Laying a decorative stone on the wall: video tutorial

Gusevsky Andrey Anatolyevich

Laying decorative stone on the wall

A wall made of decorative stone looks great in a room with a fireplace, perfectly combines with an aquarium and a fountain, indoor plants on it.

If you want to add notes of chic and aristocracy to the interior of your room, having decorated the wall or its part with a decorative stone, you need to know its features. What decorative stones are used on the wall, how they are laid, the article will tell.

Types and features of decorative stone

The most common decorative stones are made on the basis of:

• Gypsum (see Gypsum stone for interior decoration: material production) Such materials do not withstand high humidity, which allows them to be used in such rooms as:

1. bedroom;
2. the corridor;
3. living room.

• Cement mortar. These are moisture resistant materials, they can be used in the bathroom, in the kitchen.

Now artificial stones are widely used, in appearance they imitate:

• Brick. It fits perfectly in the design of the interior of the balcony, corridor and bedroom, can give a simple and fashionable design to these rooms.
• Slate. This is the only type of such coating to create a solid wall of decorative stones. Each element has a bright originality, and the composition of them looks quite impressive and enchanting.

Natural decorative stones are:

• Sandstone. It can be fine, medium and coarse-grained, with a color palette consisting of three shades:

1. chocolate;
2. red;
3. green.

When laying, hewn sandstone stones are used, and in appearance they may have:

1. mosaic pattern;
2. uniform alternation of elements arranged vertically and horizontally.

• Marble (cm. Facing with marble and its features) It has a very wide color palette, the most popular of them:

1. the black;
2. brown;
3. red;
4. beige;
5. white.

• Limestone. It is an alloy of stones of various sizes in a horizontal row. Its color may be:

1. yellowish;
2. completely white;
3. gray
4. with a pink tint.

• Granite (cm. Facing with granite: features and applications).

Advantages of decorative stone are:

• This is a wonderful highlight that all guests immediately pay attention to.
• It is easy to work with the material, the stone has a small weight and regular shapes. He does not need special care, just use any detergent.
• This environmentally friendly coating is resistant to corrosion, the appearance of fungi and other bacteria.
• Long service life with preservation of all its qualities.
• A large selection of colors, different structures and patterns on the walls made of decorative stones, allow you to create an interior that meets all tastes and desires of a person.

What materials and tools for laying stone are needed

For DIY decorative stone laying, you will need to purchase:

• Liquid nails or tile glue.

Tip: For gypsum stone, do not buy very strong tile adhesive - gypsum is quite light. With a small amount of work and a flat surface, you can use liquid nails.

• Putty for joints.
• Toothed spatulas, designed for applying tile glue to stone.
• A grinder and a diamond blade when using stones based on cement.
• An ordinary hacksaw with a small tooth, for cutting gypsum stone.
• Paint. It should be supplied complete with decorative stone and have the same color with it.
• Water based varnish. Used to cover joints between stones.
• Tile adhesive construction mixer.
• Construction level.
• A simple pencil.

How to prepare the surface for laying material

Laying decorative artificial stone on the wall begins with a thorough preparation of the surface.

For this:

• Remains of the old coating and wall defects are removed:

1. wallpaper (see How to remove old vinyl wallpapers from the walls yourself);
2. paint;
3. all kinds of spots;
4. fats.

• Do not get a perfectly flat surface - all defects are hidden with a stone, but it is necessary to check the adhesion of the surface. For this:

1. water splashes onto the wall;
2. attention is drawn to the areas where drops form; here the water is not absorbed.

These places are carefully processed mechanically, and then the surface is again checked for "adhesion".

• With a brush on metal, the entire wall is scratched to improve glue adhesion.
• The surface and the reverse side of the stone is primedmade on a water basis with a paint brush.
• Before starting the laying of the facing material with your own hands, the future wall decor with natural stone is laid out, which allows us to imagine how the whole composition will look on the wall, to eliminate defects in the process.

What are the general rules for laying decorative stone

Wall laying of heavy natural decorative stone

The installation instructions for the material offer:

• Perform work at a temperature not lower than (+5 ° С) and not higher (+ 30 ° С). At a higher temperature, it is necessary to moisten their surfaces on both sides with water approximately 25 minutes before laying the products.
• Before installation, you need to carefully inspect the material and choose which side it will be laid out.
• Marks on the wall to determine:

1. how to place a stone;
2. in which places to dock decorative elements.

• It is better to glue the tiles below the corner.
• When adjusting the stones to size, it is better to use a grinding machine, a hacksaw with a special blade or pliers, and then with sandpaper to bring the surface to perfect appearance.
• Tile glue is diluted in such a quantity that the entire mass is used within 20 minutes - after which the glue will harden. The consistency of the composition should be creamy, like a toothpaste.
• The glue is applied with a notched trowel.
• When laying, the stone is pressed with enough force to allow excess glue to come out, but, preventing them from getting on the front of the stone, it will be difficult to remove.
• If the decorative stone has different sizes, they must be placed on the wall in a chaotic manner.

In this case, you can lay out the internal walls in the house from decorative stone or use it in street conditions, but laying should be done in the warm season and on special glue.

What are the styling methods?

There are two ways of laying stone:

• With seams. This method of decoration is quite time-consuming, it is done with the jointing between the stones, but it looks more impressive, which makes the process more popular.

In this case, the stones are placed at a certain distance.

Tip: To get perfect seams in the composition, you need to lay the same pieces between the product rows made of drywall or fiberboard, the width of which is up to one centimeter, as in the photo.

Stone laying with seams

After laying all the stones, when the glue dries, the joints are putty. To facilitate this process, it is possible to fill with a solution, for example, a bag of milk, make a hole in it, and then gently squeeze the composition through it exactly into the seam, and use a regular sponge to remove excess putty and rub the stone thoroughly.

• Without seams.This is a simpler and faster option, in which the finishing stones are laid out as tightly as possible, which makes it possible to obtain an almost monolithic surface in appearance.

Tip: When performing the process, it is necessary to monitor the timely removal of excess glue - in the future it will be difficult to do.

Seamless stone laying

How to finish the stone

After installation, decorative stones on the walls of the apartment must be treated with varnish-impregnation, which will preserve their operational properties.

Wherein:

• The surface is thoroughly cleaned of all dirt and dust.
• Test processing is performed on unused stone.
• If the gloss level is normal, you can process all the stones on the wall.

Tip: In case of insufficient gloss, the surface must be additionally coated with a transparent layer of acrylic varnish. If the gloss level is very high, the varnish-impregnation is diluted with ordinary water.

• To give the interior more decorative, the surface of decorative stones can be painted with paint with expressive color shades.
• When performing the decoration, the cost of laying the stone depends on the area of ​​its laying, the size of the elements, the relief of the surface, the type of glue used and subsequent grouting.

Options for wall decoration with decorative stone

What errors arise when installing a stone

When laying a decorative stone, such errors may occur:

• The seam between the stones was too wide, which spoils the overall appearance of the composition.
• The wall is not qualitatively primed - some stones may fall off.
• Scratches, chips and other damage when cutting will spoil the appearance of the coating.
• Inaccurate work leads to masonry defects.
• Wrong selection of the shade and texture of the material will adversely affect the entire interior of the room.

If you want to get acquainted in detail with the laying of decorative stone, you can watch the video in this article.