What glue to use to glue natural stone flagstone. Cladding the base with flagstone. Paving a path on a sandy base

The country path carries not only a huge functional load, but also has great aesthetic significance. Neat and well-groomed alleys will decorate any area, while untidy and dirty paths will bring dissonance to even the most sophisticated landscape. Natural stone looks very harmonious and natural in the garden. Making practical, reliable and attractive paths in your dacha from flagstone with your own hands is not at all difficult and is within the capabilities of any site owner.

How to choose a stone for paths

There are several parameters that you need to pay attention to when choosing a stone. An important characteristic is its thickness. If the flagstone will be mounted on concrete screed, then slabs with a thickness of 12 mm are suitable for the pedestrian zone, and from 20 mm for the access road. If you plan to lay it on a sand or gravel bed, you need to choose a thicker stone - from 40 to 60 mm.

The color of the slabs also plays an important role. The bright variety has a softer and more layered structure, and the densest stone is green in color. Light yellow material has very low strength, and it is better not to use it at all for laying paths, but only for finishing. If you find that the stone is wet to the touch, refuse to purchase, as it may crumble during installation.

Material for paths

Pay attention to the size and edge of the tiles. Too large or very small are not very convenient to work with; it is advisable to purchase flagstone for paths, the sides of which are 33–35 cm long. You should not choose material with jagged edges; in the future, when laying, it will be very problematic to select the appropriate stones for joining. But if you want to give the path more natural look, then uneven edges, on the contrary, will come in handy.

Methods of laying flagstone

Country paths They can be different: it can be a small path somewhere in the depths of the garden, or a central alley leading to the house, or a large driveway along which cars drive. Accordingly, the loads they experience are also not the same. Therefore, before deciding how to make garden paths from flagstone, decide on their purpose.

Naturally shaped path

Laying stone on a sandy base

This is the simplest, but not very reliable way installation, it is only suitable for small paths that are not subject to heavy loads. Once you have determined where the alley will lie, mark the area, drive in pegs and stretch the cord. To make a flagstone path in your country house look natural, try to avoid right angles, round corners and make smooth lines.

Dig a trench along the marked contour. Its depth should be 5 cm greater than the thickness of the stone. Then level the base and pour a 5 cm layer of sand onto the bottom of the ditch. To compact it, pour water from a hose on it, but not too much. It should be moist but not wet. Lay the tiles in random order on well-compacted sand, leaving about 1–2 cm between them.

After the stone is laid, fill any voids with sand. If you want green grass to grow picturesquely between the elements, instead of sand, add fertile soil and sow the seeds.

You can sow grass in the joints

How to lay flagstone on a sand and gravel bed

This technology is a little more complex than the previous one, but a path with a gravel base will be more durable and will last much longer. In addition, this installation method is suitable for clay soils, prone to heaving. After marking the area, you need to dig a trench 10 cm deep and install a fence along it. It can be made from boards pre-treated with a primer or antiseptic, or ready-made curb blocks.

To prevent weeds from growing on the flagstone path, line the bottom of the ditch with geotextile, and hide its edges under the curb. Fill the top with a layer of gravel about 5 cm, then the same layer of sand, pour water on it and walk over it several times with a hand tamper. Next, lay the stone as indicated above, and fill the joints between the slabs with medium or fine gravel. You can clearly see how to pave paths in a dacha with flagstone in the photo.

Stone laying technology

Paving tiles on a concrete base

This is the most universal method laying stone. It is suitable for narrow paths, high-traffic paths, driveways and parking areas. The depth of the trench in this case should be about 40 cm. Before making a concrete base, it is necessary to install wooden formwork on both sides of the pit and secure it with stakes. It is advisable to use wood no thicker than 25 mm for its manufacture, which can be bent at the places where the path turns.

After installing the formwork, level the ground, fill it with 10 cm of gravel and lay the reinforcing mesh. Now you can start pouring concrete; its thickness should be about 30 cm. To prevent the base from cracking in the future, it is necessary to make expansion joints every one and a half meters. Use thin plastic as a separator. The concrete base is ready, leave it for a few days to completely harden.

Laying on hardened concrete

All that remains is to lay the flagstone. To ensure good adhesion of the stone to the concrete, the stones must first be thoroughly washed and cleaned of deposits and dirt with a stiff-bristled brush. Laying is done using construction adhesive for exterior use. It is applied in a thick layer to the base, and then flagstone is placed on the coated area in such a way that there are no voids left between the elements. Excess glue must be removed immediately with a rag; after drying, this will be much more difficult to do.

Flagstone is a natural stone, so a garden path made from it will naturally fit into country landscape and will look harmonious in any corner of the site.

Advantages

Relatively inexpensive material, widely represented in garden centers and at roadside markets. As a rule, you can buy it somewhere near your site and not overpay for delivery.
Unlike concrete paving elements, natural stone is quite uniform in quality.
Best Value price/durability in frosty winters. Compared to inexpensive paving blocks, the stone has lower porosity, absorbs less moisture and does not crumble after freezing.

Flaws

Inexpensive grades of sandstone are painted uniformly gray, interesting shades are much more expensive in price.
From a design point of view, paving a path with flagstone is a rather banal solution, and it is not suitable for every garden.
Naturally shaped slabs will require a lot of cutting to fit them together and align the edges of the paths.
If you lay flagstone on a dry mixture, you will not be able to make the paths very narrow and winding: along the edges of the path there will be many small pieces of stone that will not stick to the binder mixture due to the small adhesion area.

Buying stones for paving garden paths

Texture. For paths and platforms, it is best to choose flagstone with a smooth, rough surface. Slabs with a “ragged” surface (lumpy, notched, grooved) are mainly suitable for cladding: their beautiful relief is formed as a result of chemical weathering: individual components of the stone react with substances dissolved in water and are washed out. Without protection with a water-repellent composition, such a stone will continue to deteriorate. For paths where it wears out quickly protective layer and which take the rain load, it is better not to use such stones.

Thickness. Optimal thickness stone for traditional paving with dry mix - 40 mm and above. It is recommended to lay stone slabs up to 40 mm thick differently: on a concrete base, on a mortar, like interior tiles. The stone itself will be cheaper, but preparatory work and installation is disproportionately more expensive than dry mix paving. In addition, the solution will inevitably stain the front surface of the slabs in some places, and once it sets a little, it is almost impossible to clean the stone. To lay stone on a mortar, you need to protect its front surface with a special compound from which the cement is washed off, and this is expensive. The best option is to buy flagstone with a thickness of 40-60 mm. This thickness of the stone (and therefore the joint filled with a cement-sand mixture) is enough for the stone to hold firmly during “dry” installation.

Quantity. If the stone is sold in tons, use a simple calculation formula: one ton is enough to pave approximately 10 square meters. m when purchasing a stone with a thickness of 40-60 mm.

What you need for flagstone paving

Flagstone. 1 t per 10 sq. m of paving.
Geotextile fabric. This material is difficult to cut; it is more convenient to take a roll that is close in width to the parameter of your tracks. Number of linear meters: length of tracks multiplied by 2.
Crushed stone or a mixture of crushed stone and sand. Required quantity per cubic meter. m: paving area multiplied by 0.2.
Cement-sand mixture. 1500-1600 kg per 10 sq. m of paving.
Grinder and diamond grinding wheels for stone and concrete.
Rubber mallet.
Soft mop.

Procedure for laying flagstone

1. Remove the turf and dig out the bed of the path in the ground. The depth of the bed is usually 20-15 cm. If a hard curb is installed (which is always welcome), the path can be raised higher, and accordingly the depth of the bed is reduced by 3-5 cm.

3. Line the bottom of the bed with the first layer of geotextile. The material must be distributed along its length without gathering or folding, otherwise it will lose its main function - to take the load, protecting the soil under the road surface from subsidence. If a turn needs to be made, the geotextile is cut and overlapped. To reduce the number of cuts (cutting geo-fabric is quite labor-intensive), you can turn the panel inward on the sides.

4. Fill the crushed stone cushion. Optimal height- 15 cm. On rarely used paths (with light traffic) or on sandy soil To save money, you can reduce the height of the pillow (and, accordingly, the depth of the bed) by 5-7 cm. We compact the crushed stone. Using a bubble level, we measure its surface after tamping and level it in those places where bumps and depressions have formed.

5. Lay the second layer of geotextile similarly to the previous one.

6. Pour a layer of cement-sand mixture 5-7 cm high on top of the geotextile. Lightly level it, for example, with a board.

7. We begin to lay the stone slabs. To level them, we recess the protruding corners into the cement-sand mixture, tapping them with a mallet. It is more convenient and more economical in terms of material consumption to first lay out large slabs, leaving small “windows” where it is not possible to fit them closely to each other, then cut small tiles from the scraps to fill the gaps.

8. Fill the seams between the paving elements with a dry cement-sand mixture. To do this, simply pour the mixture over the laid slabs and rub it into the seams. It is convenient to sweep it with a regular mop with soft bristles. The procedure is repeated until the seams are evenly filled and the surface of the stone is relatively clean.

9. Spray the paving surface with a gentle stream from a hose with a divider attachment. The water pressure should be enough to wash away the remaining mixture from the surface of the stone, but not knock it out of the seams. The mixture must be evenly moistened and the paving must be clean. After that, cover the path plastic film for two days: the cement must set while remaining wet, otherwise it will not gain sufficient strength. After 5-7 days you can start walking along the path.

Illustrations for the material: Shutterstock/TASS, Yulia Kaptelova, drawing by Yulia Popova

After the labor-intensive and physically difficult process of making a drainage base and concreting the base garden path, it would seem, the only thing left is to complete flagstone paving. But, like any finishing work that determines the final appearance of our product, this process requires knowledge of certain nuances. To decorate garden paths, as a rule, natural stone is chosen - flagstone, also called plastushka. This name does not come from the mineral, but from the appearance of the building stone, or rather its flat shape. Which is undoubtedly very convenient when decorating, since it requires almost no additional processing.

What is flagstone? Selecting the type of flagstone stone.

Specialized site for stone

Flagstone is a flat stone of arbitrary shape. It is formed from rocks, which break up into flat slabs along parallel areas. Flagstone of the following types is found on sale: sandstones, quartzite-sandstones, shales, limestones and dolomites. The choice of natural stone for paving garden paths is a purely individual matter. Each stone, as a creation of nature, has its own individual character, history and medicinal properties. Many of them are powerful magical amulets. I will only note that not all stones are ideal for floor paving in paths. Thus, the most affordable flagstone, sandstone, which is well suited for vertical decoration, very quickly begins to delaminate on paths. Of course, a lot depends on the quality of the stone itself, but it’s not always worth the risk. The same drawback applies to slates; among them, only green slate is used for paving.

Limestone is very easy to process, but is absolutely not suitable for lining paths; the stone is too soft and requires additional treatment to prevent moisture penetration, even with vertical cladding. A good option is to choose dolomite. Marble is a noble, almost eternal material, winter time year will become extremely slippery, and also accumulates radiation, but quartzite can be an excellent alternative. Flagstone is sold in large construction stores or specialized places - stone sites. A stone of approximately the same fixed thickness from 10 to 70 mm is selected, formed into pallets and sold from 1 square meter.

Selecting glue for gluing flagstone.

When choosing an adhesive, you need to make sure that it is intended for external cladding natural stone is used for floors, not just walls, and concrete and cement screed are suitable as bases. I recommend considering only specialized adhesives, universal ones do not always provide the result we want; we have to “pay for” universalism. We select, if necessary, special brands for paths with intense load or heating, look at the shelf life and operating temperature range, especially important if the work is carried out in autumn-spring period. If necessary, we use necessary supplements produced only by the glue manufacturer. Please note that most adhesives for working with natural stone must be mixed twice after a certain period of time, so read the instructions carefully.

Getting ready to paving flagstone on the garden path.

Place for installing a built-in lamp

Flagstone paving is possible not only on a concrete base, but also on an old one concrete path. If, when casting concrete, you missed the moment of creating places for installing lamps, then it’s time to arm yourself with a hammer drill or grinder to minimize further damage when lighting the finished path. Then we prepare the concrete base for work. If it was cast a long time ago or we want to cover an old concrete path, then it must be washed and treated with a primer. If there is still residual moisture in it, then nothing additional needs to be done.

Flagstone garden path

When paving flagstone on concrete bases, we select a stone 25-40 mm thick. We lay out the flagstone along the path, selecting the pattern and uniformity of the gaps. We trim the edges with an angle grinder - a grinder with a diamond wheel. If possible, it is better to do this with water supplied to the cut site. If not, then the circle should be for dry cutting. Usually it also indicates the types of stones for which it is intended to work. For dry pruning, it is better to do it in a remote place; there will be a lot of dust. Don’t forget to protect your eyes and safety precautions in general. This is perhaps the most time-consuming part of the work, but the entire aesthetics of the future garden path will depend on its result. The glue will harden quickly in air and there will be no time left for trimming and finishing. We wash the flagstone from dust and deposits on the side where we will apply glue or mortar. For this we need good water pressure, and possibly preliminary manual processing with a brush.

Choosing flagstone

Selecting a pattern

My flagstone

Paving flagstone on the concrete base of a garden path.

Mix the glue according to the manufacturer's instructions. We apply it to the concrete base. We lay out the flagstones in accordance with the selected pattern. We start with the thickest tiles; thinner stones are brought below the level using a thicker layer of glue. Carefully press the flagstone into the adhesive mixture so that there are no voids left underneath. The glue must occupy the entire space, otherwise water may accumulate in the voids, which in winter will squeeze out the tiles when it freezes. We try not to apply too much, so that when pressed, the adhesive solution only fills the seams. We immediately remove the remaining glue from the front side of the natural stone, otherwise in a few days you will need a metal brush. We set the height of the tiles to the level and ensure the slope of the path for good drainage. Let it stand until the glue acquires operational strength, the period is indicated by the manufacturer.

The basement of the house performs not so much a decorative function as a practical one. In many cases, it serves to reduce heat loss (it is specially insulated), and also prevents the spread of atmospheric and underground moisture to the walls of the house. It also transfers the load from the walls to the foundation - if the foundation is strip or slab. Therefore, the cladding of the basement of a house should not only be beautiful, but also functional. The finishing material is also selected in accordance with this task.

When to start finishing the basement

It is best to finish the base after it is done. In this case, the finishing material will hang over the path. As a result, even the most slanting rain or streams of water flowing down the walls will not be able to get between the wall and the blind area - the water hits the path at a distance of several centimeters from the joint. It is through this joint that water penetrates to the foundation, bringing dampness and other problems.

You need to start cladding the basement of the house after the blind area around the house has been made

One more thing. Many people are thinking about whether to insulate the basement or not. If you want to save on heating, the answer is to insulate it, just like the blind area. The unit for insulation and cladding of the base - one of the options - is shown in the photo below.

When using ground floor As a residential property, there are no questions regarding insulation, since the answer is clear - of course, insulate it. But even if you don’t have a subfloor, heating costs will be much lower, and the floor in the house will become much warmer.

How to cover the basement of a house

There are a lot of materials for finishing the base. Main requirements: moisture resistance, frost resistance, strength. The following materials satisfy these requirements:

Natural stones (flagstone) sawn into plates or chipped, so-called “torn stone”:
- sandstone (plastic);
- granite;
- marble;
- slate;
- dolomite;
- shugnit.
Small cobblestone.
Large river pebbles.
Clinker tiles (clinker bricks).
Paving slabs.
Porcelain tiles.
Finishing brick.
Facade panels, basement siding, PVC panels (these are all names of the same material).
Plaster (decorative and “under a fur coat”).
Profiled sheeting.

Some of them cost a lot, some are insignificant, but all of them can be used. The material is chosen based on financial capabilities and previously used finishing materials - the aesthetic component also plays an important role. About technologies for finishing plinths different materials and the speech will begin.

Preparation and insulation

First of all, if the existing base is uneven, its surface is leveled with plaster. The solution for plastering the plinth is cement-sand: for 1 part of cement (Portland cement M 400) take 4 parts of pure construction sand, preferably river. For greater plasticity, you can add a little lime or liquid soap(per bucket of solution 50-80 g). The solution should be of medium thickness so that it does not creep off the wall. There is another option - to use a special composition. For example, like the one in the video.

If tiles, stone or other similar material are then laid, after leveling the mortar, notches are made on its surface with the tip of a trowel (trowel). They are applied in the form of a grid over the entire surface. These shallow grooves will provide the necessary support for the finish.

If the base is insulated, notches are not needed. EPS (extruded polystyrene foam) or polystyrene boards are glued directly onto the plastered surface. They are light and adhere well to glue. Their surface is coated with diluted tile adhesive and presses against the plaster. Finishing materials are then attached to the surface prepared in this way.

Painting, plastering and “fur coat”

In principle, if the plaster is well leveled, after the solution has dried, the surface can be painted and stop there. This is an inexpensive but viable option. If you used façade paint that is intended for outdoor use, the base will look good for a couple of years. Then you'll have to old paint remove and paint again to maintain appearance.

The next method is on top ordinary plaster apply a layer of decorative. And again, choose those formulations that are intended for external use. They can be tinted in desired color or take colored ones. The only negative is that plasters are often porous and splashes of dirt that fall on the walls during bad weather have to be cleaned off with a brush and sometimes with detergent.

The method of finishing the base “like a fur coat” is still popular in some areas. This is when the solution is not applied even layer, but in small fragments. Previously, they did this with a broom made of twigs. They dipped it into a liquid solution and hit the stick with the handle so that the splashes flew onto the wall. This is how they made “fur coat” - a finish with a torn surface. Today there are special devices for applying plaster, powered by a compressor. With their help, it is easier to do such finishing.

Finishing the basement of a house using materials in the form of slabs or tiles is technologically more difficult. To prevent it from falling off, you need to know some subtleties.

How to fix porcelain tiles or clinker tiles

If heavy materials such as porcelain stoneware or clinker bricks Just put it on glue, on a plastered surface with grooves, perhaps they will stick normally. And they can even stand for some time. Even several years. But then they will begin to fall off along with the solution. Especially in places where there are no grooves or they are of insufficient depth. To improve adhesion, you can apply a layer of impregnation that improves adhesion (grip), but this is not a guarantee, especially if the material is heavy.

The same picture will happen if you glue the materials directly onto the insulation. The surface is smooth, easy to glue. But after a while the finish will fall off. Faster than with a plastered surface. There is a video about this.

To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to secure a metal painting mesh, preferably galvanized. It is secured with dowels, placing a piece of galvanized steel on the dowel-nail, the size of which is larger than the size of the cell. They are attached at the top, bottom and in a checkerboard pattern in the middle. It turns out solid foundation for material of any gravity.

Glue is applied to the base and to the tiles. On the tile, remove it with a notched trowel, put it in place, tap the trowel handle and put it in place, leveling the plane. The distance between the tiles is maintained using crosses, only their thickness is taken to be significant 3-5 mm.

In general, the installation technology is similar to. The only difference is that the glue must be special for outdoor use. The second difference: finishing materials for the plinth begin to be laid from below: they are heavy and need support. You rest the bottom row on the blind area, the second row on it, etc.

Finishing the base of the house with natural stone (shell rock, granite, dolomite, slate)

No matter how attractive artificial shiny surfaces may seem, rough stone for some reason evokes great sympathy. But laying a rubble foundation is difficult and not everyone can do it well enough for a house to stand on it. But to finish the finished monolithic or natural stone Anyone can do it with their own hands, especially if at least part of the work on building a house is done personally.

It is clear that no one will attach whole stones: the finish will be too heavy, and very voluminous. That’s why they came up with the idea to slab or chop stones. Depending on the technology, the result is either a smooth “flagstone” - with almost smooth surfaces, or a “torn stone” with an uneven front part. Sometimes these materials are cut into identical rectangles, sometimes they are left in the form of uneven plates, but in any case it is natural stone and the finishing of the base of the house from it turns out to be beautiful and waterproof.

There is this material made from expensive stones, for example - marble, there is cheaper - slate, dolomite, shugnit, lemezite, granite, etc. They look very impressive. Especially if it is torn stone, although flagstone sometimes looks no worse.

The preparation of the surface will be exactly the same: it is best to fill the plastered plinth with a painting mesh, and then lay stone plates on it with glue. If they are smooth - natural stone with processed edges - the laying technology will be exactly the same as described above.

If the stone has torn edges, finishing the base of the house becomes more difficult: it is necessary to select plates of such a shape that the seams are not too large. When using this option for finishing stone, you will need a grinder with a stone disc: most likely you will have to file the plates of the lower and upper rows. Correction will also be needed when decorating the corners. See the video for an example of this technology.

There is a second way. The plastered surface of the base is first coated with a compound to improve adhesion (adhesion), then fragments of finishing are installed on it with glue. They are fixed in a given position using scraps of the same stone or pieces of materials of the required size. The seams remain unfilled. After the glue has “set,” the seams are filled with a thin solution from a construction syringe, rubbing and tearing out as necessary.

In any case, any glue that gets on the finish must be removed in a timely manner. It will be very difficult to do this with a frozen one, and the appearance of the glue is far from attractive.

Sometimes, for a clearer pattern, the seams between the stone plates are painted with dark paint. Then the surface is coated with protective impregnation. It gives the stone a slight shine and also often increases its water-repellent properties.

For an example of cladding a plinth with natural stone using the second technology, see the following video.

Facing with boulders or small cobblestones

It is not necessary to buy a boulder or cobblestone. You can collect it on a river or on a pebble beach at sea. Rolled stones are chosen to be flatter - round ones are more difficult to “mount”. The procedure and all other subtleties are almost the same as in the case of finishing with natural stone. The only difference is that these stones must be washed in water and detergent before use. Firstly, the water in our ponds may have oils in it and need to be removed, and secondly, there may be clay or algae in it which can cause the finish to fall off.

To make everything look organic, you can first lay out a “picture” of cobblestone cladding on the path next to the place where you will cover the base. They have different shades and their random combinations are not always attractive. By laying everything out side by side you will have an idea of what the result will be.

Watch the video about the features of finishing the plinth with cobblestones.

How to install plastic (PVC) plinth panels

This type of finishing is called differently: basement or façade panels, basement siding. They have a varied appearance: under different types stone, tile, brick.

For PVC installations panels on the plinth, it is necessary to assemble the frame. It is made from wooden beams 50*50 mm. Since the finishing will be outdoors, the wood must be protected with impregnations that prevent rotting and protect against pests.

The sequence of actions is as follows:

Assembly is easy. Only after fastening will it be necessary to make ebbs on top: the sheathing and panels have a fairly decent volume and a gap remains on top. You can close it roofing iron like in this video. Immediately look at the technology of finishing the base with plastic panels.

In the same way, the base can be finished with corrugated board. There is only one note: it is advisable to lay insulation in the voids between the sheathing. The house will be much warmer.

Finishing the base of a pile foundation

As you know, there is no base. But if you don’t block off the space, there will be drafts under the house, the floor will always be cold, and all kinds of living creatures like to live under the house. Therefore, the base, although decorative, is necessary. It can be done in two ways.

There is one subtlety if the house is installed on screw piles or. Such foundations are often placed on highly heaving soils. To prevent the finishing from being destroyed when the soil is raised, it is not brought to a certain distance to the ground. To prevent animals from crawling into the gap, a metal mesh is fixed at the bottom.

Decorative stone is one of the materials in demand in modern construction, used for interior and exterior finishing living rooms. It is characterized by strength, moisture resistance and low temperatures, ease of maintenance, attractive appearance. The facing material will look impressive in country house, and in an ordinary apartment. True, it should be chosen and executed correctly high-quality styling. Actually, about how it is carried out decorative finishing walls using decorative (artificial or natural) stone, which will be discussed in this article.

Decorative stone and its history

Interior decoration brick house facing material in modern finishing works is in great demand, and this is due to the excellent performance and aesthetic characteristics of the material. The history of the creation of the material is interesting.

Stone for surface finishing first appeared in Ancient Egypt when Egyptian tombs existed. Then it was applied to the walls manually, and then painted, creating a complete imitation natural material. Under the influence sun rays the paint gradually faded, making it look more like a natural element.

In the 16th century, the procedure for making the material became significantly more complicated, because its components included stone powder and an adhesive solution. The adhesive composition was then obtained from plant and animal glues, and the components of the future glue were thoroughly kneaded with feet to obtain a high-quality adhesive mixture.

The popularity of artificially produced stone in construction was due to the noble forms of the material, its unpretentiousness and ease of use. Already in the mid-19th century, it was widely used in the building environment as an excellent decorative option. The rapid spread of such cladding at that time was noted in North America and the European continent. The material was often used for finishing columns, balustrades and other decorative elements inside residential buildings. In the West this element finishing was used for careful restoration of architectural monuments. One of the typical examples of stone cladding are fragments of London's Buckingham Palace. This residence belongs to the royal family, but despite this, artificial decorative material was used to cover its elements.

The name of the artificial stone itself does not entirely reflect its true origin. Its production is carried out using natural ingredients, sand and clay, elements of volcanoes, perlite and pumice. The name of the material comes from the fact that it is not formed independently, in natural conditions, but by mixing certain components, giving the mixture the desired shape and then firing it.

In the modern understanding, the material has natural and artificial origin. The element is mainly used in finishing works artificial production. It appeared several decades ago and was able to quickly become a worthy replacement for natural and more expensive wild stone.

Types of decorative stones

Laying decorative cladding on the wall is carried out after the material has been selected according to the hardware store. Now buyers of finishing materials are offered a wide range of facing stones to choose from.

Each type has its own characteristics, but the most popular are materials made from the following components:

Gypsum. Such elements cannot withstand high level humidity, so they should not be used in bathrooms where the humidity is too high.
Cement mortar. Artificial stones made from cement are moisture resistant, and therefore can be used to decorate surfaces in the kitchen or bathroom.

In general, there is a basic classification of facing decor. It is divided into artificial and natural (natural).

Artificial

The history of design and decoration of premises demonstrates that the use of artificial stone began somewhat later than natural stone. Decorative cladding, manufactured artificially, allows for a comprehensive approach to solving finishing problems. Wild stone, honed by nature itself, is expensive, so not everyone has the opportunity to use it in finishing work. That is why its artificial analogue for walls has found such demand in society.

Externally, the material is not much different from natural, moreover, it is based on natural components that are not dangerous to human health. The cost of the material is lower compared to natural stone, and in terms of the variety of textures and colors, the artificial version is in many ways superior to its natural counterpart.

When facing the walls of a house with decorative stone, do not apply the adhesive solution to the entire wall at once, since it dries quickly and a proper connection with the wall may not occur. The best option There will be a gradual cladding, when only 1 m2 of wall area is covered with glue, and then laying is done on it.

Working with decorative finishing stones is very simple; the technique of gluing them to the surface is simple and can be done even by a non-professional. The material is successfully used to create zonal areas in the kitchen or in another room.

Natural

Previously, natural stone was used to beautifully decorate wall surfaces inside or outside the house. True, its high cost did not always make it possible for an ordinary person with an average income to make such a luxurious finish.

Granite or marble were in demand. And today such materials are used in finishing work, although much less frequently. Stone of natural origin can often be found in the finishing of some parts of kitchens, and there are several reasons for this:

Long service life;
High impact strength of the material;
Good resistance to temperature changes;
Beautiful and chic appearance of the stone;
Environmentally friendly material.

Natural stone can be used to cover not only walls, but also floors. However, in this case, it is additionally necessary to equip a heating system, since the stone does not have good thermal insulation characteristics.

Glue selection

Special attention should be paid to the question of what to glue artificial stone. Today, two types of adhesives for fixation are offered in the construction environment decorative stone artificial production:

With a plaster base;
With a cement base.

Among the most popular adhesive compositions for artificial stone cladding, Ceresit CM11 can be selected. However, it is only suitable for gluing finishing material indoors. If the cladding will be glued from the outside, then it is better to select the composition CM117 or CM17. Stone adhesive is packaged by manufacturers in paper containers, which must contain information about the type of work it is intended for. The consumer should be prepared for the fact that the price of glue for artificial stone glued externally will be higher than that used for interior finishing work.

Two more brands of glue, Knauf or Perlfix, are in great demand when choosing compositions for fixing decorative stones. Both of these types of adhesive mortar are suitable for attaching decorative artificial stone to walls. gypsum base. With their help, you can attach artificial stone to wood. There is also glue for artificial stone for interior works other brands, cheaper in cost.

True, experts advise not to use inexpensive glue, since it will not guarantee good fixation of the material.

How to glue

The front surface of decorative stone, as a rule, has unevenness, which significantly complicates the installation process. In the usual way, using a level, as happens when tiling walls, it will not be easy to level the plane with the decorative stone. And for this reason, when deciding how to glue artificial stone, you should be aware of the need for preliminary and thorough leveling of the surface that will be tiled.

The process of leveling walls before finishing them with artificial or natural decorative stone is carried out by plastering the surface or finishing it with plasterboard. Before gluing artificial stone to drywall, the walls must be primed, since this procedure increases the adhesion characteristics of the adhesive solutions to the surface.

Solving the question of how to glue artificial stone to a wall is not so difficult. You just need to adhere to a certain technology. Before finishing, the surface is cleaned of dust, covered with a layer of primer, and then glue is applied to it using a comb spatula. The decorative stone is lightly pressed directly into this adhesive solution. But the main difficulty is not even the installation. It can be very difficult for an inexperienced craftsman to line corners and butt joints on the surface with decorative stone. We will pay special attention to these two aspects.

The corners of the room can be formed using decorative stone in two ways. The first of them is to lay the stone by bandaging the corners in the process brickwork. In this option, it becomes necessary to trim the stone at an angle of 45 ºC. This method of facing corners, although simple, is not very attractive to ordinary people due to the poor quality of the resulting facing coating.
If quality is important to you, we recommend giving preference to the second method of forming corners, which does not involve cutting the stone at any angle. The advantage of this option lies in the fact that if any errors appear, they can be easily hidden using putty. If necessary, a pigment similar in color to the shade of decorative stone is added to the putty solution. Solving the problem of how to glue cement-based artificial stone will be a little more difficult. Here the errors are corrected plaster mixture or a special adhesive solution for tiles. If on the surface facing material there is a texture, it can be recreated if necessary water-based paint. As for grouting joints when laying artificial facing stone, in most cases it is not done, since the grout greatly spoils the appearance of the decorative material.

These are all the tools that may be useful to you during installation.

Inside the house

Having decided on what to glue the artificial stone on, and also having formed the corners in the room correctly, you can begin to implement the basic cladding technology, which looks like this:

Outside the house

The external decoration of the walls of the facade of a house with decorative stone has its own characteristics. In addition to the need to use natural stone adhesive for exterior work, street cladding also requires further reinforcement of the coating and the use of cement mortar instead of polymer glue for fixing cladding elements. You will see an example below.

Reinforcement of decorative stone cladding helps extend the life of the cladding. This procedure is carried out by about 85% of stone decor lovers. The basis of the reinforcement is the same adhesive solution, applied on top of the facing material in a thin layer using a flat spatula. The composition is distributed over the entire surface with a 6*6 notched trowel. In this adhesive layer, you need to recess the reinforcing mesh to approximately 1/3 of the depth of the solution. It is recommended to apply the reinforcing layer gradually. It is worth noting here that direct sunlight on newly created stone slabs will negatively affect their quality. And therefore, the stone surface should be shaded when carrying out facing work in sunny weather.

Use of cement mortar – important condition when cladding the base and outer parts of the walls of the house with decorative stone. In addition to high strength, cement allows you to save money. Gluing the material with cement can be done directly onto the plastered surface. At the same time, it is first cleaned of dirt, slightly moistened, and covered with a layer of primer solution.

By following the simple rules and technologies described above for gluing decorative stone, you can achieve high-quality and durable cladding inside or outside a residential building.