Decorative stone with own hands

Many millenniums of decorative stone remained the best building and finishing material. Decorative stone is expensive, so making a stone at home mastered many masters, for example, a light gypsum stone or a heavier and inexpensive - based on concrete.

What is done withBelt

artificial stone In the 60 years of the twentieth century, artificial stone have been actively used in the West - the wall and the foundation of organically look in the concrete jungle of the metropolis. The idea of ​​making decorative stone and decorating buildings was picked up by architects and interior designers, pushing to development a whole segment of entrepreneurship. The forgotten building material is again popular.

Ancient masters have long learned to process stone, they distinguished it by type of application, like:

• construction or cut;
• finishing or decorative;
• ornamental for jewelry works.

In previous centuries, sand and stone crumbs were mixed into the hardening gypsum, rubbing pumice and shell, lime and chalk. Dyes took natural:

• soot;
• colored clay;
• metal oxides.

Nowadays, a stone and its analogue have come to modern construction and arrangement of rock gardens, and today it is difficult to imagine a modern house without them. Decorative stone, a photo of which is presented in the article, clearly demonstrates the possibilities of this building material.

Decorative stone with their own hands today are done on different bases, and there are technologies available in everyday life. Forms are prepared independently or purchased factory models. Recipes, technologies and components are also known - they are offered by specialized firms.

At the heart of simple mixtures - water, cement and fine, pigment added. The material is quite strong, similar to natural stone, has excellent decorative properties. A variant close to the ancient methods is made of gypsum, and today polymeric materials are used as a binder.

The texture of wild stone has a different surface:

• is fine-grained and smooth,
• is laminated and hummocky,
• is chipped and ribbed.

A natural stone is crumbled and delaminated when it comes into contact with the tool, and the artificial one does not require processing. He immediately attached the required form. The most common varieties:

• butovy, like a natural boulder;
• crushed, uneven, reminiscent of chipped from impact;
• sawn, with smooth and smooth edges;
• wild stone, natural form;
• decorative of any shape, with sags, folds or mounds, reflects any imagination of designers.

Advantages and disadvantages of the

artificial material The stone produced has the following advantages:

• possibility of in-situ casting to reduce transportation costs and scrap generated in delivery;
• is made with small thin plates to reduce the weight of the finished structure;
• its strength does not depend on the size and shape of the tile;
• the pigment added to the mixture gives the desired shade;
• it is possible to obtain a straight and free-form stone;
• allows to make the sizes of tiles, corresponding to a place of installation, even taking into account curvature and roughnesses;
• produced ready-made forms make it possible to obtain a coarse-grained and smooth texture, almost polished;
• is easy to make material of any irregular shape and broken front surface;
• some technologies make it possible to obtain a stronger analogue of brittle natural stone;
• polymers give plasticity, and even after manufacturing, it is possible to inject a new shape or think over the edge for a seamless joint;
• artificial material often has the best decorative properties;
• differs from natural stone with ease of laying, thanks to a smooth back side;
• irreplaceable refractory building material for decor of furnaces, mangals, coarse and fireplaces;
• is sufficiently moisture resistant, suitable for wet rooms such as a swimming pool or a wine cellar;
• the price for an artificial decorative stone is less than for a natural analog, requiring technological cutting and processing;
• does not need special care, long and reliable;
• all possible forms of shape, shade and texture allow the artificial stone to fit into the interiors of any style.

Possible disadvantages:

• some decorative types have complex manufacturing technology, increasing the cost of the material;
• not every wall is suitable for finishing with a wild stone because of its high specific gravity, except for gypsum analogues;
• sometimes requires additional costs for transportation and high-tech stowage;
• an impeccable joint of separate blocks of a fantasy form can not always be ensured, clearance is required.

The main types of decorative stone

For quality assurance, finishing building materials are made in exact accordance with the recipe and production technology. The components and technology of production make it possible to obtain a decorative stone of different names and properties.

1. Concrete reinforced stone, the so-called monumental, free molding material, it is made by hand by hand, where it is installed. It is a technology for cobblestones, boulders and slabs of artificial granite.

Base for batch molding - cement-sand mortar:

• for 3 parts of cement in proportion - 1 dry sand;
• 2-6% of the pigment based on the weight of the solution;
• add polymer additives.

2. A similar material is a molded stone from the same cement-sand mixture. Suitable for construction and finishing. It features increased strength and frost resistance. It is made in hangars, workshops and garages in the cool season.

3. Ceramic - the most expensive material, requiring firing or hardening at a certain temperature. Its production requires a large energy consumption and a large free heated area. In addition, we need trained workforce.

4. Gypsum cast decorative stone - the simplest technology and minimum equipment. Do at room temperature, but it is only suitable for work on interior decoration, does not like temperature changes. The mixture quickly becomes viscous.

It is made in small portions and immediately poured into the prepared form, but no later than 3-4 minutes from the start of the batch. You need citric acid to 1.3% of the weight of dry gypsum, it will slow down the solidification, pigment - 2-6% by weight of gypsum plus water. It is better to make several test samples to correct the proportions.

5. Decorative polyester made of synthetic material. It is made by means of hot quenching with the addition of mineral fillers. Surpasses many natural analogs, but the solidification technology requires a vacuum, do in the shop conditions.

6. Liquid stone on gelcoat. Inferior to the hardness of the cast stone, the gel takes less mineral fillers. The mixture is suitable for the production of complex products, such as stone puzzles, but the stone on a gel-acrylic base is more expensive.

There are 2 compositions - priming and facial, differ by percentage of filler and composition. Priming composition: gelcoat - 20%, microcalcite - 73%, hardener - 1% and accelerator - 6%.Facial composition: gelcoat - 40% accelerator and hardener - as a 1-m composition, the rear composition - filler plus pigment up to 6% of the weight of the solution. Composition grasps about half an hour, after a day the stone can be laid.

7. Cast acrylic stone of cold hardening based on acrylic resin. Easy to manufacture, requires strict execution of instructions and additional equipment, such as a shake table. In many respects it surpasses other artificial material. At high temperatures up to + 210 ° C it is possible to change its shape without changing the quality.

Advice: The absence of pores and resistance to acrylic stone chemicals in the finish ensure perfect hygiene, so it is suitable for rooms where frequent contamination and cleaning of surfaces - entrance hall, kitchen, veranda and covered terrace. The material is also known for its low thermal conductivity, gives a feeling of warmth - it is the best choice for a bath, bathroom or pool.

Forms for decorative stone

There are many methods for making molds for stone by yourself using a selected technique, but it's easier to buy ready-made ones.

There are about a dozen types of molds for the production of artificial stone by one's own hands, but the most commonly used are 3 types:

1. Ready polyurethane, for small production, they are offered by firms for the production of equipment and sale of technologies of wild stone, convenient and durable, but worth a lot.

2. Clay molds on a wax-based model, suitable for modeling and artistic casting.

3. Silicone molds, suitable for home-made tiles individually, they are enough for dozens of castings, eventually deformed.

Tip: Sand cushion is required for silicone molds, vibrates and heats them up. Before casting, the mold is deepened into sand in a pallet to 3/4 of a height to reduce deformation, and the horizontal dive is checked with a water level.

Additional components and accessories

1. Pigment for building mixtures is offered in catalogs and shops for building materials in different form of release: liquid, paste and powder. Synthetic pigment powder is uniformly introduced into gypsum or other dry filler, the paste-pigment is introduced into the prepared batch. By the way, thanks to the pigment paste it is easier to get an uneven color - laminated or spotted, it is injected directly into the kneading syringe at the end of mixing.

2. Separators are of different types:

• for cast acrylic;
• for concrete solution;
• for gypsum composition;
• for liquid stone.

They are sold with a ready-made instruction and detailed recipe. You can also use a high-quality lubricant - ciatin, fiol.

3. The thermo gun is a device like a small construction hair dryer with a strong stream of heated air.

4. Vibrating bench - the main machine for making a stone with their own hands, which guarantees high quality of the final product, ensures homogeneity of the solidifying mixture.

Tip: you can make this stand yourself - on the Internet there are detailed instructions and videos, for example, on the production of a decorative stone on a cement basis using a self-made vibrating table.

The simplest technology for the production of artificial stone on cement basis

1. The sand is mixed with cement for the first 3: 1 layer to a homogeneous mass, for coloring an appropriate dye of about 2-3% is added to the cement, mixed with water until the sour cream density, the liquid pigment is preliminarily diluted with water.

2. The finished mixture is evenly spread out into the mold to half, compacted and distributed by shaking and tapping. To reinforce the stone, a metal mesh is placed on the 1st layer, the 2nd layer without pigment is poured and the cruciform grooves are pinched by the nail for adhesion during laying.

3. After 10-12 hours, the finished stone can be removed from the mold and laid to dry completely. The mold should then be cleaned and rinsed with Fairy after each filling.

4. In the process of monumental molding of a large block, the base is formed on a blanket, wound with reinforcing mesh and wire, where layers are laid out thick cakes without dye. When the base is slightly seized, a solution is prepared with the addition of pigment of the desired consistency and make the final shape. Artificial boulders when frozen, for about a month, covered with a film of rain.

Making gypsum stone in the simplest way

At home, decorative stone is made in several ways. Let us dwell on the description of what has been tested in practice.

1. It is recommended to purchase a pair of ready-made samples of wild stone and on them to make shapes according to the size of the stone, for example, from a plywood box in the form of a trapezoid - for convenience of excavation.

2. It is evenly squeezed out 1 liter of silicone sealant on acetic acid, the layer is lubricated with a solidol or other separator so that the finished stone does not stick.

3. The sample stone is pressed into a box with silicone until it completely drowns in it, up to the rear surface, the excess silicone needs to be cleaned, the mold dries for a couple of days.

4. After complete drying, the sample is carefully removed from the mold box. The finished silicone is soft and elastic.

5. The gypsum mixture according to the formulation is kneaded to the density of sour cream with the pigment, and poured into a mold greased with solidol. After the first layer, the tile is preferably reinforced with a fine metal mesh, a 2-layer is poured without a dye, shaking is achieved by leveling and left to dry. If the gypsum quickly seizes, interfering with the reinforcement process, the mixture is diluted with milk - then it thickens longer.

6. It is better to dunk the mold in sand on a pallet, for the sake of safety of the silicone mold, and on top to press gypsum with corrugated glass so that the uneven rear surface is better attached to the wall.

Tip: There are labor-intensive methods of making a stone, such as quartz, that allow you to get the most high-quality and durable building material for cladding. Having mastered some techniques, you can open your own business.

Independent laying of artificial stone

1. Ready decorative stone is attached to any dry surfaces with additional crate. Installation, with or without jointing, is done on cement mortar, building glue, stone is cut by a Bulgarian at low speed with a disc over concrete.

2. Before starting the installation, it is better to make a sketch of the finished work or use a picture with a similar material. The stones are laid out on a surface pattern for the most beautiful placement and fitting of fragments.

Additional decoration of the stone in the landscape design

For a long time, the stone was not only widely used in architecture, the Japanese decorated them with tobishi gardens. Today, for special design purposes, the stone is additionally painted or primed with a part of its surface, so that in the rock garden a green shoot is formed. Rub ocher with soot, aged, and bulges on the south side - an iron surigus for obtaining visibility of sunburn and weathering.