Every person in his life has at least once encountered a repair in an apartment or a house, and he, of course, is familiar with the concept of “puttying walls”. Puttying is the application of a special composition to the wall surface, due to which it is leveled.
What is putty?
Before this article will address the question of how to putty the walls with your own hands, you should understand what the feature of puttying is. This mixture is used in construction and repair work at the stage that goes after plastering the walls. It brings the surface to a perfectly smooth and even state. Basically, the mixture is made on the basis of gypsum, but can also be on a cement or polymer base.
Types of putties
What kind of putty to choose, the better to putty the walls - these questions worry many. Consider the difference between individual types of mixture from each other.
Cement putties are more resistant to moisture. This is due to the fact that cement is a fairly solid foundation. The disadvantages of such tools, which are based on cement, are a tendency to shrink and small elasticity parameters.
Putties based on polymeric materials have an advantageous difference from other types. It consists in the fact that the mixture consists of very small particles, and this leads to perfect alignment of the walls. Polymer putties do not shrink, have high moisture resistance and are an excellent finishing material. Since it’s not difficult to put the walls on your own with your own hands, you can try to level the walls yourself using polymer-based putties. A small drawback of this type of mixtures is their relatively high cost.
Plaster mixes have the ability to quickly set. Walls covered with gypsum putty lend themselves perfectly to grinding, so as a result, smooth and even surfaces are obtained without flaws.
Some types and purpose of putty materials
After considering the main types of leveling materials, it is enough to simply understand and decide which putty is better to putty on the walls. But before this, it is necessary to distinguish between finished putties and special mixtures that must be diluted with water in certain proportions.
Ready-made mixtures are a thick viscous mass that is packed in plastic buckets or bags. Ready putty can be used immediately after you open the package.
Dry mixes are a certain mass in the form of powder which is packed up in paper bags. It is not at all difficult to bring the mixture to the finished state, since all instructions on this subject can be read on the packaging.
According to the specifics of the work, the filler material can be starting (leveling), decorative (finishing) and universal, combining the qualities of starting and finishing putties.
Is it possible to putty the walls with your own hands?
How to learn to putty walls? Is it possible? Many are concerned about this issue. There is only one answer: of course, it is possible, because this process does not make any special difficulties, since it does not require you to have special skills. Today, the technology of finishing and construction work is greatly simplified. This is directly related to the emergence of new materials on the construction market. Therefore, make any cosmetic repairs on the shoulder of any man who has at least a small fraction of knowledge about the repair process. A woman who is repairing herself can also putty the walls without involving anyone else's help.
Wall preparation
Before you putty the walls for painting, you need to prepare the surface.
To begin with, the wall is freed from old finishing materials: exfoliated paint, wallpaper, etc. Also stains of grease and soot are removed. It is not recommended to putty on frozen sections of the walls. If new surfaces are processed, whether it is plastered or concrete wall, then before applying the mixture all surfaces are covered with a special primer, mainly special deep penetration mixtures are used. The purpose of applying the primer is one - to increase the adhesion of the wall surface to the material applied to it.
The preparatory stage is very important, because the quality of the subsequent finish depends on it, so before you plaster or putty the walls of the house or apartment, you need to carefully process the surfaces.
Puttying the walls
The list of works that are associated with puttying the walls must be done in several stages. The initial putty coating is applied with a thickness of 2-3 mm when using a wide spatula with a width of at least 60 cm. The putty must be distributed along the diagonal of the wall for uniform application of the material. It is necessary to apply it correctly, preferably from the side of the unfinished surface, that is, the material is stretched towards the putty area at an angle of 20-30 degrees. Overlaying the mixture is obtained as if overlapping. Do not think that you will immediately get a smooth and perfectly even surface, since it is advisable to putty the walls with your own hands several times, that is, in several layers.
After completion of work, the surface must be dried within 14 hours. After that, the putty wall is treated with sandpaper, sanded and various irregularities are removed. The grinding process can be done manually, or you can resort to using a mechanical grinding machine. Then the surface is primed again, then a putty top coat is applied, which will finally level the walls. After the final layer has dried, it will be possible to paint the walls or glue the wallpaper.
Plasterboard wall putty
Drywall is an excellent finishing material for insulation and a great way to align walls, and it is also used to create arches and partitions. Plasterboard sheets can be mounted on glue or using metal profiles. But after the drywall is fixed, it must be putty. This process is quite time-consuming, but alignment can be much faster and better than simple plastering. Before you putty the walls of drywall, you need to learn how to do it right.
Before starting work, it is necessary to prime the surface with special mixtures that protect against the development of mold and fungal formations, as well as contribute to better adhesion of the material. After the primer layer has dried, the seams between the sheets of drywall are sealed with putty using a serpyanka - a special mesh. It is used for better adhesion of joints.
When the seams are closed, and the sickle is applied, you can begin to apply the first layer of putty. There are two ways to finish drywall walls. The first is more economical, since it involves only one layer of putty, then grouting and, as a result, the application of the final coating. This finish option gives a good result for aligning the walls.
Since it is desirable to put drywall under wallpaper, in this case, you can use the second method of puttying the walls. This is a long-lasting but more effective option. In this case, the alignment of the drywall wall occurs in three layers. After applying the first putty is wiped with a special sandpaper. Then the next layer is applied and also overwritten.
The next step is gluing on the wall of a spider web, or in other words, fiberglass, providing better adhesion of the material and protecting it from stretch marks and shedding putty. Then, the wall is finished with drywall with a finish layer.
Wall alignment methods
There are several options for leveling the walls. Deciding whether to plaster or putty the walls, or to finish with drywall, is necessary taking into account your personal preferences and capabilities.
We have already considered the types of putties , now we will get acquainted with the plaster. Its most popular types are gypsum and cement-sand.
Gypsum plaster can be applied in thinner layers due to the stickiness and ductility of the material. The downside is that it can not be used for exterior decoration, and not all gypsum plasters are suitable for wet rooms. It also has a fairly high cost.
Plaster mixes based on cement and sand are inferior in their stickiness and plasticity to gypsum plasters, they often come across small pebbles, which interferes with the application of thin layers. They are used for outdoor work and decoration of large areas.
Puttying the walls under the wallpaper
Puttying the walls for painting and wallpaper is different. We will first consider how to putty drywall under wallpaper: paper, vinyl, non-woven and others. Any work related to drywall belongs to the category of “clean” ones, since after finishing it is not necessary to spend time and effort on washing dirty smudges.
The walls in the room are a kind of background on which the entire interior of the room is created. Therefore, it is very important that the walls are perfect. Many do not quite understand why putty walls from drywall, if the surface is even and smooth. Is it possible to just get along with puttying just the joints? Many must decide for themselves whether they need it or not. But it is important to remember that when pasting drywall walls with thin wallpaper, patched joints can appear, that is, the seams will shine through. And if the wallpaper is glued directly to the drywall sheet, then it will be very difficult to change them if you wish, since the wallpaper will come off together with the top layer of drywall.
Puttying the walls for painting
The task of how to putty the walls for painting requires a more thorough approach in the process of preparing the surface, since such a coating cannot hide even a small roughness. Previously, the walls are aligned with several layers of plaster or cement putty. The following should be taken into account: gypsum mixtures after drying have an even white color, while cement-based putty is gray. Its shade will appear when pasting the walls with thin and light wallpaper. The penetration of gray can occur when painting walls with light paint.
After the putty dries, it is wiped and the finish layer is applied, thereby eliminating minor defects. The final stage after the final drying is a thorough grinding of the surface with a machine or grater.
As you can see, the putty process itself is not so complicated. This instruction will help those who do not yet know how to putty the walls with their own hands.
Essential Putty Tools
To putty the walls, the following materials and tools are required:
- a set of spatulas of different sizes;
- rollers or brushes for applying a primer mixture;
- a device for leveling thick layers of putty;
- building level;
- capacity for putty;
- sandpaper.
After the high-quality performance of work on leveling the walls, any finishing coating that you choose for your walls will delight your appearance and look perfect.