Material such as marble is used in various structures, such as office building or a family home for the simple reason that it has a high wear resistance. However, not everyone knows how to care for a marble staircase. Let's take a closer look.
Consider the practical as well as decorative functions of stairs.
Particular care is required when designing a stairway and careful handling during construction. different type buildings. During the design process, it is necessary to perform high-quality calculations of all physical quantities, which have a strong influence on the final application. It is important not to forget to calculate the mass of the future staircase design. In addition to the practical use of the stairs, it is important to note its good decorative qualities. When ordering, do not forget to take into account the level of load will have to not spoil appearance. For any product, in order to have high strength and reliability, it is desirable to use natural materials. Granite, natural stone or marble.
Since ancient times, marble has been very famous as the most durable building material. The castles and palaces of Byzantine times are a good confirmation of this property of this material. Thanks to the high quality of the marble, the buildings and stairs have not lost their former strength. Also, the translucent texture looks beautiful when natural light. These factors are the reason why marble stairs are installed outside the structures. Steps made of marble material can fit well into the interior of a room furnished with natural wood furniture, in which there are metal or forged decorative elements.
Since marble has sensitivity, and also it beautiful material. He needs good care. If alcohol, coffee or ketchup gets on the marble, it is advisable to remove them immediately. It is necessary to constantly monitor the purity of marble. To keep it clean, just sweep away the dirt with a brush. soft type or rinse the surface with water. With regular good care, any marble product will always please the eye. In the same way, the right one will help maintain the original look.
In order for the surface to be well cleaned, it is necessary to use products specially designed for the care of marble. At different types pollution, it is required to use products suitable for this type. Such material as marble treats water calmly.
Despite being light marble may yellow over time. It is possible to mechanically repolish the coating. Also, with the help of a high concentration soap solution, yellowness can be eliminated. After applying the soap solution to the surface, it is worth leaving it there, then grind it thoroughly. Sometimes yellowed marble is cleaned with hydrogen peroxide with a few drops of ammonia. Do not forget that ammonia fumes are harmful to health.
Marble may fade, but it can be restored with a special polish designed for natural stone. Marble is also treated with beeswax, which betrays the material fresh color and unique brilliance.
When compared with any other finishing and building material, marble as a cladding solution has a lot of different advantages. Among them, such important points as: strength, durability, the presence of a unique pattern, an impressive range of color options can be noted.
Marble stairs are becoming more and more common today. Also, this material is actively used for facing fireplaces, outdoor and internal walls. Due to its use, a very worthy ensemble is obtained, which will represent your home exclusively in a favorable light. Any specialist will confirm this.
Since today marble is available in most different colors, you can safely use it to decorate any elements in the house.
Eg, today it is actively used:
To lay marble plates on the stairs, there are different ways.
The most popular are these:
Marble tiles have the following characteristics:
Please note: marble stairs are considered to be very functional. They are usually performed in different color solutions- there are a lot of patterns and textures in such material. That is, marble tiles can be used in general in any interior of a variety of styles.
This is often practiced these days..
Finishing can be done as natural materials(you can use stone - granite, marble), and ceramic tiles. In certain situations, the surface of the stairs is simply decorated with different mosaic coatings. Moreover, the mosaic can be used both to cover the steps themselves and to finish the stairwells.
Today, a special decorative composition, which includes white cement, as well as a special filler (usually marble chips).
What you should know about it:
The plate is fixed on the edge - on a pre-applied gypsum or cement mortar. This is how it is customary to work with such material.
It is also worth noting such stages - they are mandatory, if you would like a marble staircase:
Mosaic coating can be of several types:
The very first option suggests that you just need to make a cement screed, which is filled with marble chips. And when everything hardens, the surface is polished - due to which it turns out to be very smooth. The cost of all the materials that will be required for such work is not high - so this option will be very economical. Even on a modest budget, you can get by.
The marble staircases are made by the most different people- both professionals and beginner self-taught masters. For fixing marble, tile glue or cement mortar is used here.
The solution can be obtained by mixing cement with sand in a ratio of one to three. This adds right amount water - without it, nowhere.
Consider the finishing process in detail:
That's right - the more reliable composition you choose for your work, the higher its cost will be.
The final chord can be filling the joints with grout between the tiles. This substance provides protection of the structure from a variety of influences (for example, it reliably protects against moisture ingress).
Work with grouting is carried out as follows:
On this stage we can safely say that the marble staircase is completely finished. The building has been refurbished and is now ready to be used. We also invite you to watch a video on how stairs are sheathed with marble. The material will be useful if you decide to complete the cladding of this level yourself.
It's no secret that a marble staircase should be not only durable, but also comfortable. From how well the staircase is made, it largely depends on whether it will be comfortable. It is generally accepted that only professionals should be engaged in the manufacture of stairs and its decoration with marble.
In part, this statement is true. Lacking specific skills necessary materials and tools, it will not be easy to make a staircase and finish it with marble with your own hands, and the finished result will be far from ideal. Although, even if you do not have professional skills, but you know the basics of owning tools, it will not be difficult to make marble stairs on your own.
The main element of any staircase is its horizontal part, step. Steps are characterized by such indicators as length, height and width. The average width of comfortable steps corresponds to 250-300 millimeters. The length of the steps determines the width of the stairs, the average width is from 800 to 1200 mm. The height of the steps can be from 35 to 50 mm.
Another obligatory element steps is the riser, that vertical part of the stairs that serves as a support for the steps. It is important for the stairs to be comfortable, to choose risers, the height of which should be in the range from 150 to 200mm.
Before proceeding, are produced preparatory work, during which the surface of the base of the stairs is leveled. When preparing the surface, all cracks are eliminated, bulges are smoothed out, if necessary, protrusions are knocked down, defects are smeared with cement mortar. Next, the surface is cleaned, a primer is applied to it. Today, you can buy ready-made primer compositions, but ordinary PVA glue does the job just as well. The primer is applied to the surface of the base with a brush, the thickness of the layer should be medium.
To all marble steps fit perfectly evenly before attaching them with glue or cement mortar, they need to be laid out on the surface of the base, and, if necessary, using a glass cutter and wire cutters, fit along the right size. Sander will allow you to process the edges of the steps. After that, you can start laying marble steps. The process of facing the stairs with marble is carried out from the bottom up, this method of work will allow you to easily eliminate any defects that may occur.
First, a horizontal step is laid. In this case, the layer of applied glue should not exceed 10 mm. After that, a marble riser is installed. It is important to fill all the voids formed under the overhang. If the gaps are large enough, they are filled with mortar and only after it dries, you can install the riser. And finally, the final step is grouting.
Natural stone is expensive, especially if you want to make a countertop or shower tray out of it, and therefore DIY artificial marble seems to be a better option. Moreover, there are quite a few ways to get a reliable imitation, using a variety of, sometimes quite unexpected components and technologies.
What is the stone we are interested in? It has a heterogeneous color, most often with veins penetrating the entire thickness, a granular-crystalline structure. Coloring can be snow-white, pink, blue, black or gray. Less common colors: red, purple, green, yellow. The easiest way to create the illusion of marble is with gypsum, which gives a dense, non-porous mass. However, this option is unacceptable if you need a countertop or cladding in a room with high level humidity. Therefore, consider alternative ways, allowing you to make artificial marble with your own hands.
The simplest technology is casting in molds from cement-sand mixture. Cast marble is durable, waterproof and, most importantly, outwardly very similar to the real one. However, it should be noted that thin tiles will be quite fragile, and thick ones will turn out to be heavy. As a result, it is possible to make a countertop from such an imitation, but at the same time, the furniture body must be very massive in order to support the weight of the stone slab. More slim version can be made by taking as a basis the wooden plane of the table itself. Next, we'll look at both options.
What do we need to end up with a slab of cast stone, almost indistinguishable from natural? First of all - a form of polyurethane, sand and cement in a ratio of 2: 1, respectively, water (a fifth of one share of cement) and pebbles as a filler. You will also need a dye (1% of the share of cement) and a plasticizer in the same amount. In order to technical process successful, we stock up with plastic wrap, a construction mixer, a mixer or a special nozzle for a drill, as well as a spatula and a short rule.
We thoroughly rinse and dry the form, which can be of any size, for example, just for the work surface kitchen wall. We prepare the solution, for which we combine cement, sand and pebbles in a dry state, mixing the components well. Pour 80% of the stored water, as well as the plasticizing composition, and continue kneading, achieving the highest possible mass uniformity. We add the rest of the water and, in unequal portions to different sectors of the container, the dye in order to achieve the least possible uniformity of the subsequent mixing of the color with the solution.
As soon as the dye has spread through the cement mass in thin veins, the composition is ready, and you can proceed to the most important phase of the process. We take the form, put it on a completely flat surface in order to exclude the bending of the bottom or walls, and pour the solution into it. Using a spatula, we clean the edges of the mold from excess that can affect the smoothness of the plate, after which we level the surface of the mass with the rule and cover it with polyethylene.
The larger the plate artificial stone, the higher the probability of its failure due to internal voids. Therefore, if possible, a vibrating table should be used, and in the absence of one, when mixing, try not to lift the mixer from the mass so that air bubbles do not form.
After about 10 days, the solidification of the mass poured into the mold will end, while there is no need to interfere in the process, as is required by other work with cement. For example, regular wetting of the surface is not required due to the fact that the solution is covered with polyethylene, which prevents the rapid evaporation of the liquid. When the plate is completely hardened, carefully lift it, turn it over and, like a cover, remove the form from the finished tabletop.
To get artificial marble, the manufacturing technology does not have to be complicated, everything can be done in an apartment. As a result, we get a product with low porosity, high resistance to a humid environment and various household chemicals. If necessary, polish the slab with transparent polish and alcohol, alternating their surface treatments. In this case, it should first be treated with alcohol, then, after drying, with polish, and, without waiting for it to dry, we again take up the swab moistened with alcohol.
If you want imitation stone to cover an elegant coffee table, the previously described technology will have to be abandoned, since thin wooden legs are unlikely to withstand the load of a multi-kilogram plate. Instead, the easiest way is to partially turn the table itself into a marble table with the help of paints, by drawing the appropriate stains on it. To do this, you need a jar of paint for the background, for example, white or green, as well as a small container of color for the pattern. On a white background, it would be more correct to draw black or gray stripes, on green or black - white.
Before making artificial marble, all cracks and chips on the surface, if any, are filled with a special water filler for wood. Next, we moisten the countertop from the spray gun so that the swollen fibers reveal all the roughness, and after the 30 minutes required for drying, we sand it as best as possible to a smooth state. Then, having cleaned the surface, we proceed to painting and apply two background layers with an interval necessary for the first of them to dry. To avoid streaks, it is better to use a brush or a foam rubber pad. After two hours, you can start applying the texture pattern.
The pattern of marble is familiar to many, sometimes it resembles zigzags of lightning on a surface dotted with many grains of inclusions, and sometimes it looks like randomly intersecting cracks. All this is not difficult to depict with a pen brush, with which you can change the thickness of the line. After waiting 5 minutes, mix a small amount of white paint with a transparent polyacrylic coating. Having dipped a wet sponge into the composition (you should definitely remove excess mixture from it), we draw along the drawing, without pressing hard and shading, thus, the lines, making them more blurry. After another 5 minutes of drying, wipe the surface with a clean cloth, mixing the colors with light touches. Another 30 minutes of drying and again we take up the feather brush, emphasizing the previously applied and already modified pattern.
After two hours, when the surface is already well dry, we take a carefully mixed polyacrylic coating and cover our "marble" with a thin transparent layer. It is advisable to leave the countertop for a long time after this to allow the film to solidify thoroughly. Next, you need to polish the surface with the finest sandpaper, clean it with a damp sponge or cloth and, after allowing it to dry, process it again with polyacrylic. Again, we leave to dry the already almost formed imitation of stone for 2-3 hours, then polish and wipe again. We apply the last layer of a transparent coating, wait for it to harden (2-3 hours), and finally polish it, after which we forget about our piece of furniture for about a week.
A marble staircase is an expressive element of decor, a sign of the refined taste and well-being of the owner of the house. The color richness of marble and its plasticity allows you to create unique designs. Marble stairs have proven to be durable and easy to restore.
Marble is a durable material that is used to decorate stairs. Consider some of its advantages:
The disadvantages of marble finishing stairs include:
The first of which is justified by the durability of the stone. And, secondly, by special tricks, which we will consider in the tips section.
The rock marble consists of carbonate, calcite and other impurities. The latter of which determine the color and pattern of the marble after processing.
Assortment of marble physical properties can be divided into three categories. Namely:
Group white marble affected external environment, often turns yellow and becomes mottled. This material is used for internal works at home.
Gray marble is used for both exterior and interior cladding.
Colored marble is the most resistant to temperature and mechanical influences. Coloring allows you to create unique ensembles marble stairs in the interior. The most valuable is the type of blue marble.
In the decoration of the stairs, it is better to use fine-grained types of marble, which stand out for their elasticity and strength. Coarse-grained marble is used for wet rooms, swimming pools and bathrooms.
When choosing a stone, you must check the certificate of its quality. Which indicates the hardness of marble on the Mohs scale from 2.5 to 3, its density and chemical composition.
Spain, Italy and Turkey are the main marble producers. They are famous high quality home interior products.
When installing the stairs, we will initially draw up its plan. To do this, we determine its size, shape, angle of elevation, height and number of steps.
Consider the parameters for safe operation stairs:
In order to properly install the ladder, draw up its plan. To do this, we determine the height of the future marble staircase, its angle of inclination, the number of steps and the type of construction:
The marble stairs are monolithic structures lined with marble slabs. Therefore, the manufacture of marble stairs begins with the installation of the base under it. Consider the option of creating a concrete structure for a marble staircase.
We will collect the formwork under concrete structure. That is, temporary flooring to give the concrete a certain shape.
For formwork, we need the following material:
To assemble the formwork for a marble staircase, you will need the proper tools:
Consider the order of formwork design:
1. Using an electric jigsaw, we cut the materials for formwork required sizes. The necessary elements of the marble staircase, the photo will be presented below:
2. To assemble the formwork, we use wood screws. Screw them in with a screwdriver.
3. We fasten the formwork with inside using steel corners with a thickness of 2-2.5 mm. After collecting the formwork, we reinforce it to give it greater strength.
4. We fasten the reinforcement with a diameter of 12 mm along the bearing edges. For strength, we connect it into a grid with a welding machine.
5. We fix the reinforcement into the wall along the entire length of the stairs. To do this, we drill holes in it and hammer the pins from the grid with a hammer. This will provide additional strength to the marble staircase.
After that, we proceed to the concreting of the structure. To do this, you will need the following tools and materials:
To mix concrete, it is good to use a special concrete mixer. Its rent is not high. The rental of such a mechanism will save time and allow you to maintain a mixture of concrete in a viscous state.
Also, the process of preparing a mixture of concrete can be done independently. Let's consider the second method step by step:
We start facing the stairs with marble from the bottom of the stairs. With this method, laying errors are not so noticeable.
To cover the stairs with marble, we need:
Let's take a look at the step-by-step process of facing the stairs with marble:
A correctly laid riser will be 10 millimeters higher than the concrete base. Properly laid steps of a marble staircase equally hang over the step. And have minimum slope towards the riser so that water flows from them, which is especially important with an external staircase.
The marble cladding of the stairs is finished.
The marble staircase is beautifully complemented by marble balusters and railings. More economical option is the choice of metal counterparts.
A variety of architectural elements allow you to combine beauty and practicality. Their durability is the same as that of marble stairs.
Columns and cabinets, railings and balusters are made to order in all regions of our country.
You can complete the ensemble of marble stairs with its illumination. The light will give warmth and comfort to the room, and will play advantageously on flat surface marble. As an option, light bulbs can be mounted in the railing. Or build lamps into the wall, repeating the curves of the marble staircase.
Tips for installing and operating marble stairs:
1. When facing the stairs with marble, it is desirable to pre-treat the concrete with concrete contact.
2. Optimal Thickness adhesive layer between marble and concrete 10 mm. If irregularities remain on the concrete base, the adhesive layer can be increased to 40 mm.
3. There are several ways to solve the problem of increased slipperiness of marble:
4. Yellowing of marble can be avoided by using stainless elements for its fasteners.
5. When caring for a marble staircase, wipe the surface of its steps with a soft velvet cloth. From detergents both special pastes for stone and neutral ones are suitable. Do not use acidic products when caring for marble. Before using a cleaning agent, read the instructions for it.
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