Nowadays, almost all people understand the importance of quality repairs. A beautiful and well-renovated apartment not only pleases the eye, but also shows the social status of its owner. The main problem in the repair of apartments in old houses is the decoration and repair of walls and ceilings.
Dry plaster is an ideal and simple solution
: the ceilings and walls are finished with cladding sheets made of this material, they are used on almost all internal surfaces. But
how to align the walls with your own hands using dry plaster, if you simply do not have experience with such work? Do not worry: there is nothing wrong with such work.
Plaster sheets are glued to concrete and stone planes with building adhesive mixtures or mastics. Before work, remove the entire damaged coating (if any) by soaking the walls with water or steaming with special building steam generators. Withered old wallpaper can be removed with water and a building iron. In the same way the old oil paint is removed. It is important to understand that the overhaul of apartments involves the thorough preparation of all repaired surfaces. Since aligning the walls yourself can be far from the first time, you can practice at some not very important areas (for example, in a closet).
Then, a “trowel” of mastic according to the size of the dry plaster sheet, with a diameter of up to 15 centimeters, is cast onto the cladding area with a building trowel, using a 40x40 cm scheme. The area of the glued surface of the sheet must be at least 10% of the total, otherwise the dry plaster sheet will stay extremely unreliable. The back side of the sheet is attached to the prepared wall, pressed with an even wooden lath, the surface of which should be clean and well polished. Once again we remind you that before
leveling the walls with plaster, it is important to thoroughly clean them! If this is not the case, then the plaster may simply fall away.
Seams in the joints of sheets are sealed with gypsum mastic, putty or ready-made factory mixes, which are better to buy in specialized building stores. Of course, if you have the appropriate experience, you can make them yourself. However, once again it is worth saying that before
aligning the walls with your own hands, it is useful to experiment with small amounts of material, since subsequently it can be very painful for the time and money spent. After setting and drying the seams, they are rubbed with sandpaper, the width of the seams can be no more than 0.6 cm. If the seams are wider, they will not only differ in special beauty, but they will only have to remember strength.
Roughnesses in the edges of the cut sheets are smoothed and cleaned. The walls are sheathed from the corners towards the door and window openings. Do not forget that before aligning the walls with your own hands, it does not hurt to take care of an even ceiling. This is due to the fact that the first sheet of dry plaster should fit well to the ceiling and adjacent walls, and do not forget about the exit of the edges for closing with a baseboard and platband. Finishing window and door openings complete the remaining material after sheathing all surfaces. This method of finishing using dry plaster is the most simple and economical.
We hope you learned how to level the walls with your own hands!