Decorative stones on the wall: styling technology, reviews

Interiors of modern style often contain materials that have natural textures, because not all can afford to use natural wood, stone and brick. Decorative stones on the wall are placed to give the environment respectability, and a variety of shapes and color palette allows them to be used in all sorts of stylistic directions of design. Like any building material, decorative stones have their own installation features and product selection rules. What is necessary to know the man who decided to bring in his interior natural decoration?

Types of Artificial Products

The limited nature of natural resources and the difficult ways of processing them make natural building materials expensive. And the desire of people to equip the premises in ekostyle does not quench. What is it that came up with the replacement of natural materials for wall cladding? Decorative tiles for stone - a modern solution for the decoration of walls or individual elements of the room. So, brickwork has become a customary decoration of apartments from the inside.

An artificial facing material is made of gypsum, cement, sand and various additives. At the output, a product is obtained that is not inferior to its natural counterpart in terms of its performance characteristics. It is difficult for a non-professional to distinguish, for example, a decorative gypsum stone from sandstone or slate.

Popular imitations of artificial building material is imitation of shale, brick and wild masonry. Products for internal and external works are also distinguishable. 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 for landscape design.

Quality of material

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 is at least lower than that of natural material, but not so small as to neglect quality.

The front side of the product should not contain black impregnations. These are micropores formed with incorrect casting. Through these openings during operation, water enters the interior of the material, and with the temperature drop, which is typical for cases of external use of decorative stones, its expansion occurs. As a consequence - cracking plates.

Choosing a decorative stone for interior decoration, you should compare the texture of the products with the size of the premises. Small textures (slate) can visually expand the space, and such as a brick look great in large areas.

Important! The material is delivered in packs, it is packed on 1 square meter. A sign of quality is the absence of repetitive stones in one batch. But the size of the tiles must be the same.

Basic installation rules

The installation of a decorative stone provides for the execution of certain installation rules:

• The facade cladding begins with a foot with an indentation of 10 cm. If you lay the tile without fulfilling this condition, you can expect that in the winter, after freezing of the soil, the lower products of the masonry will disappear. When decorating the entire wall, it is also necessary to remember the indentation for the skirting board.
• The base and back of the product must be treated with concrete-contact, primer or other similar solutions for better adhesion. On the brick and wooden walls should be filled with a metal mesh and cover it with cement mortar, and then treated with soil. Decorative stones on the wall are laid after the complete drying of the plaster mixes.
• The bonding of the material to the substrate takes place through special adhesive compositions recommended by manufacturers of artificial stones.
• Treatment of the facings with a water repellent is mandatory. This product protects the porous structure of the stone from moisture.

Tool

Stacking of artificial material does not require the presence of any special tools. For cladding you will need:

• level;
• roulette;
• Cord for installing horizontal beacons;
• Metal brush;
• Electric drill with a mixer for the preparation of trowelling and glutinous solutions;
• Paint brush;
• trowel;
• Bulgarian;
• Rubber hammer;
• Syringe gun for filling joints;
• Wooden rods, approximately 12 mm thick.

Some of these tools may not be used for seamless work.

Installation Tips

Decorative tile under the stone is mounted on the prepared wall. As for gluing wallpaper or cladding with ceramic tiles, the base must be flat. Although the artificial material is lighter than natural, it still creates a large load on the wall. Therefore, it is not recommended to coat gypsum plasterboard with a decorative stone. It is better to replace them with OSB sheets, which can easily be mounted with liquid nails.

Work is done at plus temperature. On particularly hot days it is necessary to wet the wall and the back of the plates with water. After a three-minute drying, you can start laying. If the back of the stone has a cement milkshape or a glossy layer, it should be well cleaned with a metal brush.

Unlike ceramic tiles, the laying of a decorative stone begins with a preliminary laying it on the floor. As mentioned earlier, products between themselves are externally different. Therefore, laying 1-2 square meters on the floor, rearranging and changing the tiles in places, you can achieve the best combination, which then remains to be transferred to the wall.

Stacking technology

Tile elements can be glued from top to bottom and vice versa. Both methods have their advantages. If the lining starts from the top, then you can avoid flowing the solution onto the layer below, which is typical when laying from the bottom up. When installing a stone from below, the probability of slipping tiles decreases.

A decorative stone for interior decoration, imitating a brick, is stacked with an offset. That is, vertical seams between rows should not coincide. Then the wall or corner element will look natural.

The prepared mortar (glue) is applied to the base and to the back of the plate with a spatula. The calculated thickness of the adhesive layer should not exceed 10-12 mm. Then, the decorative element is pressed against the surface of the wall with some force. It happens that the stone shifts, the cause of this can be a liquid solution.

The variant of stacking with seams provides for the presence of wooden rods of the same thickness. They are installed end-to-end between tiles, forming the same width of the seam over the entire surface.

Jointing

After the decorative stone in the apartment has seized the surface, on the fourth day it is recommended to proceed to the seaming process. The compositions for filling the interlacing space must be selected according to the directions of the manufacturer of the artificial stone.

Grout is placed in a syringe gun or a dense plastic bag, which then cut off the angle of the thickness of the seam. In order for the masonry to have a pronounced relief, the filling is carried out to a depth of no more than 5 mm. The depth of grouting depends on the artistic design concept.

After laying the solution in the seams and the beginning of its hardening, the leveling step begins. Use a shovel or spatula for this. Remains of grout brush off.

The final stage

Decorative stones on the wall can be laid inside or outside the room, and after installation they should be treated with a hydrophobic compound. This impregnation is able to save in the future the room from the cement dust, which is released from the raw artificial materials, and give the texture of the stone expressiveness.

If it is necessary to embody the designer's artistic design associated with the painting of the stone, the characteristics of the product are allowed to be applied to paint and varnish compositions. Especially this final stage requires a decorative gypsum stone.

Errors

Knowing the technology of stacking artificial stones and having experience in facing ceramic tiles, it's hard to fix decorative elements without errors. To check the quality of the masonry, at the moment of gluing the product, after ten seconds, remove it and see the places of adhesion of the material to the base. If the back of the tile is not completely smeared and there is a trace on the wall of the glue that does not correspond to the area of the underside of the product, then such a masonry is doomed to failure.

The fact that the solution is applied to the entire back side of the tile and when mounted on a wall is well pressed down. Thus, part of the glue protrudes on the sides of the product and a uniform surface is formed with the seam. The presence of voids can be traced by knocking on the facing with a rubber mallet. Drum sound is a sign of marriage.

Material properties

Tile "Decorative stone" is made of gypsum, stone crumbs, alabaster, which indicates the naturalness of the components. This material is not hazardous to health, since it does not emit harmful impurities. Advantages of artificial stone are high thermal insulation properties, frost resistance, moisture resistance. It's all the same as inherent in natural stones. In addition, the decorative material is superior in nature to its natural counterpart. First, it is cheaper than natural and lighter. And secondly, artificial stone products are easier to process and install.

Various compositions of man-made stone products enable the consumer to choose the scope of their application. There are heat-resistant specimens that are suitable for laying 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 is combined with other building materials, that ideas with its application have become available to all comers. Planning a repair, a person looks at examples of design spaces for inspiration, then to realize the liked samples in his apartment.

Having studied the catalogs with the repairs of modern apartments, it is possible to distinguish the popular places for decorating with stone material:

• Columns, bar counters, arches;
• Fireplaces;
• Decorative stone in the corridor;
• 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, not inferior in quality to natural stone, stands in the area of 1 thousand rubles per square meter. The texture of "rock" and "slate" will cost the consumer 1,350 rubles. It will be cheaper to imitate brickwork. Its producers are estimated at 850 rubles per square meter.

Separately, you can purchase corner elements with the listed invoices. Their cost is calculated per meter linear and varies from 1200 to 1300 rubles.

In Russia, the idea of creating a business for the production of artificial stones has been flourishing for seven years now. There are programs for calculating the economic model for the production of lining material, classified technologies and even special molds for casting.

Reviews of the material

People, faced with the independent laying of man-made stone material, speak of the incredible painstaking installation. Firstly, it is difficult to fit it in size due to the thickness of the tiles. Secondly, the seams between the elements of the masonry 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 decorate the decorative stones on the wall, applying for help to a specialist.

As for the sensations from the interior after the high-quality facing with artificial material, the opinions of consumers are reduced to a single epithet - "luxuriously". Also practicality of application is traced. Stone corner elements, especially in often passable places, look neat.

And yet, the material is good in all respects, but this is not an excuse 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.