Porch trim: material selection

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

How to trim the porch

In the process of decorating a house, the design of such an element as a porch is of no small importance. Here you need to pay attention to what material it is built from and in what form.
Already depending on this, it will be possible to begin to resolve the issue related to what to clad the porch of the house.

Concrete porch, cladding and work steps

There can be many options, because the porch takes both square, semicircular, and polygonal shapes. And it can be made of wood, stone, brick and other building materials.
What you need to provide:

• The process associated with the external decoration of a particular element of the house causes a fairly large number of difficulties. This is due primarily to the fact that the material is in rather difficult conditions.
• These are temperature changes, and the effect of wind, and rain, and many other chemical and mechanical damage.
• Here you need to very carefully and accurately choose materials for porch cladding. The most reliable of all is still ceramic tile, but sometimes it, if improperly installed, can fall off or crack.

Proper facing of the concrete porch requires more attention and compliance with four conditions:

• The steps should be durable, it is best to fill them with concrete grade from M200.
• It is necessary to protect the structure with waterproofing as much as possible from the absorption of soil moisture.
• Thoroughly grout all joints between the tiles with a composition intended for outdoor use.
• Laying tiles should be carried out on high-strength glue for facing the porch, terraces and balconies.

For reference. Facing the steps of the porch and its walls using tiles is necessary not only to give it a more attractive appearance. This solution allows you to protect the building from all sorts of harmful effects and destruction.

DIY semicircular porch lining

The design of the semicircular porch

Like any other type of finish, the lining of the round porch begins with surface preparation. After all, laying tiles evenly on an uneven surface is quite difficult.
Installation Instructions:

• To do this, it is necessary to apply a very thick layer of glue, which will act as putty, plaster and glue at the same time.
• But manufacturers do not recommend applying glue with a layer of more than 1 centimeter. This requirement is associated with a longer time allocated to the drying and hardening of the adhesive.
• If in normal conditions (at an average temperature of 20 degrees, and with normal humidity indicators), you can walk on the tile on the second day.
  If the adhesive layer exceeds 1 cm, this can be done in a few days. In each case, this period will be different.

Tip.
Despite the fact that the surface of the steps should be smooth, it is recommended that you still make a slight slope for drainage. This will save the design and ensure safe passage through them in late autumn and winter, when it is possible to freeze the remaining drops.

• If it is possible to create a slope on the steps (seeConstruction and decoration of porch steps), using tile glue, then for the installation of tiles on the porch area, it will be necessary to install beacons.
• Lighthouses are best made from a mixture of ST29 or from tile adhesives to which sifted sand is added.
• Lighthouses made of stone, plaster or metal are not suitable for this purpose.Metal beacons can give extra thickness, and after pouring the screed, they will protrude above its surface.
  Therefore, creating a flat surface using such beacons is quite difficult, see photo.

Beacon distribution example

• On the concrete surface, the screed should be made with glue. For a more accurate study of all the features of such an alignment of steps and the porch platform, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the video instruction.

Note. Such a material for facing the porch as a cement-sand mortar will not work, since it will not lie tightly on concrete.

Several ways to screed

In order to provide a reliable bond between the two materials, there are 2 methods.
Method 1:

• Laying cement-sand mortar on a pre-fixed wire mesh (wire with a diameter of 4.3 mm).
• The net must be fixed with dowels. If the thickness of the screed turns out to be more than 1 cm, then facing the porch with a stone involves alternating the application of layers of glue and cement-sand mortar, until neither one nor the other has time to dry.

Method 2:

• Mixing cement-sand mortar using plasticizers. These ingredients are indispensable when concrete is applied to concrete or cement mortar to concrete or stone.

Tip. The semicircular porch, the lining of which begins with the preparation of the base, must be checked for strength.
For this, there are special technical devices and even devices. But the simplest, but nevertheless true way of such verification is the use of an ordinary nail.

Having scratched the treated surface with it, you can easily determine whether it needs reconstruction or not.

Finishing work on surface preparation

Final screed work

The final stage of surface preparation for tiled lies in the fact that you level and grind the screed.
So:

• Usually, on the second day after the porch or steps are poured, beacons are seen from the screed.
• In this case, you can “drown” them with a planer or sandpaper. To do this, you first need to unscrew the screws and reduce the height of the beacon with these tools. Then you can easily level the surface of the pad.
• After all, glue and cement-sand mortar on day 2 are still not strong enough, so they can be easily processed.
• When the surface is completely ready for further finishing (there are no cavities or elevations on it), carefully remove dust from it and prime the platform and steps. Tile finishing should begin from the ends of the site or steps with whole tiles.
• It is advisable that the entire site be tiled with whole tiles. This can be achieved only when you know the dimensions of the tiles at the stage of construction of the steps and the porch platform.
• If you have not taken this into account, and have not yet chosen which material you will be facing the porch with, then the layout of the tiles must be planned so that small pieces do not work out. They spoil the appearance of the porch, and in the future they will begin to fall away in the first place.
• Next, you can proceed to the decoration of the end face of the steps. Here, too, it is necessary to create a solid and even base for subsequent coating. It was for this that such a tool as a stencil was invented.
• Its purpose is to create an even plane that will sink in the end. If the end is filled with ceramic tile, the step should be at least 1 cm (preferably 12 mm). When the end is made out with a mosaic - rather a retraction of 5 mm.
• It is important that the protruding end of the tile must be filled with high-strength glue, because this is the most dangerous area on the steps and platforms. It is the main load when moving people on the steps and on the porch.

Thus, you yourself can decorate your porch with tiles.This will save money, since the price of finishing work is quite high.
In this case, you spend only on the purchase of building materials.