Interiors of modern style often contain materials that have natural textures, since not everyone can afford using natural wood, stone and brick. Decorative stones are placed on the wall to give the decor respectability, and a variety of shapes and color palette allows them to be used in all kinds of stylistic directions of design. Like any building material, decorative stones have their own installation features and product selection rules. What needs to be known to the layman who decided to bring natural decoration to his interior?
Types of Artificial Product
Limited natural resources and difficult ways to process them make natural building materials expensive. And the desire of people to equip premises in eco-style does not fade away. What did they come up with to replace natural materials for wall cladding? Decorative stone tiles are a modern solution for decorating walls or individual elements of a room. So, brickwork has become a familiar decoration of apartments from the inside.
Artificial facing material is made of gypsum, cement, sand and various additives. The result is a product that is not inferior in its operational characteristics to a natural analogue. Outwardly, it is difficult for a layman to distinguish, for example, a decorative stone made of gypsum from sandstone or slate.
Popular textures of artificial building materials are imitation of slate, brick and wild masonry. There are also products for internal and external work. The thickness of the stone varies from 1 to 8 cm. Depending on the purpose of the material, it is also used for flooring and landscape design.
Material quality
In order not to make a mistake and achieve the desired effect of a noble interior or exterior, it is necessary to carefully study the decorative stone offered on the market, the price of which, although lower than natural material, is not so small as to neglect quality.
The front side of the product should not contain black spots. These are micropores formed during improper casting. During operation, water penetrates through these holes into the material, and when the temperature drops, which is typical for cases of external use of decorative stones, it expands. As a result - cracking of plates.
Choosing a decorative stone for interior decoration, you should compare the texture of products with the size of the premises. Small textures (slate) are able to visually expand the space, and such as brick look great on large areas.
Important! The material is supplied in packs; it is packaged in 1 square meter. A sign of quality is the absence of externally repeated stones in one batch. But the size of the tiles should be the same.
Basic installation rules
Laying decorative stone provides for the implementation of certain installation rules:
- Facade cladding starts from warping with an indent of 10 cm. If you lay the tile without fulfilling this condition, you can expect that in winter, after freezing the soil, the lower masonry products will disappear. When interior decoration of the entire wall, it is also necessary to remember the indentation for the skirting board.
- The base and back of the product should be treated with a concrete contact, a primer or other similar solutions for better adhesion. On a brick and wooden wall , fill a metal mesh and cover it with cement mortar, and then treat it with soil. Decorative stones are laid on the wall after the plaster mixes have completely dried.
- The adhesion of the material to the base occurs through special adhesives recommended by manufacturers of artificial stones.
- Treatment of the coating with water repellent is mandatory. This tool protects the porous structure of the stone from moisture.
Tool
Laying artificial material does not require any special tools. For facing you will need:
- level;
- roulette;
- cord for installing horizontal beacons;
- metal brush;
- electric drill with a mixer for preparing grout and adhesive solutions;
- paint brush;
- trowel;
- Bulgarian;
- rubber mallet;
- syringe gun for filling joints;
- wooden rods, approximately 12 mm thick.
Some of the listed tools may not be used when working the seamless method.
Styling tips
Decorative stone tiles are mounted on the prepared wall. As for wallpapering or facing with ceramic tiles, the base should be flat. Although artificial material is lighter than natural, it still creates a large load on the wall. Therefore, facing plasterboard partitions with decorative stone is not recommended. It is better to replace them with OSB sheets, on which the material is easily mounted with liquid nails.
Work is carried out at positive temperature. On especially hot days, it is necessary to wet the wall and the back of the plates with water. After three minutes of drying, you can start laying. If the reverse side of the stone has cement milk or a glossy layer, it should be well cleaned with a wire brush.
Unlike ceramic tiles, laying decorative stone begins with its preliminary laying on the floor. As mentioned earlier, products differ from each other outwardly. Therefore, laying out 1-2 square meters on the floor, rearranging and swapping tiles, you can achieve the best combination, which then remains to be transferred to the wall.
Styling technology
Tiled elements can be glued from top to bottom and vice versa. Both methods have their advantages. If the lining is started from above, then flowing of the solution onto the layer laid below can be avoided, which is typical when laying from the bottom up. When installing a stone from below, the likelihood of tile slipping decreases.
A decorative stone for interior decoration, imitating a brick, is laid with an offset. That is, the vertical seams between the rows should not coincide. Then the wall or corner element will look natural.
The prepared solution (glue) is applied to the base and to the back of the plate with a spatula. The estimated thickness of the adhesive layer should not exceed 10-12 mm. Then, with some force, the decorative element is pressed against the surface of the wall. It happens that the stone moves, the reason for this may be a liquid solution.
The installation option with seams provides for the presence of wooden rods of the same thickness. They are installed end-to-end between the tiles, forming the same seam width over the entire surface.
Stitching
After the decorative stone in the apartment has grasped the surface, on the fourth day it is recommended to proceed to the jointing. Compositions to fill the inter-tile space must be selected according to the instructions of the manufacturer of artificial stone.
Grout is placed in a syringe gun or a dense plastic bag, which then cut the angle along the thickness of the seam. In order for the masonry to have a pronounced relief, the filling is done to a depth of not more than 5 mm. The depth of grout depends on the artistic design concept.
After laying the solution in the seams and the beginning of its solidification, the leveling stage begins. Use for this a curly shovel or spatula. The remnants of the grout are brushed off.
The final stage
Decorative stones can be laid on the wall inside or outside the room, and after installation they should be treated with a hydrophobic compound. Such impregnation is able to protect the room from cement dust, which is released from unprocessed artificial materials, and give the stone texture expressiveness.
If it is necessary to embody the artist’s artistic design related to painting the stone, then the characteristics of the product allow the application of paintwork on them. Especially this final stage requires a decorative stone made of gypsum.
Mistakes
Knowing the technology of laying artificial stones and having experience in facing ceramic tiles, it is difficult to independently install decorative elements without errors. To check the quality of the masonry, it is possible at the time of gluing the product after ten seconds to remove it and see the places of adhesion of the material to the base. If the back side of the tile is not completely missed and there is a trace of glue left on the wall that does not correspond to the area of ​​the back side of the product, then this masonry is doomed to failure.
The fact is that the solution is applied to the entire back side of the tile and when it is mounted on the wall, it is well pressed. Thus, part of the glue protrudes on the sides of the product and a single surface is formed with a seam. The presence of voids can be traced by tapping the lining with a rubber mallet. A drum sound is a sign of marriage.
Material properties
Tile “Decorative stone” is made of gypsum, stone chips, alabaster, which indicates the naturalness of the components. This material is not harmful to health, since it does not emit harmful impurities. The advantages of artificial stone are high thermal insulation properties, frost resistance, moisture resistance. This is all the same that is inherent in natural stones. In addition, decorative material is superior in quality to its natural counterpart. Firstly, it is cheaper than natural and lighter. And secondly, artificial stone products are easier to process and assemble.
A variety of compositions of man-made stone products enable the consumer to choose the scope of their application. There are heat-resistant samples that are suitable for masonry fireplaces. Decorative stone in the kitchen as an apron should be resistant to moisture. Also used material for bathrooms: both on the floor and on the walls.
Stone in the interior
Decorative material so harmoniously fits into modern apartments and combines with other building materials that ideas with its use have become available to everyone. When planning a repair, a person looks at examples of design of premises for inspiration, then to realize the patterns he likes in his apartment.
Having studied the catalogs with repairs of modern apartments, you can highlight the popular places of decoration with stone material:
- columns, bar counters, arches;
- fireplaces;
- decorative stone in the hallway;
- kitchen apron;
- slopes, corner elements;
- balconies, loggias;
- baths and pools;
- facades of houses.
Decorative stone: price
In the construction materials market in 2016, artificial material, which is not inferior in quality to natural stone, costs about 1 thousand rubles per square meter. The texture "rock" and "slate" will cost the consumer 1350 rubles. It will be cheaper to imitate brickwork. Its manufacturers estimate 850 rubles per square meter.
Separately, you can purchase corner elements with the listed textures. Their cost is calculated per linear meter and varies from 1200 to 1300 rubles.
In Russia, the idea of ​​creating a business for the production of artificial stones has been thriving for seven years. There are programs for calculating the economic model for the production of facing material, classified technologies and even special molds.
Material Reviews
People who are faced with the self-laying of man-made stone material, speak of the incredible painstaking installation. Firstly, it is difficult to adjust in size due to the thickness of the tiles. Secondly, the seams between the masonry elements are not so easy to wipe, as is done when laying ceramic tiles. Another difficulty is the docking of the stone with the wallpaper. Forum users come to one conclusion: it is better to lay decorative stones on the wall, turning to a specialist for help.
As for the sensations from the interior after high-quality lining with artificial material, the opinions of consumers are reduced to a single epithet - “luxurious”. Practicality of application is also traced. Stone corner elements, especially in frequently traveled places, look neat.
And yet, the material is good in every way, but this is not a reason to use it in every room. Otherwise, the refined idea of ​​modern design as a result will turn the room into a cave with stone walls.