Acrylic plaster for the facade: how to use
Among the whole variety of stucco mixtures intended for facade work, it is no wonder to get confused. The modern construction market offers a lot of different materials, each of which has its own set of positive and negative qualities.
In this article we will talk about what is acrylic plaster for the facade and what are its main competitive advantages.
The content of the article
Plaster for facades
The main difference between the plaster mixes from each other is the binder component, in its role may be:
- Cement (see Facade cement plaster: application features).
- Acrylic resin
- Liquid glass.
- Silicone
Of course, each of the listed materials has its own characteristics, but all the mixtures have the same requirements, which must be combined to varying degrees in the finished coating:
- Moisture resistant.
- Abrasion resistance.
- Resistance to mechanical influences.
- Resistance to environmental influences.
- Vapor permeability.
- Insensitive to solvents and acids.
These qualities are also characteristic of mixtures based on acrylic resins, although acrylic facade plaster is not considered the most stable and strong type, but it has a number of characteristics that distinguish it from competitors:
- Low price, in comparison with silicate or silicone mixtures.
- The acrylic facade plaster is very plastic and easy to apply. even on uneven surfaces, and you can apply it even with your own hands without experience.
- Has a huge range of colors and can be applied in different techniques to obtain a textured coating with a characteristic relief.
Advice! If there is no experience in wall plastering, before working it is best to practice on a separate piece of plywood or chipboard to understand how acrylic facade plaster behaves in real conditions.
Unfortunately, there is no ideal building material, and acrylic facade plaster also has a number of disadvantages that must be taken into account when choosing this type of decoration for your home:
- The main and most significant drawback of acrylic-based plaster mixes is their poor resistance to ultraviolet rays. The coloring pigment in their composition is completely resistant to abrasion, but at the same time loses its properties in the sun a few years after application.
- Another difficulty of the plaster is its poor adhesion to metal surfaces, although this cannot be called a drawback of acrylic mixtures, it is inherent in almost all types of plaster.
- You can also highlight the fact that the service life of acrylic plaster is less than that of mixtures based on silicate or silicone. Although this is fully offset by the difference in the cost of materials, since more stable mixtures are much more expensive.
- Another difficulty is that you need to apply acrylic plaster very quickly, and if necessary, close large volumes of the area, it is best to work with several hands or divide the wall into several sections, each of which will have some characteristic architectural features. It can be windows, doors or facade elements.
Important! If you plaster a portion of the wall, and move on to the next after a while, the colors may vary. The color change will be slight, but upon closer inspection, the difference will become apparent.
All of the above disadvantages in this case are offset by a number of advantages compared with mixtures on a different basis, and especially mineral.
For example, acrylic facade plaster has no natural deformation, and it can be used on new buildings. Due to the presence of plasticizers in the composition, the plaster will withstand the shrinkage of the walls without cracking, as is often the case with the mineral mixtures shown in the photo below.
Also, acrylic plaster can be tinted in any color, this gives great opportunities when creating a design, and does not limit the imagination only with commercially available colors.
Advice! Tinting the plaster yourself is necessary only after a careful calculation of the required amount of the mixture. If the plaster is not enough during the operation, it will be practically impossible to repeat the color.
Today, almost every store selling paints and varnishes has a tinting machine, which is able not only to choose exactly the color that the customer wants, but also to remember it, in case you need to buy more plaster.
Application of acrylic plaster
The application of acrylic facade plaster differs little from other types of mixtures with the only difference being that you have to work at an accelerated pace, and interrupted work cannot be left tomorrow.
The rest of the instructions are the same as for mineral-based mixtures. And special attention must be paid to the quality and degree of preparation of the surface on which the mixture will be applied.
Surface preparation
It is on the preparation of the surface that the quality of the plaster will lie. Many do not pay due attention to this nuance and as a result receive coverage that become unusable after a few years or even months.
So:
- As mentioned above, acrylic facade plaster has excellent adhesion to almost any surface, but various contaminants and defects can nullify all efforts to create a high-quality finish, which is why before you start work, the wall needs to be thoroughly cleaned and all old remains removed finishes.
- Also on the surface there may be oil and grease stains that are not easily noticeable during a quick inspection, but they will subsequently create a layer between the wall and the plaster and peeling will begin in this place.
- Therefore, the wall must be carefully examined and, if such contaminants are detected, remove them with degreasing fluids. It can be chemical solvents or simple gasoline, which completely remove the stains and at the same time evaporate themselves.
- After the solvents evaporate along with the grease, the surface can be washed with running water from the hose to completely remove dust. Now it should dry completely, after which it is treated with soil (see Facade primer - its types and application), and only after the impregnation has dried can you go directly to the plaster.
Plaster
Plaster can be applied both mechanically and manually. Machine spraying, of course, will significantly speed up the process, but at the same time, buying expensive equipment for the sake of one time is not practical, and therefore you will have to work with a spatula and trowel.
- Distribute the plaster on the surface with a spatula, and level it with a trowel. You can also give the coating a textured texture, for this you need a textured roller or special applicators that leave a mark that imitates wood or stone.
- A more familiar with the process of creating embossed surfaces, you can watch the video in this article.
After the entire surface is covered, you can go through it with a metal grout or sandpaper with a large fraction. But you need to do this only if there are obvious and significant differences in the coating, another significant plus of the textured coatings is that they themselves are uneven coatings, and do not need to be aligned.
