Marble plaster: varieties and methods of application
The unusually beautiful texture of marble has been loved by mankind since the time of the Roman Empire. The high price of this breed limited, of course, the circle of its consumers, but admirers were always in the past, there are today, and they are unlikely to disappear tomorrow.
Moreover, in our time, in order to please yourself with any kind of texture, it is no longer necessary to use natural material. Applying plaster with a marble effect is a great way to get an imitation that is almost the same in appearance from the original.
Detailed professional instructions plus a video in this article will tell you about several ways of decorating marble surfaces using plaster mortars.
The content of the article
Marble and its imitations
Natural marble has a fairly wide palette. There are more than 40 of its shades, and they depend on impurities in the rock of certain substances.
It can be various forms of iron: silicates, sulfides, oxides, each of which provides its own color (greenish, black-blue or red). Different concentrations of graphite give variations of gray and blue gamma.
This stone does not have only saturated green and blue shades:
- In addition, the marble body has beautiful veins formed as a result of crystallization of carbon compounds in microcracks. It is their imitation that represents the greatest difficulty in performing decorative marble plaster, and do it yourself, without the skill, is not so easy.
There are several technologies with which you can recreate the texture of a stone of any shade. All of them consist of several rather labor-consuming operations and take a lot of time. But for the sake of beauty, you always have to sacrifice something.
Styling marble plaster
What you need to do first is decide on the color of the marble that you would like to simulate. You don’t have to invent anything: just consider a photo of a real stone and choose the model that you like best as the basis.
- To recreate it, it is necessary to distinguish three dominant colors in the original. The main one should be only one, and the other two will be used as additional ones. As a rule, they come from the same color scheme and differ only in tones. If you want to get dark marble, then the most saturated color should be the base. To create light marble, everything is done exactly the opposite.
- Before applying decorative plaster marble, the surface of the walls must be properly leveled, and the screed should be allowed to harden well. It is not necessary to plaster them: it is also possible to sheathe them with drywall, after plastering the joints between the sheets first (see How to putty drywall joints according to technology) We will not go into these details now, since we will talk about the technique of performing and fixing on the surface of the picture.
Attention: Imitation of marble can be done both with the help of decorative paint, and by using plasters with the corresponding effect. For independent work, it is easier for an unprofessional person to use paints.
Create a drawing
In general terms, the technology for performing the drawing looks like this.First, the base (primary) color is applied and after this layer dries, they proceed to further work. Creating a stone texture is done with paints of two additional colors, which, as you remember, should be close in gamut, but differ in saturation.
- They are applied with a brush with random strokes, and then, until the paint has dried, shade with a sponge so that the transition borders of one shade into another are not noticeable. After all this has dried, proceed to the next step.
- Now you need to draw streaks and this is done in an elementary, thin brush for drawing. To do this, the same paint is used, which smears were performed, only mixed with light glaze or, as shown in the example above, a contrasting color is taken.
Brush draw short strokes and broken lines, blending the thicker ones. At the final stage, the dried-up drawing is covered with a transparent varnish or special wax. This allows you to give the surface luster polished stone, and, of course, protect the decorative layer.
Factory prefabricated compounds
When working with plaster compositions, everything happens the same way. The difference is that the paint is applied with a roller or brush, and the plaster, since it has a thicker consistency, with a spatula.
The degree of surface preparation can also be different. Under the paint, it should definitely be well aligned and sanded.
So:
- When using plaster, minor surface defects can be hidden in the process of decorating it. It is even applied on an old screed, if only it would hold well. It is important to use the correct primer (see Types of construction primers and their scope) Typically, plaster manufacturers offer special insulating fixers that play this role and are applied to the surface in front of the base layer of plaster.
- It does not make sense to describe this technology, it’s much easier to watch the video “decorative stucco marble with your own hands” and look for exactly the option where the master works with the same composition that you acquired. The fact is that each manufacturer of plasters has their own recommendations on this subject, and they should be followed in work.
- Using a factory-made compound is much easier, but for most people it is expensive. Marble plasters are purchased in the kit: as a rule, these are: basic composition - 25 kg packaging costs an average of 7500-8000 rubles. Its consumption is 630-650 g / m2, which is enough for about 40 m2.
- In addition, two finishing squads are also included. One with the same weight, but higher price (about 10,800 rubles), the second weighing 5 kg, costing 2,400–2500 rubles. There are, of course, smaller packs - they cost less, but in terms of the square of the decorated surface, the price will be the same.
- Thanks to the finest grinding marble flour, which is part of the Venetian plasters, the decorated surface is molded with mother-of-pearl and this splendor looks simply gorgeous in the interior. Such a high cost of plasters is due to the complexity of manufacturing the material.
- Lime, which is the main astringent, is aged for a long time in underground bunkers. This is necessary to achieve a certain degree of plasticity and saturation with microelements.
Attention: In addition, in modern plasters there are also polymer resins, which ensure the resistance of the coating to external influences and its service life. This is what allows them to be applied to almost any surface, with the smallest number and thickness of layers.
Glossy marble
There is another interesting technology that cannot be ignored - an imitation of polished marble, which is called “ironing”. This term appeared due to the fact that gloss coated with emulsion lime plaster is induced with the help of hot irons (special, not household).
- This type of finish can equally well be called both marble plaster and artificial marble. At the same time, factory compositions are not used: a glossy coating is created according to a special technology using mineral binders and fillers. Moreover, this technology can be used not only to imitate marble, but also any other stone.
- Masters in this case can work both on a stencil and create an author’s composition. In general, the surface finish with iron marble is as follows. At first, this is similar to conventional plastering: the surface is primed, beacons are installed, the base layer of lime mortar is applied and smoothed.
- Powder and marble chips are added only to the topcoats, and they are tinted by adding the appropriate pigments to the compositions, by analogy with emulsion paints. And, by the way, each master uses his own recipe. For example, some of them work only on lime-marble solutions, without the use of mastics for polishing.
- Other experts apply a soap emulsion to the hardened plaster, and then polish the steel with a polished sole. In the third case, lime soap is introduced into the coating composition, after which the layer is smoothed and covered with wax mastic. After two nakryvochnyh layers with the help of colored emulsions, a drawing is carried out.
- This is done in the same way as the drawing technology mentioned above. The result is a similar effect. The only significant difference in the technique of ironing a decorative surface with an iron is the gloss inherent in polished marble. This method of decoration is most often used for decoration of columns, ceilings, individual fragments of walls.
If you are interested in this method, you can watch a master class from professionals. And we will further tell how one more option so beloved by many is carried out: coarse marble stucco.
Stucco with marble chips
The option of plastering, when not marble, but natural marble serves as a decorative layer, has been used for a long time and mainly for the decoration of facades. If in Venetian plasters powder and fine marble sand are used, then in this case it is a crumb of stone with a larger fraction.
- It is introduced into the composition of the solution as a filler, and the structure of the coating layer is granular. Decorative effects can be different and depend on the amount and fraction of the filler. A plain or multicolor surface is determined by the color of the stone. How to apply stucco with marble chips, we will talk further.
The advantage of this type of plaster is that it is not necessary, although it can be tinted, and the surface is durable. After all, marble does not fade in the sun, does not absorb water. This is ideal not only for exterior walls, but for interiors of public buildings: covered markets, lobby halls of office centers, train stations, etc. Although, now such a plaster is not uncommon in the home interior.
Primer for marble plaster
Traditionally, plastering begins with leveling the walls when necessary, or cleaning the surface of dust and dirt if it is relatively even. Minor roughness under the layer of structural plaster will be invisible.
Before applying it, the wall must be primed.The primer should be quartz, and manufacturers usually offer it as a kit.
- It may be necessary to apply two types of soil compositions: first, ordinary acrylic soil, and then quartz, it depends on how much the porous surface will be plastered. For example, concrete or brick always has to be primed additionally. As for the quartz primer, it does not so much play the role of impregnation, but rather should provide maximum adhesion to a sufficiently heavy filler.
In addition, the primer proposed by the manufacturer also tones the base surface in the desired shade. If the wall is very different in color from marble chips, it looks ugly.
The buyer is offered quartz soil in a white version and the desired color is selected for it. After tinting, a composition is obtained that is very similar in appearance to emulsion paint.
Applying crumbs
This type of plaster is available both in finished and in dry form - when water is added before application. We will tell you briefly about how the plastering process is carried out, but if you need more detailed information, see the "marble plaster crumb video".
There are always some good videos, watching them will help you do the job yourself much better.
- So, according to the manufacturer's instructions, knead the solution. The volume must be such that it can be quickly developed. If the mixture is ready for use, then it must also be stirred, as the crumbs settles to the bottom. The application of the stucco mixture is carried out traditionally, using a spatula with a wide canvas.
- Thanks to the polymer binder, the solution is quite flexible. It is applied and smoothed much easier than, for example, gypsum putty. The main thing is not to take too much mixture on the spatula and spread the material over the surface with a certain amount of force. The thickness of the screed should not exceed the size of the filler fraction. Practice first in a place that is not in sight, or use a piece of drywall for this purpose.
20 minutes after applying the layer, you need to smooth it with a grater. The tool is held at an angle, slightly pressing to the surface, and lead in one direction.
As a result, each pebble will fall into its niche, the surface will become smooth, but the color will appear fully after it dries. In conclusion, the screed is covered with a protective varnish, which must be purchased with plaster.
