There are many styles of stunning stone effect walls that can easily be created using a range of different design imprinting tools and even this range can be expanded using your imagination and introducing various personal ideas into your work.
In this instance the very popular Mountain Dry Stack was chosen. The process involves wetting and priming the existing scratch coat, (as per clip 1, Applying a Scratch coat).
Mix the Wallcrete render as normal (as per clip 1, Applying a Scratch coat).
Firstly apply a tight skim coat into the freshly primed scratch coat, to ensure a thorough key and subsequent bond, and then build onto this fresh layer with Wallcrete to the desired thickness. In this instance Wallcrete was applied at circa 25mm to enable a true print to be formed using this particular design. Different designs require different minimum thicknesses to achieve a true print.
As soon as possible after the Wallcrete has been trowelled a liquid release agent is sprayed onto the soft and fresh Wallcrete and then the surface is textured with a textured skin prior to printing the pattern using the Mountain Dry Stack imprinting mats. The sooner the Wallcrete is printed the better. The softer the Wallcrete is, the easier it is to print and also a better pattern will produced with less effort required.
Various areas were also cut out during the process, while the Wallcrete was still soft, to create larger and bolder stones within the wall to add interest and realism. A stone plinth effect running along the bottom of the wall was also incorporated, in the same way.
Once Wallcrete is semi set, some of the printed joints are hand carved and brushed, to tidy up the wall, and then that’s job complete. Good eh?!
Lastly, normally the Wallcrete render would be coloured, (as per clip 2, creating a coloured coping stone) to customer requirements, on site, prior to applying Wallcrete to the scratch coat, however in this instance, uncoloured Wallcrete was used, in order that it could be demonstrated how effective the Wall stains can be to colour a totally uncoloured wall. Also, to clearly show the huge difference between an uncoloured and a coloured wall!
PICS hold regular 1 day Training Courses at their depots in Newbury, Sheffield and Manchester, cost is £100 per person. To book your place on the next available course (and for all other enquiries) call…
01635 202224
The next video which will show the Mountain Dry Stack effect ‘coming to life’ using the coloured Wall stains.
