Facing a wooden facade with manufactured stone
Technology of facing a wooden house with manufactured stone veneer
Wooden houses (built from logs or lumber) are considered one of the best suitable dwellings for humans. They provide a feeling of coziness, warmth and spaciousness. They also look nice and catch the eye with their natural beauty.
It is sufficient to treat the facade of a wooden house with colorless or tinting coating, and its architectural look would be completed. However, the scenarios when designers combine wood with natural or artificial stone trimming are more and more frequent.
Today this type of finishing is considered to be an interesting and promising idea that is quite feasible to implement as long as one adheres to certain recommendations. Let us share our experience in implementing this idea.
So, how does someone cover the facade of a wooden house with manufactured stone?
At this point, let us digress slightly and ask you a question:
What stone is better suited for this work: natural or artificial?
Notice that together with all its advantages, natural stone has a number of traits that can be considered as shortcomings.
First of all, it is expensive (1000 - 2000 rubles per sq. m.). Its cost might significantly increase the cost of the project.
Second, consider hygroscopicity. Under the influence of atmospheric phenomena and the elements, some types of natural stone begin to crumble over time.
Third, consider its weight. Heavy weight of the natural stone might become a serious problem if the foundation of a wooden house was not designed for the additional weight of the cladding.
Manufactured stone products lack all these drawbacks. In terms of strength and durability, manufactured stone is similar to natural stone and sometimes even exceeds it.
The average service life of manufactured stone is 50 years. "Man-made" stone is from three to four times lighter than its natural analog and at the same time is from three to four times cheaper.
Unlike natural stone, manufactured stone is mounted practically without adjustment and trimming. Also, apart from flat panels, it has corner elements thus simplifying the process of cladding and making it look trim and more expressive.
We recommend manufactured stone for facing wooden facades.
Depending on texture of manufactured stone products (by analogy with natural stone), they can be divided into four types: layered (schistose), jagged (chipped), sawed and facing bricks.
It should be noted that any wooden house’s original dimensions are subjected to changes due to atmospheric factors. For instance, when the air is dry, wood shrinks; whereas high humidity makes it swell. As a result, cracks may appear in the cladding as time goes by.
Therefore, we recommend the following way of facing a wooden house:
First, the facade is treated with colorless antiseptic. After that, the bearing metal frame is installed.
To do this, you can use thermoprofiles and "crabs" which are fasteners that enable the guideways to move when the base changes its position. Both thermoprofiles and fastening elements are taken from plasterboard installation systems.
Crabs are installed on screws on the facade surface from top to bottom in a 25 cm grid. Next, U-shaped thermoprofiles of galvanized steel 6 meters long and 40 x 100 mm thick are inserted into the crabs.
After that, cement-bonded particleboards 12 - 16 mm thick are attached to the profiles. Thus, a ventilation gap of 40 mm (profile thickness) is formed between the wall and the boards.
Next stage is the installation of a metal plaster mesh to the cement-bonded particleboard with a stapler. To ensure that the facing does not slip later, a metal profile is placed horizontally at the bottom crown for support.
Cladding a wooden house with manufactured stone veneer should be carried out at temperatures of at least 5 °C.
We recommend using white cement-based adhesives developed by manufacturers of finishing materials for finishing exterior surfaces. The adhesive should be applied to the stone itself that is then placed at the base. After that, the stone is slightly turned clockwise and counterclockwise to achieve better fixation and pressed against the wall for 10 seconds.
After the adhesive dries, the revetted surface can be treated with a hydrophobizator to ensure reliable protection against moisture.
Let’s sum up the stages of facing a wooden house with manufactured stone:
1. Installation of crabs on a wooden facade and fastening thermoprofiles of galvanized steel on them.
2. Installation of cement-bonded particleboards 12 - 16 mm thick on the profiles.
3. Installation of a metal plaster mesh to the cement-bonded particleboards.
4. Priming of the mesh to ensure better adhesion.
5. Application of the glue to the back surface of the stone in a layer of no more than 1.5 cm and its careful distribution all over the surface.