The appearance of any building, and even more so of a residential building, is of great importance. Therefore, finishers and pay a lot of attention to the procedure for designing the facade. And if earlier it was rather difficult with this question, since sometimes it was necessary to literally almost invent independently the compositions of various solutions, today the building materials market is ready to come to the rescue of both a professional and a home foreman at any time. To date, there are a huge number of all kinds of mixtures for decorating the external walls of buildings, and the most popular is decorative plaster for exterior work. This is not surprising, since this material has a lot of advantages and a tiny amount of disadvantages.
We will talk about the pros and cons of decorative plaster for outdoor work, about its types, basic characteristics and application technique in our article.
Positive traits
Facade decorative plaster for exterior work not only creates an attractive textured structure, it also protects the surface of the walls from moisture, that is, it is like a kind of shield for the outer surface of the walls. In addition, it is characterized by a very, very high resistance to all kinds of temperature changes, and therefore the facade of the house finished with its help retains its original appearance for a long time. Do not neglect the fact that it significantly increases the thermal insulation qualities of walls, and also makes them less permeable to sound.
It allows you to implement many ideas for creating the exterior of the building, because, thanks to the special composition of each type of this finishing material, it is possible to make various textured surfaces with its help. For example, decorative bark beetle plaster for outdoor work imitates the surface of a tree, eaten by bugs, and the mixture of “fur coat” is somewhat reminiscent of the appearance of the inner fur surface of a sheepskin coat.
In addition to the basic composition, all kinds of additives are present in this finishing material - the so-called fractions consisting of crushed minerals. Choosing a particular fraction size, you can create completely different coatings in structure. In addition, in addition to the basic shades (white and gray), you can purchase already painted material. The choice of colors is quite diverse, in the same case, if the suitable one was not found, it is possible to add a coloring pigment to the composition yourself.
And another huge plus, which has decorative plaster for outdoor use. It perfectly hides small defects, special preparation before starting work is not required, and the application process itself is quite simple. In this regard, in the presence of a pair of skillful hands, all finishing work can be done independently.
A spoon of tar…
True, she is not so big. The main disadvantage is the fact that the entire prepared solution must be worked out within a certain period. That is, there are no breaks for a smoke break. To maintain such a pace in the absence of appropriate finishing skills is difficult. The second minus is directly related to the next question, which we want to consider further. These are types of decorative plasters for outdoor use. There are both simple compositions and complex, better ones. But they are noticeably more expensive. In other words, if you want to make a better facade by acquiring material with improved (though not bad at all) characteristics, then the finish will cost you a lot.
Next, we briefly consider the currently existing species.
Cement plaster
They make it on the basis of cement and fractional inclusions. This decorative plaster for outdoor use has all the characteristics described above, but it is not sufficiently resistant to stress, as a result of which cracks can appear on the walls during shrinkage. But these plasters have an affordable cost, in addition, the facades decorated with their use are easily amenable to restoration. Simply put: defects that have appeared can be elementary re-coated, and outwardly this will not be noticeable. One more minus - the palette of the produced colors is rather poor, so it is far from always possible to choose the shade of interest. Nevertheless, cement plaster is the most popular when finishing, which is not surprising, since the area of the facades is quite large, and therefore far from every homeowner can afford to pay significant amounts for the purchase of better materials. Those who can, it is recommended to pay attention to the following type of finishing material.
Acrylic plasters
If cement is produced in dry form, then this decorative plaster for outdoor use (see photo below) is already ready-made, packaged in buckets. It contains an acrylic filler, which gives the composition the desired plasticity, so that the walls it finishes are less affected by the appearance of all kinds of defects and cracks. The color palette of such plaster is already inspiring respect, but it can be deterred from the purchase by a rather high cost and the impossibility of applying to absolutely all types of surfaces. The most suitable option is considered concrete for these purposes.
Silicate variety
It has improved quality characteristics, contains special mineral fillers in its composition, perfectly adheres to the base, as a result of which the list of surfaces on which it can be applied is significantly expanded. The color palette allows you to make a choice almost without problems, but the cost of the compounds is able to stop. For this reason, it is most often used locally - in the decoration of especially significant and prominent places of a building (columns, door and window slopes, borders, etc.).
Silicone plaster
This "queen," as the masters call her, is good in every way. And it is applied on any surfaces, and its operational characteristics are amazing, it has almost any color and is not subject to deformation at all. However, due to its high cost, it is practically not used for outdoor work. It is most often used for interior decoration.
Types of Invoices
Talking about what constitutes decorative plaster for outdoor work, one cannot ignore one of its main qualities - the texture itself. The appearance of the finish depends entirely on its choice. So, of the simplest, the bark beetle decorative stucco already mentioned by us for outdoor work is most often used. Next comes the “fur coat” (they also talked about it). Of the simple ones, the “lamb” is in third place, after which the walls look like a fleece. Pebbled plaster gives a finely tuberous surface, while mosaic plaster is at least somewhat similar to it, but more noble and imitates the surface, as if strewn with fragments of mica or another stone. Stone creates the illusion of stone, limestone or marble. Terrazitovy after application is similar to tufa. There is also a kind of “graphite”, which allows you to get a very peculiar texture, but working with it is very difficult and extremely expensive. Therefore, it is used most often only in the restoration of historical buildings.
Now that we have figured out the views, we will tell you what the technique of applying facade decorative plaster is. However, first a few words about the preliminary work, which should be carried out.
Foundation preparation
As we have already mentioned, preliminary work does not require much effort. Since decorative plaster for outdoor work is pretty good at hiding minor defects, there is no need to achieve special smoothness of the surface. But it is imperative to repair all significant defects and cracks, including removing protruding fragments, since their elimination due to the finishing material contributes to a significant over-expenditure of the composition. Then the base surface must be primed in order to improve its adhesive qualities. Numerous special mixtures are available for this procedure. Which is better to take for one or another type of plaster - the seller will tell you. In order to save, you can especially not be wiser and purchase a universal acrylic primer of any manufacturer. After the base surface dries, you can begin to apply.
How to work with decorative plaster
Before talking about the application technique, it is worth pointing out a few nuances. First of all, the fact that the entire mixed solution needs to be developed at a time. If it begins to dry, then diluting it with water is strictly prohibited. Before mixing, the bag with dry plaster should be thoroughly shaken so that the fractions deposited on the bottom during the storage process are evenly distributed throughout the composition. Contributes to this and thorough mixing during the preparation of the solution. By the way, the finished compounds must also be thoroughly mixed before starting work. And further. You need to try in one go to apply the solution literally from corner to corner. If it is very necessary to take a break, then “docking” the layers is possible only until the first is completely dry. Otherwise, the transition will be noticeable.
Application Technique
The prepared solution is poured with a spatula on the treated wall section, and then with a trowel it is stretched over the surface for more uniform application. The layer thickness should correspond to the size of the fractions of the composition, which is usually indicated on the package. Immediately after it dries, which takes no more than ten minutes, the formation of the desired image is performed with a plastic trowel. That is, the tool is moved in the selected direction - up and down, back and forth, in a circle or at a given angle. If necessary, after complete drying, it is possible to clean up the problem areas with emery cloth, but no one does such work when decorating the facades. Correction applies only to internal work.
Conclusion
Textured plaster is an excellent material for finishing the exterior facades of buildings. And if necessary, such work is strongly recommended to pay attention to it. The only thing to keep in mind is the need for appropriate skills. Sometimes, however, independently carrying out such work, taking into account the scale, is not always advisable. Sometimes it’s better to turn to professionals for help. Especially if not a simple but more expensive decorative plaster for exterior work was bought for decoration. The cost of work, depending on the region, is on average about three dollars per square meter. m