In our article, we will tell you about an interesting finishing material with a beautiful name - pebble plaster. It is distinguished by a rather long service life and is equally successfully used both for internal work and for imparting nobility to the exterior of structures.
Decorative pebble plaster will help to make the interior of the rooms unusual, and the facade of buildings - eye-catching. About what it is and what is the technology of its application, and will be discussed further. By the way, many are familiar with her, but only heard a different, more prosaic name - “fur coat”.
Characteristic
In principle, what this finishing material is, it’s clear from the name itself - pebble plaster. The construction market offers a wide variety of mixtures, which include fine crushed stone fractions of different sizes. Usually it is, as a rule, marble chips. Thus, it is possible to choose for yourself a suitable texture option. In addition, manufacturers now offer not only gray-white options, but also already painted compositions, which makes it possible to diversify the appearance of facades and interior interiors.
If even for the sake of economy you get the usual solution, then there is nothing to worry about. Pebble plaster is beautifully painted, so in some cases, if you want some kind of creative color, it's even better. The solution dries per day, it can be applied at a temperature of +5 to +30 degrees. In addition, the solution does not dry out for a rather long time, that is, you can work with it for four hours, which is great for a beginner home master who does not have professional skills.
Advantages
No wonder such a coating as pebbled plaster was called a "fur coat". It really is able to protect the exterior walls of buildings from the effects of atmospheric precipitation and the adverse effects of temperature extremes, while not having suffered at all and without losing its attractive appearance. For the same reason, it is great for interior decoration of rooms that also suffer from high humidity - bathrooms and kitchens. In addition, it can be applied to almost any coating - from stones to wood and drywall.
Pebbled plaster belongs to the category of environmentally friendly materials, which makes its use especially attractive when conducting interior decorating. Well, and, perhaps, one of the most important advantages can be considered that the application of pebble plaster is a very simple procedure, so that finishing work can be done with your own hands. This, in fact, will be discussed further.
Preparatory work
The coating will serve you for a long time only if you are not too lazy and thoroughly prepare the base surface. In principle, there is nothing complicated here, since any finishing process requires preliminary preparatory work. So, the base base must first be cleaned of all available coatings. That is, you need to remove not only, say, wallpaper, but also paint or old cement mortar from the walls. Then it is necessary to repair significant defects, and also, if possible, try to level the surface as much as possible. After this, the base will need to be primed, and certainly twice, which will contribute to better adhesion and, as a result, improve the quality of the coating.
The application of pebble decorative plaster, as we have already mentioned, is a relatively simple procedure. But the final result depends not only on your skill, but also on the quality of the preparatory work.
What you need to have at hand at home
In principle, no special tools will be required. Pebble plaster is applied with a metal trowel. You will also need a mixing tank and a construction mixer (for the same). The last attribute is required, since the mixture in the bag is not mixed, so you need to cook the whole amount at once. Manually make a quality solution does not work. Also, a roller will be needed, but not simple, but special - textured.
Solution preparation
As already mentioned above, you will have to prepare a solution of the total amount of plaster in the bag. And this is not so little. As a rule, it is sold in 25 kg bags. Typically, five liters of water will suffice for such an amount. But it’s better to play it safe and read the recommendations of the manufacturer, who will accurately indicate the desired ratio. As for the process itself, experts recommend kneading gradually, at intervals of two minutes and always at low speeds. Only in this way can a truly homogeneous composition be achieved.
Finishing procedure
How to apply pebble plaster? Manually and only manually. Of course, there are special devices for this, but they are used, as a rule, only on external surfaces and with large volumes of work. For yourself, beloved, you have to try and do it yourself. So, first the first coat is applied, which should dry for at least four hours. By the way, the excess solution removed from the trowel should not be smashed along the wall, they should be mixed with the mass that is in the bucket. Then a second coat is applied. There is no time to wait here. After ten minutes, the plaster needs to be leveled, and after another thirty - carefully polished with the same trowel. Specialists call this method ironification.
Breaks are strongly recommended not to do. The entire area with pebbled plaster must be treated in strict accordance with the requirements of the process. If it is not observed, then in the future defects will form on your walls.
Textured coating
An attentive reader may ask a tricky question: “Why did we stock up on an unusual roller?” And it will be needed for someone who wants to have not ordinary, but textured coating. What do you need to do for this? Add one more manipulation to the procedure described above. Ten minutes after applying the second layer, you need to walk through the treated area with a textured roller. He will give the surface the desired structure. Well, after that it is necessary to carry out ironing.
Advice
If this is your first time doing this kind of work, be sure to purchase plaster with larger grains, since working with it is much easier, especially for a beginner, and the disadvantages of finishing on such a surface are not so noticeable. If you really want to have a fine-grained coating, then there is nothing to be done - you still have to turn to specialists, since in this case only a professional can ensure the quality of work.
When applying a layer, be guided by the diameter of the grains. Its thickness should fully correspond to the size of the latter. When applying plaster, it is not recommended to press hard on the tool. In addition, try to keep it parallel to the work surface.
Conclusion
We told you what pebble plaster is. The photos available in the article will allow you to better imagine how the surfaces treated by it look. Well, the choice, of course, will remain with you.