Decorative plaster bark beetle: what is how to apply

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

Combination on the facade of two colors of bark beetle plaster

The main difficulty in creating a unique and inimitable design is the ability to combine aesthetics with practicality. Unfortunately, many finishing materials have only one of the qualities, while the second is completely absent.

In this article we will talk about what a bark beetle is and what are the advantages of decorative bark beetle plaster for interior decoration of rooms and facades.

What it is

Technique for applying bark beetle plaster

In fact, applying bark beetle plaster is not work with any specific material, but the technique of applying the mixture to the wall in a special way.

Speaking specifically about plasters, they can be of several types:

• Mineral, with the main component of cement. The cheapest and most practical types of plasters that can be applied with your own hands, and without the appropriate experience.
• Silicate, based on liquid glass. Strong and durable species with high vapor permeability. The only negative of such mixtures is the high price.
• Silicone, with natural silicone resins. The highest quality mixtures of all those listed, but as a result, the most fake ones, and this must be taken into account when choosing silicone plaster in a store or on the market.
• Acrylic, with acrylic resins. A mixture that has all the necessary qualities for facade and interior plastering. The most significant disadvantage of this material is its poor resistance to sunlight.

Important. Before buying, always ask the seller for certificates for bark beetle plaster, since due to high demand it often becomes an object for fakes.

Any of the materials can be textured, it is also possible to select the colors of decorative bark beetle plaster, depending on the chosen plaster.

Most modern plasters already have color, and in addition, they can be tinted at will, but tinting the bark beetle has a number of difficulties, since the coating itself implies some transitions in color, that is, a lighter background and darker coating, as in the photo at the beginning of the article . But how to achieve it if the whole mixture is evenly tinted?

Let's talk about everything in order.

The composition of bark beetles

The use of bark beetles of several colors on the facade of the plaster

The texture mixture of bark beetle - dry plaster with the addition of fine marble chips (see Facade stucco with marble chips: types, features, application methods) It is thanks to her that she gets the very picture with an intricate pattern.

• Mixtures can vary in size of the fraction of stone, the larger it is, the more pronounced the result is a pattern, respectively, the bark beetle plaster for internal work should have the smallest fraction so that the picture does not catch the eye, while on the facade you can use coarse crumb .
• If we talk about the composition of the decorative bark beetle, we can consider it as an example of one popular brand that shares all the mixtures not only by the size of the stone, but also by the main composition. The table below shows the main characteristics of different mixtures that can be transferred to products of other manufacturers, since their compositions will differ slightly.

Of course, the cost and consumption of material are given in the table conditionally, and a lot will depend on the skill of the person who works with plaster, but these figures can be repelled by calculating the amount of mixture for work.

Stucco CT 35, the parameters of which are indicated in the table

Tip. Each package of ready-mixed plaster mixtures contains detailed instructions for working with them. It must be carefully read and clearly follow the instructions, because otherwise the coating may turn out to be of poor quality and will become completely unusable after a few years.

Different bark beetle

Bark beetle in the interior

Not depending on what material was originally selected, the bark beetle coating itself can be of several types:

• Chaotic, when the plaster is applied in multidirectional movements, resulting in a complex pattern without a specific direction.
• Circular. The movements with a construction trowel are made in circles, moving in any direction.
• Vertical. The trowel moves up and down, forming a coating as clear as possible imitation of wood bark.
• Horizontal The same principle as in the vertical application method, but the texture runs parallel to the floor.

Plaster applied in various ways

Tinting

The selection of colors for the bark beetle texture is a purely individual matter, but the features of the textural finish require the presence of at least two colors that will harmonize or contrast with each other.

But before proceeding to the description of the methods of painting the plaster, here are a few advantages of such a coating over simple plasters:

• High-quality paint, creates additional protection for the coating, one hundred is especially important during facade work.
• The color range of colors presented in the store is much wider than that of ready-made plasters, which means that the flight for designer imagination is provided.
• Painting in two colors, emphasizes the pattern of the bark beetle and does not allow it to get lost on surfaces with a large area.
• The paint can not only be renewed as it fades, but simply change the color of the coating when the old one is tired, and you don’t have to redo the entire repair.

The main difficulty associated with painting textured plasters is filling all the depressions on the surface, therefore, in order to facilitate the work, the painters developed three methods of tinting (see. Painting bark beetle plaster - all ways).

First way

Roller bark beetle painting

• To do this, you need colored decorative bark beetle plaster, and its shade should be darker than the further coating. If you can’t find the finished mixture of the right color, you can use tinting paste.
• You can add paste to the solution yourself or in a hardware store on a tinting machine, which will select the necessary shade and make as much bark beetle as needed for the entire repair.

Important. If the tinting of the plaster is done independently, it is better to prepare the mixture with a margin, since in case of a shortage it will be practically impossible to repeat the desired shade.

• The tinted plaster is applied to the surface, after which it needs to be allowed to dry well, after which a layer of lighter paint is applied on top of the acrylic or silicone base.
• The most important point in this process is the consistency of the paint, which should be thick enough to not flow into the texture potholes, but at the same time plastic enough to be applied with a foam-based roller.

Second way

Colorless plaster ready for subsequent coating

• Here the plaster should be monophonic and preferably white. To give color, a latex primer is taken, in which a dark shade is added. The plaster is impregnated with this primer, which, due to its liquid consistency, penetrates all the potholes and fills them with color.
• After the soil has dried, a layer of lighter paint is applied, as in the first method. The advantage of such a coating is that the soil layer creates additional surface protection, and in tandem with paint a durable coating forms, which is not afraid of any adversity.

Third way

Stucco coated with matte varnish

Giving additional color with varnish.

Varnishes for working on plaster can be of three types:

1. matte;
2. with shades;
3. glossy.

In this case, the plaster should be tinted, and from the choice of varnish it will depend on how the color of the coating changes after processing. For example, a beige bark beetle after coating with a matte varnish will turn brown, and using a glossy varnish, the color will become more saturated and vibrant.

The complexity of this method is that the varnish can change the original color of the plaster in the most unpredictable direction, specialists who often use this method already know all the nuances and can choose the varnish so that the shade changes in the right direction. If there is no such experience, it is better to leave this method, or at least practice on a small section of the wall.

In any case, giving the bark beetle the desired color to the plaster is painstaking and not quick work, but the result will not be long in coming, and with a careful approach, you can create a truly unique and unique design where the bark beetle plaster in the interior will look great.