Plastering walls on beacons with your own hands: from marking to the finish + Checklist

Although plastering walls with beacons may seem like a difficult task, you can do it yourself if you prepare ahead of time and use the appropriate technique. A professional finish depends on your plasterwork being flawlessly smooth and level, which this technique helps to ensure.

We’ll take you step-by-step through the entire process in this guide, from laying out your beacons to applying the last layer of plaster. Everything you require to complete the task correctly will be covered, along with a helpful checklist to help you stay on task.

By the time it’s all over, you’ll be well-equipped with the know-how to handle your plastering project with ease. Let’s get started and transform those unfinished walls into a gorgeous surface!

Step	Description
1. Preparation	Clean the wall surface and remove any old plaster or debris.
2. Marking	Use a level and pencil to mark vertical and horizontal lines where the beacons will be placed.
3. Installing Beacons	Attach the beacons (guides) to the wall using screws or nails, ensuring they are level and spaced evenly.
4. Mixing Plaster	Prepare the plaster mix according to the manufacturer"s instructions.
5. Applying First Coat	Apply the first coat of plaster between the beacons, filling in the gaps and smoothing it out.
6. Setting Time	Allow the first coat to set according to the plaster"s drying time.
7. Applying Second Coat	Apply a second coat of plaster to achieve a smooth and even surface.
8. Finishing Touches	Use a trowel to smooth out any imperfections and ensure a flat surface.
9. Drying	Allow the plaster to dry completely before sanding or painting.
10. Checklist	Ensure all steps are complete, and the surface is even and smooth before final touches.

Choosing the type of plaster on beacons

Specialized technologies are used to plaster walls on beacons, but before anything else, you must choose the appropriate working material.

A lot of material will be needed because the purpose of plastering walls along beacons is to level the original surface. Because they are inexpensive and of high quality, knowledgeable builders advise taking mineral mixtures into consideration in this regard. On the same mixtures, the beacons themselves can be mounted.

Among the resources at hand, the following are noteworthy:

• Gypsum plaster is an excellent means for leveling using beacons. However, this option is not suitable for covering the facade, or for treating walls in rooms with high humidity.
• Lime plaster is also accessible and easy to apply, but is not used in rooms with high humidity.
• Cement plaster, unlike previous options, is characterized by greater resistance to temperature and moisture. This composition can be used for surfaces that have significant defects.

The materials that are provided are easily applied to the wall and can be prepared at home. Furthermore, walls coated with this material can be fixed.

Nevertheless, a major disadvantage of mineral compositions is that they are unstable to seismic forces and cause the house to shrink. Consequently, it is preferable to use silicate mixtures, polymer, or acrylic in new construction during the first year.

Because of the much higher elasticity of the mixtures that are being presented, you can work under a variety of conditions.

Surface preparation

It’s essential to correctly prep the walls for subsequent steps before beginning the majority of the work.

Before adding fresh material, the wall needs to be smooth; any protruding irregularities are hammered away.

These manipulations are part of the preparatory stage:

1. Clear the room in which the work will be carried out from excess furniture and other interior elements. It is necessary to create comfortable working conditions.
2. The floor should be covered with newspaper or bags so as not to stain the coating with the working solution.
3. The old coating is carefully removed from the walls. Paint can be washed off with a solvent, to remove wallpaper, you can wet the wall with water. Rough coatings are removed with a hammer drill.
4. In the presence of mold or fungal colonies, it is necessary to treat the wall with a bleach solution and antiseptics.
5. To improve the adhesion of the future solution to the coating, the wall is treated with a grinding disc or sandpaper. The absence of unevenness improves the adhesive properties of the materials used.

Since the base upon which the plaster solution will be applied is formed at this stage, priming the coating requires special attention. This is why it needs to be taken into consideration separately.

What tools will be needed

A range of beacons can be used; typically, PVC components or metal components or wooden slats are used.

However, it is important to keep in mind that in order to complete the task, you will also need to buy a number of additional tools, the list of which is provided below:

• A bucket or any container for mixing the solution.
• A construction mixer for preparing the mixture and maintaining it in a ready state.
• A set of spatulas of various shapes and sizes, a trowel and a float.
• A rule, a construction ruler, a plumb line, a tape measure and a fishing line for marking the surface.
• Masking tape to limit the working surface.
• Self-tapping screws with dowels and a screwdriver or a screwdriver.
• Brushes, rollers and rags for applying primer and antiseptics.
• Serpyanka.
• Pliers, metal scissors, a screwdriver.
• Construction gloves, glasses and other protective equipment.
• Grinding machine, hammer drill.
• For ease of work, you can take a stepladder or table.
• Film or garbage bags to prevent the solution from getting on the floor.

The set of tools may vary depending on the room’s features and the objectives; the list above is merely a general overview.

Priming

As was previously mentioned, priming receives particular consideration when preparing walls. This is because the primer stops the growth of mold and fungal colonies, strengthens the material’s adhesive qualities, and increases the surface’s resistance to physical impact.

• The primer penetrates deeply into the base of the wall, forming an additional fixing layer.
• In addition, modern examples of primers contain antiseptic and antimicrobial additives that prevent the growth and development of microorganisms.
• Also, primer mixtures can penetrate into the structures and pores in the wall, which allows increasing the strength and wear resistance of the material.

No matter what kind of material is utilized, applying the mixture uses essentially the same technology:

• The primer is applied to the entire surface of the wall with a roller or brush, while it is important to evenly distribute the composition.
• In hard-to-reach places, it is recommended to use brushes of various widths for spot treatment of walls.
• You can also use sprayers.

It takes around a day for the primer’s first coat to completely dry. After that, another layer is put on, and it too needs to dry in a day.

How to plaster walls using beacons

You can move on to the main portion once all of the preparatory work has been finished.

Even those with no experience in building or repair can perform plastering with beacons because it’s a very easy task. Because of this, this option is employed when working complexly to level walls that have significant variations in inclination.

Analysis of wall unevenness

Most of the time, you don’t need any specialized equipment to see the slopes and unevenness of the walls. But in order to get the intended outcome, you must accurately measure every irregularity in the wall.

Apply a regular rule to find the portion of the wall that is the most convex. Attaching it to the wall is sufficient to inspect every depression and protrusion. If required, you can use a standard ruler or a tape measure to measure the depressions.

It suffices to use basic devices to see the deviations in the vertical position. Using a building level or a plumb line, you can determine the slope. It is best to use a laser level if at all possible.

Use the Pythagorean or right angle rules to evaluate the corners’ state. In order to accomplish this, lines that are 1.5 and 2 meters long are positioned on the ground on opposite corners. A 2.5-meter-long hypotenuse should be formed when joining the extreme points. A large departure from this measure suggests that there isn’t a straight angle formed by the walls.

Locating the point on the surface that protrudes the most is also essential. This is required in order to estimate the quantity of material that will be needed to complete the task.

We make the marking of the wall

The following guidelines are followed when applying the coating’s marking:

1. It is necessary to retreat 0.3 m from the corner, it is necessary to retreat 15 centimeters from the floor and ceiling. At the found points, marks should be made, they will serve as a guide for applying the marking.
2. The distance between two vertical lines should not exceed the width of the rule used. Usually this distance is 0.8-1.2 m.
3. First, a rectangle should be applied to the wall (while observing all the indents). At the established points, it is necessary to apply vertical parallel lines, the distance between which will be 0.8-1.2 m.
4. Opposite corners of the rectangle must be connected by diagonal lines.

The proper application of the markings is essential to the accuracy of every step that follows.

Installing fasteners according to the markings

Beacons will be affixed to the fasteners in accordance with the previously applied markings.

1. To install fasteners, holes are made in the wall, in each of which a dowel is then installed, and then screwed in the screws.
2. Fasteners must be installed at points at the corners of the rectangle on the wall (see. the figure above).
3. It is also necessary to install three fasteners on each of the vertical lines along which beacons will be installed. The distance between any two adjacent fasteners must be the same, you can monitor this with a tape measure.
4. A thread or rope with a weight should be pulled between the fasteners. To assess the angle of inclination, a level, a rule and a laser level are used again. If necessary, adjust the depth of installation of the fasteners. Self-tapping screws are tightened so that the caps slightly touch the plumb line, without moving it from its place.
5. After aligning all the screws, the plumb lines are removed.
6. Special fasteners for beacons (kremmer, clip, ear, etc.) are installed on self-tapping screws.). Or simply apply the solution to the screws.

The screw contour needs to be smooth because it will act as a profile for the wall in the future and be the path that the coating leveling work is done along.

Installing beacon profiles on fasteners

The earlier phases involved getting ready to install beacons, which will serve as guides when applying a plaster mixture to level the wall.

Beacons must be installed at a specific distance from the wall using metal, wooden, or PVC strips in order to form a frame.

1. Metal strips must be fastened to screws prepared in the wall.
2. The profile is installed either on special fasteners – ears, creamers, etc.. or on plaster mortar.
3. This should be done carefully, attach to each screw separately, do not try to attach the strip to all the fasteners at once. Having attached to one, hold it while attaching the next one.
4. Having fixed the beacon profiles (strips), apply plaster under the profile between the fasteners and form vertical mounds from the plaster.

The distance between the beacons should be less than the length of the rule being used, but it should still be the same. If required, you can modify the screw fastening’s depth to alter the beacon’s protrusion.

Plastering the wall along the beacons

Plastering can start after all of the beacon structure’s components have been installed and the markings have been applied.

It is very simple to plaster a wall using beacons; just fill in the spaces between the beacons one at a time.

There are five main stages to the entire work process:

At the first stage, the material is sprayed onto the wall. This procedure is carried out using a trowel or spatula. The solution is applied to a wide spatula and then distributed over the wall. We start from the bottom and take an area no more than one meter.

Leveling slopes and corners

Slopes and corner surfaces are usually sealed at the end of the main work. Apply the same methodology for plastering corners as you would for the wall’s main surface when applying mortar.

1. For this purpose, a rule is used that is set to two parallel beacons along the surface being treated.
2. You can also apply the mixture after removing the beacons and sealing the grooves. In this case, it is necessary to establish a rule along the wall that is already leveled.
3. The mortar is applied to the corner of the wall, and then leveled using an angle spatula or a profile corner with a grid applied to it. This allows you to evenly distribute the mixture in the corner section of the wall, and also prevents the occurrence of unevenness and roughness.

The following algorithm is used to align the wall sections that are below the slope, which are typically the areas around windows and doors:

1. apply a protective film around the surface to be treated.
2. Near the window or door, fix an additional beacon in a vertical position, and also attach a bar to control the thickness of the applied solution.
3. The solution is applied evenly to the wall, and then, using a rule, it is distributed over the surface. In this case, the rule should rest against the bar and the beacon.

After the solution has dried, finish the surface’s grouting and alignment.

In what cases should beacons be removed and why

Construction and repair experts advise removing beacons while work is being done.

They are removed, though not right away, once the solution has been applied. This process should be carried out when the plaster has set slightly but not hardened.

The beacons that cover the whole wall are mechanically removed. The following can be applied to this:

• powerful magnets,
• pliers,
• strong scissors.

In this instance, the primary duty is to meticulously eliminate the beacons from the wall’s entire surface.

When working on a project, a lot of people wonder why certain components must be eliminated at the end.

[ads_color_box color_text=#444, color_background=»#c4dcff»]Beacons are typically taken down for the following reasons:[/ads_color_box]

• If metal elements were installed in the wall, there is a high risk of rust due to moisture penetration. Rust can protrude outward, which will significantly spoil the appearance of the wall finish.
• In some cases, beacons can move away from the walls after some time under the influence of external physical factors. Beacons installed in the wall form wide areas with cracks when moving away, which are quite difficult to seal.
• When performing further repair work, there is a risk of hitting a metal strip. If the dowel collides with an obstacle, extensive cracks and chips may appear on the wall.

It is customary to remove the beacons ahead of time after plastering and leveling the surfaces in order to prevent these unpleasant elements.

Important: If ceramic materials are being used, the only exceptions may be gypsum beacons and other kinds of guides. In these situations, the beacons don’t damage the coating and can stay in the wall.

Beacons are a simple method for plastering walls that, when done right, produce a polished, seamless finish. You can accomplish fantastic results on your own by adhering to every step, from laying out the beacons to making the last adjustments. Plaster application will be guided and uneven surfaces can be avoided if the beacons are positioned and leveled correctly.

Don’t forget to take your time during the application and preparation phases. When it comes to how your walls turn out in the end, accuracy in marking and positioning the beacons will pay off. Take your time plastering; wait for each coat to fully cure before applying the next. This will guarantee a polished and long-lasting finish.

Finally, utilize the accompanying checklist to record each step. You’ll be more organized and won’t overlook any important information if you do this. You can confidently finish your plastering job and get great results if you have patience and pay attention to detail.

Putting up walls on beacons is a simple, yet efficient way to get a level, seamless finish. From marking and positioning the beacons to applying and completing the plaster, this do-it-yourself tutorial takes you through every step. With a well-defined checklist and useful advice, you can handle the procedure with assurance and guarantee a polished outcome.

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