Decorative/mosaic structural plasters have been extremely popular for years now.   They feature high resistance to weather conditions, are easy to maintain for and clean.   Decorative plasters are commonly used for finishing plinths around buildings and wherever damage-resistant but at the same time decorative plaster surface is required.  

The variety of available structures, colours and granulation offered by manufacturers makes decorative/mosaic plasters popular a perfect imitation of stone facades, especially imitation of sandstone and granite.  

The traditional facade made of stone slabs is applied using the so-called heavy – dry method where a fastening system (metal anchors, guides etc.) is used to install natural stone slabs on the façade insulated with mineral wool – is above all a very expensive method and requires special technical measures to prevent stone slabs weighing several dozen tons from falling; this method also requires special safety measures both during assembly and, most certainly, during use.   

An indisputable alternative to this method is the light – wet method, where the wet element is the decorative structural plaster imitating granite, sandstone or any other stone.   The most important result of this method is a tremendous reduction of costs, acceleration of assembly work, a wide selection of the structures imitating many different stones, availability of colours, which can be selected so that to match – with no compromise – the appearance of the entire building.  Contemporary decorative plasters resemble natural stones to such degree that any distinction between the two can only be made from a very close distance and even at close distance but without touching the plaster surface with a hand, some would still not be able to tell the difference between the plaster and natural stone.  

Also, due to the technology used with decorative plasters – they completely eliminate any losses due cracking, chipping, scratches in stone slabs that may occur during transport to the construction site, during storage at the construction site and of course during assembly.   It is estimated that such losses occur with approximately 30% of all purchased stone slabs, half of which are losses resulting from trimming of stone slabs. On the other hand, repairing damages occurring to decorative plasters during use – as no other losses may occur – is cheap, fast and no new stone slabs need to be ordered, with a very slim chance of finding stone slabs of matching shade or colour.

“STONE” SLABS OF DECORATIVE MOSAIC PLASTER.

PVC groove beads as well as T-shape connectors for connecting PVC groove beads at right angle to obtain a T-shape pattern are necessary each time when the facade surface is to be divided into rectangles imitating natural stone slabs. For this purpose the suitable PVC groove beads are BP11 H1, BP11 H1 S PVC profiles – or grooved profiles with internal dimensions of the groove 10 mm / 10 mm plus dedicated BP11 H1 TC ”T” connector profiles, or BP11 MINI MAX PVC groove beads – with grooves 7 mm wide and 3 mm deep plus dedicated BP11 MINI MAX TC ”T” connector profiles.

Both the groove beads, mentioned above, along with T-shape connectors, are used to provide a typical expansion joint, which is usually present on facades covered with natural stone slabs.

”T” connector profiles will help achieve the effect of placing stone slab imitations in running bond pattern or shifted against each other.

Groove beads and ”T” connector profiles should be painted using façade paints (silicone, acrylic or silicate) in preferably dark grey or dark brown colour. This way the expansion joint will resemble – to a great degree – expansion joints used for natural stone slabs.

NOTE: BP11 MINI MAX groove beads as well as all connectors, also BP11 MINI MAX TC ”T” connector profiles should be painted with façade paints (acrylic, silicone, silicate). In case of GRANIT mosaic plaster it is recommended to use dark grey or possibly white colour – however when using white colour, the groove bead and the „T” connector should also be painted white, because the groove bead and the connector may differ in shade, and in case of PIASKOWIEC (sandstone) plaster, rustication profile and „T” connector in dark beige will help achieve a good effect.

It is recommended to paint BP11 MINI MAX groove beads and BP11 MINI MAX TC ”T” connector profiles after gluing but before plastering.

As soon as the fibreglass net sinking glue is dry, the grey foam inside the groove bead should be removed and the groove bead as well as the connector should be painted.

When the paint is dry, the foam should be placed back inside BP11 MINI MAX groove beads and the connector; when this is done, one may proceed with plastering as the inside of the groove bead and the connector is now protected against soiling with  the mosaic plaster.

Ideally, the foam should be removed immediately after plastering.

Proceed the same way when using BP11 H1, BP11 H1 S groove beads and BP11 H1 TC ”T” connector profiles as well as other “T” connectors and rustication profiles.

Discover yet another use of “T” connectors

BACK to BP11 H TC – T-shape connectors for rustication profiles