Blog Post

Best Materials In Interior Design(3)

Plaster & Clay

Plaster is a great material to use for interior design, because it is easy to prepare and sets in a few minutes.
Earthy patterns and textures can be added to interiors using clay plaster. It’s the mixture of a few natural elements including clay. It’s great for sustainable interiors, a major discussion in interior designing courses. Natural wall finishing’s uses clay plaster as they are environment-friendly, which makes for pleasant and healthy living spaces.

Mixing Plaster is easy but there are important steps to keep in mind to come up with a solid and sturdy sculpture.
These are various designs of Plaster, for example, Ceiling designs are very easy to construct. It is just a matter of creative designs and workmanship. Just look at the variety of designs so that you can have it in your dream home.

Benefits of Clay Plastering
Clay plaster is made of truly natural elements and entails all the benefits of eco-friendliness. These include absence of toxicity, biodegradability, and dust resistance. It even counters the electromagnetic effect from electronic gadgets. Clay plaster is also a good moisture absorbent, helping in room temperature regulation.

Safety
Plaster powder is extremely light and fine, thus easily dispersed through air. Caution should be taken to avoid getting the powder to the eyes and nose. Wearing a dust mask is highly recommended.

Smooth
Wall tiles, which in technical language are called stoneware tiles, and floor tiles, which may be manufactured from stoneware or porcelain stoneware. What they all have in common is a glazed, closed surface which is very durable and easy to clean.

Ceiling second or first
Typically, if the ceiling is to be smooth it is done first, before the walls. If it is to be textured, it is done after the walls. The reason for this is that invariably when a ceiling is being worked on plaster will fall and splash onto the walls. However, a texture mix doesn’t need to be smoothed out when it starts to set

Scratching
The first thing the plasterer tends to do is go over all the mesh-taped seams of the walls he is about to cover; in a very thin swatch. The wallboard draws moisture out of this strip so when the plasterer goes over it again when doing the rest of the wall it will not leave an indented seam that needs further reworking.

He then fills in the area near the ceiling so he will not have to stretch to reach it during the rest of the wall; And he forms the corner with his bird. This saves much needed time as this process is a race against the chemical reaction.
Setting

Sometimes an accelerant will be added to a mix to hasten the time delay from the initial mixing phase to when the plaster starts to set. This is normally done on cold days when setting is delayed or for small jobs to minimize the wait.
Once the plaster is on the wall and starts to set (this can be determined by the table that sets first), the plasterer gingerly sprinkles water onto the wall; this helps to stall the setting and to create a slip. He then uses his trowel and often a wetted felt brush held in the opposite hand and lightly touching the wall ahead of the trowel to work this slip into any small gaps (known as “cat faces”) in the plaster as well as smooth out the rough lay-on and flatten any air bubbles that formed during setting.

Seasons
Plastering is done year round but unique problems may arise from season to season. In the summer, the heat tends to cause the plaster to set faster. The plaster also generates its own heat and houses can become quite hellish. Typically, the plaster crew will try to arrive at the house well before dawn.
In winter months, short days cause the need of artificial lighting. At certain angles these lights can make even the smoothest wall look like the surface of the moon.

Textured
Texturing is usually reserved for closets, ceilings and garage walls.
Typically, a retarding agent is added to the mix. this is normally Cream of Tartar (or “Dope” in the plasterer’s jargon) and care must be taken with the amount added. Too much and the mix may never set at all. However, the amount used is often estimated; much the way one adds a dash of salt to a recipe. you add a small scoop of retarder, dependent on the size of the mix. Retardant is added so that larger mixes can be made, since the texture technique doesn’t require the person to wait until it starts to set before working it.