The appearance of any building, and even more so a residential building, is of great importance. Therefore, finishers pay a lot of attention to the procedure for decorating the facade. And if earlier it was quite difficult with this issue, since sometimes you had to literally almost invent the compositions of all kinds of solutions on your own, today the building materials market is ready at any time to come to the rescue of both a professional and a home master. Today, there are a huge number of various mixtures for decorating the external walls of buildings, and decorative plaster for outdoor use is the most popular. This is not surprising, since this material has a lot of advantages and a meager number of disadvantages.
About the pros and cons of decorative plasterfor outdoor work, we will talk about its types, main characteristics and application technique in our article.
Good qualities
Facade decorative plaster for outdoor work not only creates an attractive textured structure, it also protects the wall surfaces from moisture, that is, it is, as it were, 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 extremes, and therefore the facade of the house finished with it retains its original appearance for a long time. It should not be discounted that it significantly increases the thermal insulation qualities of the walls, and also makes them less permeable to sound.
It allows you to implement many ideas for creating the exterior of a building, because, thanks to the special composition of each type of this finishing material, it can be used to make various textured surfaces. For example, decorative plaster "bark beetle" for outdoor work imitates the surface of a tree eaten by bugs, and the mixture "fur coat" is somewhat reminiscent in appearance of the inner fur surface of a sheepskin coat.
In addition to the basic composition, this finishing material contains all kinds of additives - the so-called fractions, consisting of crushed minerals. By choosing one or another fraction size, it is possible to create coatings that are completely different in structure. In addition, in addition to the basic shades (white and gray), you can also purchase already painted material. The choice of colors is quite diverse, in the same case, if a suitable one was not found, there isthe ability to add a coloring pigment to the composition yourself.
And another huge plus that decorative plaster for outdoor use has. It perfectly hides small defects, no special preparation is required before starting work, and the application process itself is quite simple. In this regard, with a pair of skillful hands, all finishing work can be done independently.
Fly in the ointment…
Really, it's not that big. The main disadvantage is that the entire prepared solution must be worked out within a certain period. That is, there are no breaks for smoke breaks. It is quite difficult to maintain such a pace in the absence of appropriate finishing skills. The second minus is connected directly with 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 purchasing a material with improved (however, already quite good) characteristics, then finishing will cost you a lot.
Next, let's take a brief look at the currently existing species.
Cement plaster
It is made on the basis of cement and fractional inclusions. Such decorative plaster for outdoor use has all the characteristics described above, however, it is not sufficiently resistant to loads, as a result of which, during shrinkage, cracks may appear on the walls.cracks. But these plasters have an affordable cost, in addition, the facades decorated with their use are easy to restore. Simply put: the defects that have appeared can be simply covered over again, and outwardly it will not be noticeable. Another disadvantage is that the palette of produced colors is quite poor, so it is far from always possible to choose the shade of interest. Nevertheless, cement plaster is most popular for finishing, which is not surprising, since the facade areas are quite large, and therefore not every homeowner can afford to pay significant sums for the purchase of better materials. For 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 sold ready-made, packaged in buckets. It contains an acrylic filler, which gives the composition the necessary plasticity, so that the walls finished with it suffer less from the appearance of all kinds of defects and cracks. The color palette of such plaster already inspires respect, but a rather high cost and the impossibility of applying it to absolutely all types of surfaces can keep you from buying. Concrete is considered the most suitable option for these purposes.
Silicate variety
Has high qualitycharacteristics, contains in its composition special mineral fillers, perfectly adheres to the base, as a result of which the list of surfaces on which it can be applied is noticeably expanded. The color palette allows you to make a choice with almost no problems, but the cost of the compositions is able to stop. For this reason, it is most often used locally - when finishing especially significant and prominent places in a building (columns, door and window slopes, curbs, etc.).
Silicone plaster
This "queen", as the masters call her, is good in every way. And it is used on any surface, and its performance is 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. Most often used for interior finishing work.
Types of invoices
Talking about what decorative plaster for outdoor work is, one cannot ignore one of its main qualities - directly the texture itself. From the choice of it entirely depends on the appearance of the finish. So, from the simplest ones, the bark beetle facade decorative plaster already mentioned by us is most often used for outdoor work. Next comes the “fur coat” (they also talked about it). Of the simple ones, the “lamb” is in third place, after finishing which the walls look like a fleece in appearance. Pebble plaster gives a finely bumpy surface, and mosaic plaster is at least somewhat similar to it, but more noble and imitates a surface, as if strewn with fragments of mica or anotherstone. Stone creates the illusion of finishing with stone, limestone or marble. Terrazitic after application is similar to tuff. There is also a type of "graphito", which allows you to get a very peculiar texture, but working with it is very complex and extremely expensive. That is why it is used most often only in the restoration of historical buildings.
Now that we have de alt with the views, we will tell you what the technique of applying facade decorative plaster is. However, first a few words about the preliminary work that should be carried out.
Preparing the base
As we have already mentioned, the preliminary work does not require much effort. Since decorative plaster for outdoor work hides insignificant defects quite well, there is no need to achieve a special smoothness of the surface. But by all means it is necessary to repair all significant defects and cracks, including the removal of protruding fragments, since their elimination due to the finishing material contributes to a significant overrun of the composition. Then the base surface must be primed in order to improve its adhesive qualities. Numerous special mixtures for this procedure are commercially available. Which one is better to take for this or that type of plaster - the seller will tell you. In order to save money, you can not be too smart and purchase a universal acrylic primer from any manufacturer. After the base surface dries, you can start applying.
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 must be produced at a time. If it begins to dry out, then it is strictly forbidden to dilute it with water. Before mixing, the bag with dry plaster should be shaken well so that the fractions that have settled to the bottom during storage are evenly distributed throughout the composition. Contributes to this and thorough mixing in the preparation of the solution. By the way, the finished compositions must also be carefully mixed before starting work. And further. You need to try to apply the solution in one go, literally from corner to corner. If it is very necessary to take a break, then you can “join” the layers only until the first one is completely dry. Otherwise, the transition will be noticeable.
Applying technique
The prepared solution is thrown with a spatula onto the treated area of the wall, and then it is stretched over the surface with a trowel for a more uniform application. The layer thickness must correspond to the size of the fractions of the composition, which, as a rule, is indicated on the packaging. Immediately after it dries, which takes no more than ten minutes, the desired image is formed 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 problem areas with sandpaper, however, when finishing facades, no one carries out such work. Correctiononly applies to interior work.
Conclusion
Textured plaster is an excellent material for finishing the exterior facades of buildings. And if it is necessary to carry out such work, it is strongly recommended that you pay attention to it. The only thing that should be taken into account is the need for appropriate skills. Sometimes, nevertheless, it is not always advisable to carry out such work independently, taking into account the scale. Sometimes it is better to seek help from professionals. Especially if not simple, but more expensive decorative plaster for outdoor work was bought for decoration. The cost of work is, depending on the region, an average of about three dollars per square meter. m.
