Wooden board is becoming more and more expensive every year. Already, not everyone can afford the decoration and furnishings of the premises from natural material. The choice, most often, falls on an inexpensive practical substitute.
MDF wall panels have appeared on the building materials market for a long time and quickly gained popularity. Wall decoration with MDF boards in Russia has been going on for several decades. You do not need to be a master of the highest rank in order to quickly and inexpensively give the room a new ennobled look. All you need is precision, accuracy, and the basic skills of a home craftsman.
What is MDF?
This building material is produced by hot pressing dry shredded wood waste. Under the influence of steam, sawdust becomes soft and pliable. The smallest fibers, twisting, are connected to each other even without the intervention of gluing components. As a result, the panel structure becomes similaron felt, but compacted with enormous pressure. What do MDF panels look like visually? The photos used in the article will allow you to get an idea about them.
MDF boards do not differ in any heavy-duty characteristics, but due to the absence of adhesives in the composition, they are completely harmless. Panels can be mounted with any wood glue.
Tool used
Of course, you can’t foresee everything, but the main tool, which you can’t do without, should be at hand:
- Roulette. It is better to use a 5-meter copy.
- Building level. It can be made from an ordinary bundle with a nut tied at the end.
- Nozzle for a drill. Perfect replacement for a screwdriver.
- Metal bench square with various legs. It is useful for cutting slopes.
- Electric jigsaw or any hacksaw with fine teeth. It is advisable to have two hacksaws - with a transverse and longitudinal gash.
- Bulgarian for cutting metal profiles, if the frame will be assembled from them. The tool must have a protective cover.
- The usual tools that every owner should have: a knife, screwdrivers, a pencil or a marker, a set of drills, a hammer, small nails (shoes).
Preparatory work
Before attaching the MDF panels, you will have to do a lot of preparatory work. It is necessary for the reliability of fasteners. Everything is clear with wooden surfaces - here the installation process is much easier. Difficulties arisewith brick walls.
First of all, you need to remove the baseboard. It is better to remove swollen or crumbling plaster completely, to the base. Hidden defects of the main walls that need to be eliminated will immediately be noticeable.
Cracks and cracks are recommended to be covered with mortar. After the putty has hardened, you need to cover the wall with a primer and let it dry for several hours.
Installation process
Finishing with MDF panels is carried out in two ways:
1) with glue;
2) hard frame installation.
The frame is assembled from wood or from special MDF metal profiles (this is a steel channel made of thin metal).
It is easier and cheaper to make a crate of wooden bars. Although the entire frame will subsequently need to be treated with a fire-fighting compound. This will also take some time. Wall panels are attached to the rails with the help of clamps (another name is clips). The rails themselves are perpendicular to the wall panels.
Frame method
So, let's look at how to fix the MDF panels. Depending on the size of the boards, the number of rows of slats will be different. In a standard room, where the ceiling height does not exceed 2.5 m, 4-5 runs along the entire wall will suffice. The main thing is that after installation, the panels should stand tightly, and not “play” after any touch.
The top bar of the frame is fixed 15-20 cm below the ceiling. On the samethe lower bar is fixed at a distance from the floor. The middle frame slats are placed in equal proportions between the extreme bars. It is desirable that the distance between the planks does not exceed 50-60 cm. Also, do not forget about fixing the frame around the perimeter around windows and doors.
Where the panel has a groove, a clamp is attached. Having tried on the upper and lower elements and making sure that the wall board is level, the extreme clips are fixed on the slats with self-tapping screws. After that, the rest of the fasteners are added - according to the number of frame runs. The next board is inserted into the groove of the first panel with its spike and is also fixed with clips on all the planks.
Do not forget that the very first panel is rigidly fastened along all rails to self-tapping screws from the side of the spike. The edge board, which is rarely intact, is also tightly attached. All traces of installation are usually hidden behind decorative corners. An excellent option in this case is the MDF profile. It will organically fit into the overall design of the room.
Glue method
Another way to fix MDF panels requires a perfectly flat and clean wall. The bearing surface can be any - plywood, concrete, brick or plasterboard. Panels are glued more often on "liquid nails". This adhesive will work on any surface.
This installation method has serious drawbacks. Demolition is difficult. The board keeps breaking. To level the wall, you have to clean up the remnants of the hardened glue, and this is quite difficult.
Replacing a few wallboards with new ones will alsoa lot of problems. The entire remaining wall can rear up, lose any harmony, and, accordingly, an attractive appearance.
In addition, the inside of the MDF boards is not treated with a moisture-repellent compound, and if the load-bearing wall gets wet, the panel will swell over time and begin to warp.
Which way is better?
If the height of the walls is large or the laying of MDF panels is decided to be done horizontally, along the length of the room, the frame option is better. This method also provides for wall insulation, however, this will slightly reduce the volume of the room. A similar method is also useful in the case when there is a large surface roughness.
A room with low ceilings and even walls is faster and cheaper to “ennoble” with an adhesive method. Here, the loss of room size will be minimal.
It is worth deciding on the performers of the upcoming work. Installation of MDF panels consists not only of the direct installation of the boards themselves. Before starting work, it is necessary to determine the amount of purchased material and fasteners. We must also remember the existence of certain nuances that may not be known to an ordinary person, an average person. In the future, finishing the walls with MDF panels will take time, in proportion to your experience.
Pre-treatment and repair of the main walls also require some knowledge and skills. The solution suggests itself - it is better to entrust repairs to professionals.
Now you have an idea how to fix MDF panels. Nothing fancy or fancyin such work is not, but the master, of course, will do it both better and faster. However, it all depends on the thickness of the wallet and the size of your experience in carrying out such work. The choice is yours.
