How to choose an artificial stone: artificial stone, facade decoration, interior decoration with artificial stone.
A material that imitates natural stone and thin-walled brick, initially available only to well-off people, is now available to everyone. First of all, due to the fact that the production of this finishing material was mastered by our manufacturers.
Content
- Artificial Stone General
- Brickwork video
- Artificial stone in home decoration video
- The composition of artificial stone
- Five criteria for choosing an artificial stone
Artificial Stone General
Artificial stone is able to give individuality and originality to the interiors of apartments of country houses, although by tradition it is used to decorate facades, fences, socles, window frames, and decoration of columns.
In modern times, with an active interest in landscape design, this material is increasingly used in the design of arbors, paths, borders, garden bridges, and the decoration of pools and ponds.
The artificial stone is in perfect harmony with the forged products, it looks modern in rock gardens and grottoes, it looks interesting in the design of fireplaces, chimneys, and in the design of a garage.
Such rooms as dining rooms, kitchens, corridors and offices decorated with artificial stone look elegant and respectable.
At the same time, artificial stone does not require special care, does not change color and texture, and has been used for more than a dozen years, which eliminates the need for regular cosmetic repairs of the room.
The variety of shades and structures of artificial stone, allows you to recreate the style of a particular era.
Another advantage of artificial stone is that it contains angular decorative elements, which greatly facilitates laying.
Artificial stone is quite moisture resistant, but can change its properties in the immediate vicinity of water.
For rooms with high humidity, you can use a waterproof stone, or a stone with a single-layer hydrophobic coating.
For decorating pools and ponds, use artificial stone treated with a hydrophobic compound.
Brickwork
Almost all firms offering artificial stone also offer thin-walled facing bricks. This material is not replaceable in the interior decoration, that is, where you need to save space, since this material is thinner than the original.
Thin-walled facing brick is able to reproduce not only new, but also old brickwork.
By the way, imitation of brick in production is the cheapest kind of artificial stone.
The cost of thin facing bricks costs the developer almost two times cheaper than the cost of other artificial stone.
It means that using artificial stone, at a relatively low cost, in a fairly short time, get a brick or stone house.
When decorating a building with such a brick, you protect the walls from atmospheric precipitation and temperature extremes. Among other things, the resulting building takes on a new, stylish, modern, and in some cases historical look.
Among other things, along with filling pigments, the main components of artificial stone are cement and sand, which are of natural origin.
Artificial stone in home decoration
There are many ways to make changes in the appearance of the home and do it without extra costs.
Having made inserts of artificial stone or replacing part of the tiles with decorative panels or a stone of another kind, your room will look new.
Another option.
If the facing tiles are laid with jointing, and the seams are filled with grout, changing the color of the grout from gray to yellow or from yellow to white, the surface takes on a completely different look.
Many believe that a large relief stone is suitable only for finishing socles and facades, while small-relief stone can be used for interior decoration of living rooms, cabinets, billiard rooms, fireplaces, arches and kitchens.
One can argue with this statement.
Finishing the door and window openings with large stones in the living room, with a predominance of antique style, looks very interesting.
Of course, it all depends on the taste of the owner or designer, because even the most beautiful artificial stone can be served in a disadvantageous light.
The advantages of artificial stone can be talked about endlessly.
In addition to being affordable, unpretentious, long-term operation only improves its appearance. Using artificial stone, we can realize our dreams, make the house original and comfortable, the house of our dreams.
It should be noted that this finishing material is devoid of radiation background, at present, it is very important.
The artificial stone is non-combustible, resistant to temperature extremes, which allows it to be widely used for facing fireplace portals.
But remember, the glue must be heat resistant.
The composition of artificial stone
Artificial stone consists of three main parts.
1. Cement. It can be either imported or Russian, but the origin of the raw materials does not matter much. Subject to technology, cement does not significantly affect the consumer properties of the material.
2. Fillers. There are several of them, for example, small expanded clay. The use of expanded clay makes the product lighter, while not compromising its performance. This filler is more expensive than the others, but bona fide manufacturers incur such costs. Coarse expanded clay can be used, it is cheaper, but it is a time bomb. Over the course of the year, such a stone begins to shoot - small pieces will spontaneously break off from the coating. Another filler is perlite. It is devoid of the disadvantages of expanded clay, increases the corrosion resistance of the concrete mixture.
3. Dyes. The quality of the dyes determines the final cost of the product and the durability of its color. Most manufacturers work on the technology of dyeing in bulk, additionally covering the working surface of the product with dyes. During the sale, an artificial stone made on the basis of cheap dyes practically does not differ from the more expensive one, but after half a year the first will change color and the second will remain the same.
Five criteria for choosing an artificial stone
1. The cost of artificial stone. It largely depends on the place of production. Imported materials are more expensive due to overhead and manual labor costs.
2. The lifetime of the manufacturer. Long life, good reviews - the key to good quality of the material.
3.Appearance. The poor quality of the material gives the surface. If it is porous, this means the mixture was poorly mixed and vibrated in the mold. The result of this is the occurrence of stress inside the stone, which can lead to the formation of cracks. The porous surface makes it easier to get moisture.
4. Production technology. Freshly baked material is not allowed for sale, since the lining, which has not gained the required strength, can crumble during transportation. The product is dried at a certain temperature and humidity, then it can be transported, but the final strength of the material gains only after 28 days after manufacture.
5. The same products. There are no clear criteria here, each company decides this question in its own way. Sometimes the repeatability of the elements is quite high, primarily for large-scale collections.
Remember: large, identical stones are immediately evident, the repeatability of small stones is not so noticeable.
