Wall cladding with tiles that look like natural stone is extremely popular today. This practical, easy-to-wash and wear-resistant material is especially appropriate when decorating entrance areas - after all, it is here that a lot of street dirt is brought in from the street. Moreover, decorating the hallway with decorative stone is quite simple - even a non-professional can easily cope with it.
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Varieties of decorative stone
Decorative hallways
The facing tile, outwardly similar to natural stone, has a very different texture. She can imitate brick, shell rock, cobblestone, sandstone, onyx, marble, granite. But the methods of its production are similar: the solution is poured into a mold, and after firing or drying in the open air, it is covered with a special glaze or impregnation.
Before you start decorating the walls of the hallway with a decorative stone, you should choose its shape, color and texture. According to the types of basis, it is divided into:
- cement: materials based on it have more weight, therefore it is more often used for facade decoration or interior cladding in a loft or minimalist style; curbs, skirting boards, cornices, as well as paving slabs are often made from it
Cement-based tiles
- porcelain stoneware from a mixture of clay, minerals, feldspar: outwardly similar to colored glass; products from it are used for laying underfloor heating, finishing kitchens, street facades
Porcelain stoneware
- gypsum (gypsum polymer): due to its low weight it can even be used for facing light interior partitions; due to high porosity, low moisture resistance requires additional coating with impregnation and varnish
Using gypsum-based tiles, you can imitate different types of stone
- agglomerate with the addition of quartz, marble and granite chips: high-strength, heat-resistant material, with which you can finish not only walls, but also fireplaces, steps, kitchen sinks; durable and wear-resistant; its cost is higher, but the walls, floors finished with this stone look more presentable
Quartz agglomerate
- acrylic: a polymer material resistant to various types of damage, it is used not only for wall cladding, but also for the manufacture of countertops, furniture decoration
Acrylic products
- clinker based on baked clay covered with glaze: originally used only to decorate facades, today they are often used to trim doorways indoors, as well as areas of high humidity
Clinker
The industry also produces the so-called liquid stone - a mixture on the basis of which you can independently form the most intricate patterns. There is a flexible facing tile sold in sheets or rolls. But most often this finishing material is sold in the form of separate tiles.
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Finishing methods
Decorating the hallway with a massive decorative stone in combination with wallpaper in contrasting colors or to match is one of the unusual ways of decorating. This material, outwardly similar to natural, is also capable of emphasizing the natural texture of wood, favorably shading the nobility and beauty of the fabric. It goes well with modern types of stretch ceilings. Similar material looks very impressive next to climbing green plants, as well as mirrors.
Note that decorative stone is used more often only for accents - framing corners, door and window openings, protrusions, individual elements of the interior. It makes sense to completely cover the wall with it only in spacious rooms with high ceilings. But even in this case, it is better to veneer one of the walls.
Gypsum, marble is more often used for interior decoration in a classic style. Sandstone, granite is more suitable for decorating hallways in chalet or rustic country styles. Imitation of brickwork will look more appropriate in rooms decorated in minimalist or loft styles.
Coloring individual elements
If desired, individual elements can be painted with special coloring compositions. To add volume, the contours can be highlighted with darker paint.
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"Laying" decorative stone
Sticking this material on the wall is quite simple - it fits exactly the same as ordinary tiles.
Required Tools
Tools required for the job
For styling you will need:
- building level, tape measure, ruler, marking pencil
- saw or hacksaw: most types of this material are cut quite easily, no special tools are required for this
- sandpaper for cutting
- container for diluting glue
- notched trowel: its teeth allow you to more evenly distribute the solution over the surface
- rubber mallet for tamping tiles together
- small rubber spatula for grouting
- plastic crosses for leveling seams
The choice of adhesive composition
For laying this type of tile, it is used as special adhesives, putty or “liquid nails”. But the most convenient in the work is the glue.
Adhesive for acrylic products
When decorating the hallway with a decorative stone that has a significant weight, it is better to purchase a special composition. For fixing concrete products, you will need glue for ceramic tiles. "Liquid nails" are more suitable for sticking small items or light gypsum stones.
Surface preparation
In order for the “stone” tiles to look perfect on the walls, their surface needs to be leveled with plaster or drywall. Yes and stick this one decorative material to smooth walls will be much easier.
The walls are carefully leveled
Old plaster should be checked for voids and ensure that it does not fall off under the weight of the artificial stone. To improve adhesion with it, it is better to additionally treat the walls with a primer. You can replace the primer composition with glue diluted to a liquid state, with which it is planned to fix the tile.
Before starting repairs, you should immediately consider the location of electrical wiring, switches. When leveling the walls with drywall, it is possible to use built-in lamps - with good lighting, the stone will sparkle with new colors.
Pattern layout
Laying methods
When using tiles of an unusual shape or partial wall decoration, corners, openings, it is better to first lay out the stone on the floor in order to see with your own eyes the future masonry. When determining the size of the "drawing", be sure to consider the height of the cornices and skirting boards.
If you plan to lay out the entire wall, open several boxes at once. After all, the shades of the stones may vary slightly. Sort them by color, and then evenly distribute them throughout the pattern.
Each tile should be numbered starting from the bottom. Then the drawing is transferred to the wall with a pencil.
Main stages of work
Decorating the hallway with an original decorative stone is not at all difficult:
Cement or gypsum-based glue dries pretty quickly, so you shouldn't dilute it too much.
Laying starts from the bottom up from the corner. Usually the solution is applied only to the tile with a notched or conventional trowel, and then evenly distributed over its surface.
Work starts from the corner
Attach the stone to the wall, move it slightly from side to side so that the mortar is evenly distributed, and a small amount of its excess comes out on the sides and fills the seams. But, if it is planned to grout the seams (jointing) with a contrasting composition, they should not be filled with glue
When laying without jointing, adjacent elements should adjoin each other as tightly as possible, without gaps. The squeezed out solution will be enough to fill small seams
Try not to get the adhesive on the front surface. It will be hard to remove
The masonry boundary can be immediately marked with beacon stones
An artificial stone should be glued in a checkerboard pattern so that the next row is shifted by half a brick relative to the previous one.
It is better to pre-draw complex masonry with a pencil on the wall
Periodically check the horizontal and vertical masonry building level. If you want to leave seams, use special plastic crosses. They are placed between adjacent elements.
If the room temperature is high, periodically moisten the back of the tile with water so that it does not take moisture from the solution
The width of the seams depends on the type of tile, its dimensions. For example, slate is joined tightly, without seams. The distance between decorative bricks is usually 10-12 mm. Between the buta or ordinary boulders, you can set aside a fairly large gap (up to several centimeters)
Arrangement of crosses
When finishing with plaster when gluing, do not press too hard. This material is quite fragile and may burst.
In most cases, paint is attached to the decorative stone, with which you can mask conspicuous defects - chips, cracks
To create volume, use a finish spray with darker dyes. Extreme pebbles can be distinguished with bronze or gold paint
If desired, after the glue has completely dried, the lined surface is varnished.
For additional finishing, special types of varnishes are used.
Corner cladding
Slate effect corner tiles
For finishing the hallway with decorative stone in the area of the door and window jambs, it is better to purchase special corner elements. Making slopes with their help will be easier, and the corners will be much smoother and more accurate. If you don’t want to spend extra money (corner elements are more expensive), the stone will have to be cut.
Fix the tiles in the corners in two ways. At the first, with an overlap, the open ends are finished with a file, and the visible ends are painted over. The second way is to grind the edge at an angle of 45 °. The joint in this case is more accurate. The ends in this case will be almost invisible. However, this method is more often used for processing gypsum decorative stone, the edges of which are easily ground down with a miter box - a device for cutting edges.
Miter box - a tool for cutting at angles of 90 and 45 °
Grouting (grooving)
Seam filling
The seams should be overwritten only a day after the end of the work - the adhesive composition should dry well and get stronger. The grout is diluted with water according to the instructions, and then thoroughly mixed to remove even the smallest lumps. To apply it, use a small rubber spatula or a bag that looks like a confectionery.
If the solution gets on the front surface, do not rub it. Wait until it dries completely and then remove with a dry soft brush.
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