a sharp edge of the tool, excess mixture and all protrusions are removed.
When grouting "in acceleration" the grater is pressed against the wall, and sharp straight strokes are performed, with the help of which traces of circular movements are removed. After that, it is advisable to walk on the plastered surface with a float upholstered with felt, thereby improving the quality of the coating.
Plastering of walls on lighthouses
If there are significant irregularities on the surfaces to be treated, the method of plastering the walls along the beacons is used. With their help, you can control the layer of applied plaster over the entire plane of the structure.
Wall markings before plastering
As beacons for plastering wooden walls, shingles are used, for finishing more durable structures - metal guides.
The markings for leveling the walls with plaster using beacons are made in the following sequence:
- Along the wall at a distance of 30 cm from its corner, you need to draw a vertical line and throw several spots of solution on it along the entire height. They are needed to mount beacons. Their length should be 2 m in accordance with the size of the applied level. Sections of lighthouses can be added to the row to the desired wall height.
- The beacon is pressed into the solution with a level. In this case, the process should be constantly monitored for a strictly vertical position of the profile. A lighthouse is displayed in the same way in the opposite corner of the wall.
- To fix the lighthouses, you can use not plaster solution, but alabaster, which hardens much faster.
- To determine the position of the remaining beacons on the wall, use a cord. It stretches between the corner beacons at the bottom of the wall. To fasten the cord near the corner, you need to screw in the screws or hammer the dowels into the seams of the masonry.
- To control the wall surface and determine the thickness of the future plaster, it is recommended to move the cord along the length of the beacons. When touching it against the wall, the level of installation of the lighthouse profiles should be adjusted to a larger side.
- Then you need to mark the wall for the installation of the remaining beacons. The standard distance between them is no more than 1 m. This is convenient for working with a short rule that will move along the surface of two adjacent profiles.
- To simplify the placement of beacons along the cords, you can use the rigid fixation method. Previously, on each of the lines of beacons at the bottom of the wall near the floor, you need to screw in the screws to such a depth that their caps are located at the level of the cord. Then, to fix each line of lighthouse profiles on the wall, you need to throw a solution, as in the previous case. The lighthouse is mounted above the screw, and then the level is pressed into the solution to the required depth while constantly checking its verticality. The level should rest on a screw screwed into the bottom of the wall. Thus, the profiles are positioned along the screw heads exactly in the same plane.
The result of such a marking should be a wall prepared for plastering with a plane at a given level of beacons.
The process of applying plaster to the walls
After installing all the beacons, you can start the main process. The mortar is cast on the wall along the sections located between the profiles. A construction trowel is used for this purpose.
The area of plastering areas depends on the speed of drying of the mixture on a wall made of a particular material. Porous surfaces are finished with small areas, monolithic walls - with larger ones.
The plaster should be leveled with a rule. It rests with two ends on the beacons and moves up and down with a pressure. In the process of work, the surface of the wall is smoothed, and excess mixture is removed, which, after assembly, can be used to fill in possible voids in the coating.
Working as a rule requires a certain amount of experience. It is very important not to exert excessive pressure on the tool, since when the beacons bend, you can remove the extra millimeters of the already leveled coating. The final leveling of the plane of the structures is done with a light float.
After finishing work and grouting, it is recommended to remove the beacons from the walls. The voids that remain should be sealed with a spatula and rubbed flush with the plane of the walls.
Watch a video about plastering walls:
This completes the process. It is necessary to wash the tool and think about the finishing of the resulting coating. We hope that our material helped you understand how to properly plaster walls, and the skill in this matter can be acquired in the process. Good luck!
