Do-it-yourself wall plastering: plastering with clay
Stucco walls with clay were desired in ancient times. So this material has been known for quite some time. Today, such processing has not lost its relevance.
After all, a more suitable mixture for finishing a wooden surface is difficult to find. In addition, it simultaneously serves as a heater.
Today we will tell you how to do wall plastering with clay yourself. You can watch the individual stages of work on the video in this article and the photo, this will help you do everything correctly.
The content of the article
Wall plastering with clay mortar
All work is completely done by hand, so the price will not be significant.
The clay solution is based on the following natural components of natural origin:
- Clay;
- Sand;
- Water;
- Sawdust, alder, pine or oak are well suited;
- Horse dung.
There are several types of clay-based plasters that differ in the number of components used, the principle of their combination, and the selected proportions.
So, a solution is isolated on the basis of:
- Clay and sand;
- Clay and sawdust or any other kind of building fiber, for example, straw, felt, wool;
- Clay and sand with the addition of fiber filler.
Some tips:
- Kizyak, horse manure added to any kind of mortar, can improve its characteristics such as ductility and thermal conductivity.
- To increase the strength, you should introduce a little cement into the solution. The main thing in this case is to use the solution in a timely manner, apply it to the surface, since it quickly hardens and dries.
Positive and negative properties
Among the many positive qualities, we highlight the main ones:
- It is a hypoallergenic mixturesince during operation it does not emit harmful substances into the environment. On the contrary, clay can be called a natural filter that absorbs excess moisture from the air space of the room.
- Cheap building material based on natural environmentally friendly components.
- Safe waste disposal, as well as the possibility of reuse in construction work. A distinctive feature is that when working with clay plaster, no waste is generated, and the remaining components can easily be returned to the environment without harming nature.
- Clay plasterapplied to a wooden surface, as if preserving woodreliably protects it from the effects of various factors. This eliminates the use of chemical compounds, such as primers.
Cons of clay plaster
There are not many, only three:
- Clay, of natural origin, without additives is a rather capricious material. It will take a lot of time, experience, patience, so that you can make a really high-quality solution for work. There is no exact recipe that gives a 100% guarantee that there is no perfect mixture to be made — only by experience, by selection, you can achieve a good result.
- When using a clay mixture for plastering street walls, problems may arise in the form of cracks on the surface. This is the result of the fact that when wet and heated, clay intensively absorbs moisture, and then releases it.Therefore, the exterior walls, coated with clay, need annual cosmetic repairs.
- Plastering surfaces with clay can be an expensive pleasure due to the fact that it is difficult to find a knowledgeable experienced craftsman, moreover, his services are usually not cheap.
Note: Many people think how to strengthen clay plaster and here the recipe is simple, you just need to add a little cement.
The process of plastering the surface with clay
The plane is prepared for applying clay, but many want to plaster on clay, if for example such a coating was originally. And here it should be noted that the stucco on the clay is applied, but if it is also clay and holds high quality.
It is only necessary to repel the fact that the beginning is stratified. If there was a cement composition, then it is better to remove it. So whether it is possible to plaster on clay, decide specifically from your situation. The entire workflow can be divided into successive steps.
Stage 1: preparatory
In order to finish the clay solution, you will need the following tool:
- Capacity for mixing the mortar or concrete mixer, with a large amount of work;
- Shovel;
- Bucket;
- Spatula, several types;
- Metal brush;
- Sieve;
- Metal mesh for plastering (see Plaster grid steel - types and application) or shingles - a wooden lattice of small battens;
- Fasteners - nails or screws;
- Hammer or screwdriver.
Stage 2: provide the foundation
A good quality stucco mixture is characterized by stable adhesion, i.e., adhesion. But at the same time, clay is a heavy material by weight.
That is why it is worth taking care of the preparation of the working surface: to make it rougher, which will ensure the reliability of fixing the solution on the wall.
- Another way to improve adhesion is to perform plastering work on a shingle previously pre-fixed to the working surface, a grid of small strips. This is a prerequisite for a wooden surface.
- As for the brick wall, the old plaster is first removed from it, and then the seams between the bricks are not slightly opened. Thus, a reliable foundation for the correct plastic clay mortar will be provided.
Stage 3: secrets of the right solution
To get a high-quality correct clay mortar suitable for plastering is not an easy task. Unlike substances such as sand and gypsum, a permanent chemical formula for clay cannot be derived.
In this case, such an indicator as plasticity, which depends on the fat content of clay, comes first. Moreover, each time the composition of the mixture, the proportions of the components are regulated.
- Most often, the solution is kneaded from clay, sand and additives in the form of straw and dung. In urban conditions, straw is replaced with polypropylene fiber.
- A very important issue in the preparation of the mixture is the selection of components that can provide a high degree of ductility. So, straw or fiber contribute to the strengthening of the plaster, prevent cracking.
How do you know that the resulting solution has the right qualities? It is necessary to check the clay for plasticity, fat content. To do this, a small amount of clay is subjected to verification.
Here are two ways:
- Knead well prepared clay, gradually adding water, bringing to the desired condition. Ready-to-use plaster should not stick to hands.
- We make a small ball, about 3 cm, flatten it with our hands into a cake. We look - cracks appeared on the edges of the cake, which means that the clay solution is slightly plastic. Flat edges of the cake, without cracking - a mixture with a good degree of ductility.
- We take clay and make a flagellum with the following parameters: diameter - 2 cm, length - 25 cm. We bend the tourniquet with an arc. If it can be strongly bent, and cracks do not appear, then the clay is plastic. Correspondingly, cracks are formed in weakly plastic clay.
- Why is the plasticity indicator so important? He is responsible for the operation of the finished solution, its appearance, i.e., whether the plaster will crack or not. By adding sand, you can adjust the plasticity level of clay. As a rule, the amount of sand in the solution is 50–80%.
Caution: The clay mixture is kneaded in a suitable sized container using a mixer. For a large volume resort to a concrete mixer.
Stage 4: applying clay plaster
Clay stucco works differ from similar works using cement or gypsum mortars. It would be nice to have assistants to do this type of work.
- So, before women and children took clay mixture in their hands, made lumps that they threw into the wall, trying to make them stick to it. The man, the plasterer, controlled the process, saying where to pour the clay, and then leveled the solution on the surface using a large wooden grater board. This stage was considered draft.
- After the draft stage, the wall was left to dry, not less than a month. By the way, summer is considered to be the best time for working with clay, since in winter clay clay can dry for all three months.
- As soon as the wall is completely dry, proceed to the fine finish. It involves leveling and grouting the surface. To do this, prepare a liquid solution of the following components: cement, clay, sand. In this case, the ratio between them is maintained as 1: 1: 3.
- Leave this layer to dry for several weeks in a natural environment. Any forced drying leads to deterioration of the finished product, for example, cracking.
- After this comes the turn of whitewashing lime. Another option is sanding the wall, priming and applying a gypsum mixture, as a basis for painting or sticker wallpaper.
- Lovers of natural finishes will like the design of a plastered surface with imitation of cracks.
You already know how to plaster walls from clay, how to strengthen clay plaster is also known, but it is worth noting that if you are finishing the outer surface then strengthening must be done. If clay is used on the inner surface, then without fortifications it will last for many years and the instruction will help you to do everything qualitatively.
