Facing The Basement With A Stone Or Finishing The Basement With A Stone With Your Own Hands

2024 Author: Bailey Albertson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 12:53

Facing the basement with natural sandstone

Good day to all readers of our blog " Do it yourself with us."

Surely many have seen how beautiful buildings decorated with natural stone look. The beauty of nature, transferred to our modern world, at least a little, but decorates our daily life. Given the durability and practicality of natural material, there can be no better choice for surface finishing.

In today's article I want to tell you a little about how to make a plinth cladding with a stone. We will consider in detail all the stages of the work, from surface preparation to the application of a protective coating.

Determine the thickness and color of the material

If the decision is made, and finishing the basement with a stone with your own hands, or any other external surface of the building, will be done, then the first step is to decide on the amount, color and thickness of natural sandstone that you need to purchase.

If everything is clear with the quantity - we consider the area of the surface to be faced, we take 5-10% from above for trimming and fitting, then the question with color and thickness is more complicated.

Choosing the color of natural stone (in the common people it is also called "slab" because of the comparatively equal in thickness pieces of irregular shape), it is necessary to be attached to the color scheme of the building on which the work will be carried out. For example, for harmony and beauty of a building with a brown roof, you can buy natural sandstone with a red tint to match the color of natural tiles.

Depending on the color of the material, of course, the price for it also fluctuates. The cheapest and most common is a natural gray stone, with a red, blue or green tint, will cost more.

The price also changes depending on the thickness of the stone. The cheapest is the thinnest (1-1.5 cm), and the further the thicker, the more expensive the cost per square meter.

For the work on the natural stone cladding of the basement, I used a gray-yellow sandstone with a thickness of 15 mm, which I laid out on an ordinary cement mortar.

If all the materials have been purchased, you can begin to start work.

Facing the plinth with stone. Step-by-step instructions for performing work

Step 1. Prepare the surface on which we will lay the plastic.

At this stage, it is necessary to remove all protruding beads of grout in the joints between the bricks if brickwork is being cladding. If the basement of the building is cast from concrete, remove the protruding parts of the concrete that could have formed as a result of flowing liquid concrete into the formwork slots.

Step 2. We prime the surface with concrete contact.

It is better to take a concrete contact with a coarse fraction for good adhesion of the finishing material to the plinth to be faced. Application can be done with a roller or with a brush, depending on the surface area.

Step 3. We select pieces of bedded sandstone with one flat end side and apply a cement mortar to the surface that will face the wall. The end flat side of the sandstone will be adjacent to the base of the surface to be tiled.

As an alternative and to better guarantee the quality of adhesion of the finishing material to the surface, you can use a heavy tile adhesive for outdoor use. Of course, this will create additional costs, but the quality of the adhesion of the stone and the wall, and, accordingly, the likelihood that the finishing material will not fall will be maximum.

Step 4. Apply a piece of natural finishing material to the wall, as tightly as possible to the base and the right adjacent stone (if the facing is done from right to left).

Step 5. By tapping and pressing the stone to the surface to be faced, we achieve complete removal of air from under the material and an even fit.

Step 6. In the gap between the right and left support stones, select a piece that matches the shape.

If necessary, you can chip off the protruding parts a little to form even seams between adjacent pieces of finishing material.

Step 7. Apply glue to the selected piece and set it in its permanent place.

We try to deepen it so that the outer surface forms a single plane with the plane of the adjacent adjacent stones.

Thus, picking up the finishing pieces, as if assembling a mosaic, we go through the entire height of the basement and come to the top (for me it is a protective outflow made of painted white metal).

To more accurately approach the upper horizontal line, you can, using a grinder with a cutting wheel for concrete, form a flat end side on the stone by cutting off the excess.

Step 8. Where large spaces are formed between adjacent facing stones, fill them with smaller pieces.

For greater beauty and originality, you can fill these gaps with sea polished pebbles - "naked".

Step 9. Fill in and clean out the seams between the adjacent adjacent stones.

This work must be done before the solution (glue) has risen. Seams, in which there is not enough glue, are filled, and in which there is an excess of it, they are smoothed out until the seam is filled evenly. Excess glue on the front surface is wiped off. Thus, the plinth is clad with a stone over the entire surface.

Step 10. The main danger for this type of finish is water that gets into the cracks between the finishing stones and flows inside. If this occurs during the off-season, the water can freeze and expand to lead to delamination of the facing material.

To protect the entire finished surface, it can be varnished. I made a visor over the plinth so that the side rain flowing down the wall does not fall between the plinth wall and the natural finishing material.

Now you, dear readers, know how to finish a basement with a stone with your own hands. As you can see, the whole process is quite simple and requires only accuracy and diligence. Slowly assembling stone mosaics, we get a beautiful, durable and practical outer surface of the building's basement.

If you still have any questions, ask them, please, in the comments. I will gladly try to answer everyone.

Yours faithfully