How to paint decorative stone yourself

Facing decorative stone at home is painted either immediately after installation, or at the end of a certain service life of the finish. Indeed, after years, microcracks appear on the stone due to the constant change of weather seasons, it fades or becomes stained. Painting a decorative stone helps to hide such flaws, thanks to which it is possible to significantly improve the aesthetics of the appearance of the cladding, as well as protect it from corrosion and other negative environmental influences.

Let's take a look at how to paint a decorative stone yourself

Tools and materials:

• grinding tool and a set of special discs (for old stone);
• compressor or vacuum cleaner;
• special impregnation;
• brushes, roller or spray gun;
• primer;
• containers;
• sponges, rags;
• goggles, mask/respirator, gloves;
• varnish or paint;
• pigments;
• water;
• stirring stick.

Stone surface preparation

For a newly laid new stone, the preparatory stage for painting is much faster. It is enough just to wash the surface of the cladding, apply two or three layers of special impregnation and, after it dries, immediately proceed to painting.

But if the lining on the wall is old and there are noticeable defects, then you will have to work hard - to grind and polish the stone. You can not apply paint directly to an old, unpolished stone, it will simply sprinkle.

For home stone processing, special orbital grinders with film-based micro abrasive skins are usually used. An ordinary grinder with a suitable grinding wheel is also suitable for these purposes.

The essence of such work is that by gradually reducing the grain size, you can achieve a beautiful smooth, even or sparkling stone tile base.

To begin with, carefully remove the upper operational layer of the stone (up to 2.0 mm), which is faded, covered with spots, scratches, microcracks or other defects.

A coarser abrasive (P60-100) or an appropriate film disc, such as 3M 266L Hookit™, is used for primary stone processing. Also good for working with stone are special diamond flexible discs - "cheburashki". They are marked from No. 50, No. 100 - for starting work and further, up to No. 3000 (the smallest section) and BUFF (for final polishing).

At the same time, in each cycle of work, try to drive a thin section along the surface with the same force pressure, parallel to the surface, and you need to grind crosswise, and then also smooth the edges of each pass in a circular motion. During the repair process, do not forget to clean or change discs.

After removing the top layer, blow over the wall - carefully remove the dust with a vacuum cleaner or other compressor device, then rinse the stone. To remove sanding products, special dust-removing wipes can be used.

Now polish the surface of the stone with an already fine-grained sandpaper - from P180 to P400 and above. This is necessary in order to remove possible irregularities that can ruin the painting. Depending on the type of stone, you may need several similar intermediate steps - from coarse to fine, with a gradual decrease in the grain size of the section.

Instead of polishing wheels for "jewelry" stone processing, you can use special polishing pastes GOI or 3M Finesse-it ™. In addition, they also remove grinding marks and minor defects.

At the end, remove the dust again and wash the stone.

stone impregnation

Make sure the stone surface is clean and dry. You can start hydrophobic impregnation.

Impregnation of artificial stone prevents the appearance of chips, protects against excessive moisture, premature abrasion, closes pores and strengthens the structure of the stone. Without impregnation, the paint will lie unevenly, with “camouflage” spots, and its consumption will also increase significantly.

Hydrophobic compositions are different. It is better to choose the most suitable composition for your stone model, for example, choose a latex impregnation.

Impregnate the stone at least twice, with the most even layer, using brushes, a roller, a sponge or an airbrush for this purpose. After processing, for the time of drying of any of the layers, do not allow water to get on the stone.

Choosing and preparing paint

For high-quality painting of artificial stone, waterproof water-acrylic paints or acid dyes are suitable. They penetrate deep into the stone, are sufficiently resistant to fading, and, moreover, dry quickly.

Before starting paint work, check that the paint is in working order, without clots or lumps. If necessary, it must be diluted with water and diluted with a primer.

For the popular gypsum stone, a special gypsum varnish is also used. Such a varnish provides a uniform surface color, dries quickly, does not flow down during operation, and does not create streaks. Water-based acrylic suspensions are also suitable for gypsum tiles.

Under any decorative stone, do not choose quick-drying nitro-lacquer dyes, since after drying they form a kind of thin film, which can quickly peel off when the microclimate changes.

If you use a dry or liquid dye, then add a coloring pigment to the water, for strength, dilute the mixture by half with any acrylic primer and mix everything thoroughly with a stick. An approximate recipe is a teaspoon of pigment, 400 ml. water, 400 ml. primers, mix everything.

In any case, for any kind of paints, pigments or varnish, follow the recommendations of the instructions.

If necessary, mix two or, at most, three shades of a suitable shade - this will turn out very beautifully and effectively. To obtain the desired color combinations, use the color matching tables. For example, yellow and white colors give a lemon color, red and green - brown, a mixture of yellow and green - an olive hue, brown and white colors turn into a beige tone, blue and green - into turquoise, yellow and brown - into cherry, a mixture of red and yellow gives orange, and so on.

Painting

For painting artificial stone, brushes with a roller or a spray gun are used.

In particular, thanks to the spray gun, you will save on the consumption of paints and varnishes, shorten the repair period, the paint will lie much more evenly, it will be easier to adjust the color saturation and depth, and during the work the entire painting area will be visible at once.

You can also use brushes with a roller, but in this case the paint consumption will increase several times, and the quality of work will be slightly lower. However, you will need brushes in any case, for example, for touching up contrasting places, drawing colored stripes, creating a mosaic panel, simulating veins or inclusions, etc.

So, make sure that the hydrophobic impregnation is completely dry. Let's move on to painting.

To begin with, it is advisable to practice in a small area to check the results of the work. Then apply the paint to small areas of the wall, holding the spray gun 40 cm from the surface of the cladding. It is better to set the pressure in the tool to the level of 3-3.5 atm. By the way, two sprayers with different shades of dye are often used simultaneously.

But with brushes, you can effectively process each tile separately, while showing creative imagination, for example, strengthen or weaken the necessary halftones, draw streaks, stripes, etc. The work technology is simple - we dip the brush into the composition and paint.

It is worth noting that decorative stone, especially gypsum, usually absorbs paint unevenly across individual tiles. But it's completely natural to him. Such heterogeneity, with an individual pattern for each tile, on the contrary, will make the decorative cladding more similar to natural stone.

In principle, on this painting work can be considered completed. After some types of paint, such as acid, the base must be thoroughly rinsed, dried again, and then covered with a hydrophobic impregnation.

Wait for the surface to dry and enjoy your new artificial stone wall.

We wish you a successful renovation!