Any plastering project must aim for a flawlessly smooth wall surface, and installing beacons correctly is the key to this goal. Your walls will be ready for painting or other finishing touches if your plaster layers are even and consistent, which is ensured by these guides.
We’ll go over the necessary procedures and offer helpful advice on how to set up beacons for plastering in this post. Understanding the subtleties of this process will help you complete your wall finishing projects with a professional appearance, regardless of experience level.
Aspect | Details |
Beacon Placement | Beacons should be positioned vertically and spaced evenly across the wall, ensuring they are aligned and level. |
Securing Beacons | Fix the beacons firmly with mortar or special adhesive to prevent movement during plastering. |
Distance Between Beacons | The distance between beacons should match the length of your plastering rule for smooth application. |
Checking Levels | Use a spirit level to confirm that beacons are correctly aligned for a flat and even plaster surface. |
Plaster Application | Apply plaster between the beacons, using them as a guide to achieve an even layer. |
Plaster beacon installation is an essential step toward a flawlessly smooth and even wall finish. This post will walk you through the key methods, pointers, and typical traps to watch out for so that your plastering project produces walls of a high caliber. Comprehending the subtleties of beacon installation can simplify and improve the accuracy of your work, regardless of your level of experience as a do-it-yourselfer.
- What are beacons and why are they needed
- Installation technology
- Which beacons to choose
- Preparation
- Installing metal beacons
- The device of beacons from a working solution
- Video on the topic
- plastering, installing beacons with your own hands #shorts
- Beacon in 5 minutes on screws 😉
- An excellent way to install beacons for plastering walls with your own hands.
- "Ideal surface: 6 secrets of installing beacons for plastering"
- A proven method for installing beacons!
What are beacons and why are they needed
Beacons are a type of rail that are used to level the plaster mortar along the wall according to a guideline. You won’t have any trouble leveling the surface with your hands and it will take less time if you place them strictly in one vertical plane.
Beacon installation will require some tweaking, of course, but the effort now will pay off handsomely later on and improve the caliber of the wall’s decorative finishing.
In the past, plaster guides would frequently create the same cross-section using wooden bars, gypsum, or the alignment solution. Metal beacons that considerably speed up and facilitate the work are now available for purchase.
But as we will discuss a little later, they have certain drawbacks that keep many masters wanting to use the outdated techniques.
Installation technology
We will focus on surface preparation, tool selection, and consumables before describing how to set beacons for plaster.
Which beacons to choose
You must first choose whether to use pre-made wooden or metal guides or to create your own on your own using a plaster solution.
Every technique has benefits and drawbacks of its own:
- In the first case, the work will take less time, but the beacons will have to be removed from the plaster layer after leveling the surface, followed by sealing the resulting defects.
Kindly take note. The answer to the question of whether beacons can be left in plaster is no, according to conscientious craftsmen, because beacons rust with time and can leave surface stains. Furthermore, the solution may crack along the metal guides as a result of abrupt temperature changes. Though there is little chance of such an outcome in dry rooms that are continuously heated.
- The method of making beacons from mortar is more labor-intensive and time-consuming, but you will not have to do extra work to extract them.
- Wooden beacons are almost never used today, since wood has the ability to absorb moisture and deform, which negatively affects the quality of alignment. They are actively used only when finishing wooden houses with clay plaster.
Watch the video on how to set beacons under plaster to help you decide.
Preparation
A building level (ideally a laser one), a trowel, a spatula, and two rules—a long and a short one—are required for the task at hand. The future beacons will be spaced 10–20 cm apart, depending on how long the short beacon is that will be used to level the mortar.
A big bucket, dowel nails, a roller for primer, a hammer drill, and a drill with a nozzle for mixing mortar are also essential. The walls must be ready before plaster beacons are installed.
The following steps are part of the preparation process:
- Inspection of the surface to identify gross defects and deviations from the level;
- If mortar drips or protruding masonry elements are found, they are knocked down using a chisel and hammer;
- After this, the surface is cleaned of dust and must be primed to ensure good adhesion of the plaster mortar to it.
This is of great importance! If this step is neglected, there is a chance that the plaster will eventually fall off the wall. Make sure to prime the walls prior to installing the beacons if you do not want to have to start over and repair everything in the near future.
Installing metal beacons
Ready-made beacons are made of galvanized metal and have a perforated profile in the shape of an L or T. The metal is protected from corrosion by a galvanized layer, but it is simple to damage this layer during the installation or leveling process. As a result, rust may eventually appear. For this reason, it is advised to remove the profiles from the plaster after it has set.
Make sure the beacons you purchase are sufficiently rigid and level. Products made of thin metal may bend when plastering, degrading the finish’s quality.
It’s now time to teach you how to set beacons for plastering; a thorough explanation and video will make this task easy for you to complete.
Therefore, you must first draw vertical lines on the wall to indicate where the future beacons will be placed. The first one should be positioned 20–30 cm away from the corner, and each one after that should be recessed from the preceding one by the rule’s length, minus 10–30 cm. For novices, working with a step between beacons of no more than 1.5–2 meters is most convenient.
The beacons’ reference points now need to be adjusted based on the level. This is an extremely careful and responsible job.
The guidelines that follow will assist you in doing it correctly:
- On the drawn lines, stepping back 20 cm from the ceiling, drill several holes for installing reference points – dowel nails. For a wall 2.5-2.7 m high, 5-7 such holes are enough;
- Hammer the dowels into all the holes, screw the screws into the extreme upper and lower ones;
- Stretch the fishing line between the screws in all directions: vertically, horizontally and diagonally;
- Determine the most protruding section of the wall;
- Using a level and a screwdriver, with which the screws are screwed into the dowel or unscrewed from it, achieve such a position that all the stretched threads are located in the same vertical plane and are at a minimum distance from the protruding section for plaster;
- Screw the screws into all other dowels so that their heads are at the same level with the vertically stretched fishing line. This way you will achieve their location in the same plane. After finishing the work, check the correctness again with a level and, if necessary, adjust their position.
This will answer the question of how to install beacons for plaster correctly quickly and easily, even if it takes a lot of time and patience. All that’s left to do is position the profiles against the screw heads so that they rest against them the whole length of the way, then use mortar to secure them to the wall.
In order to accomplish this, heaps of the pre-prepared mortar are placed in between the reference points, a beacon is positioned, and the screw heads are pressed with a long rule while being sure they are in the proper vertical position. The surplus mortar sticks out through the perforations.
After the solution has solidified, the guides are secured in place using dowels or are further coated on both sides to ensure that the solution stays inside the beacons.
Recommendation: Since gypsum and alabaster dry much faster than cement mixtures, use them for fastening to shorten installation times.
The application of beacon plastering is a discussion for another time. Here, we would like to remind you to remove the guides from the leveled wall once the solution has set but not fully hardened.
This shouldn’t be too hard; all you have to do is remove the new plaster from any edges, reveal the beacon’s end, and then slowly and cautiously pull it off the wall.
Reusing the product is unlikely because it will undoubtedly distort during disassembly. However, the cost is not so high as to negate this.
After removing any remaining alabaster, the longitudinal grooves left by the beacons are moistened with water from a spray bottle and sealed with the primary solution. This requires first unscrewing the screws.
The device of beacons from a working solution
In this instance, the first step is the same as it was in the previous example, which involves placing landmarks for beacons.
Then, we move forward as follows:
- Mix the solution and apply it in heaps to the protruding heads of the screws;
- When it sets slightly, remove the excess protruding beyond the heads;
- When the resulting marks have hardened well, place a long rule or a flat wooden lath vertically against them and throw the solution into the space between it and the wall;
- Tap the lath with a hammer along its entire length to align the resulting strip of solution, wait until it begins to set and carefully remove it;
- If there are voids and cavities left on the homemade beacon, rub them with a float;
- Repeat the procedure for all reference points.
It is easier to do this if you have metal PP profiles. Simply toss the solution along the entire height between the reference points, lubricate the inside of the profiles with oil, and press the profiles into the solution until their inner surface makes contact with the screw heads. To ensure that the solution is distributed evenly, cut the profile slightly shorter than the necessary length and move it up and down.
After some time, the profile needs to be carefully removed.The excess solution on the sides needs to be removed. Even plaster beacons are included; these don’t need to be taken down once the wall’s entire plane has been leveled.
The video will help you understand how to install beacons for plaster if there are any parts of the description that you are still unsure about.
Plaster beacon installation is a simple but essential step toward smooth, even walls. By carefully attaching these guides, you can prevent common problems like uneven surfaces or different thicknesses and guarantee that the plaster follows a consistent line.
Even though the procedure seems complicated, anyone can learn it with a little perseverance. Making sure the beacons are precisely aligned and taking precise measurements are crucial. These minor adjustments can have a significant impact on the outcome.
Plastering itself becomes a lot simpler after the beacons are installed. With the help of the beacons, which act as a trustworthy guide, you can apply plaster quickly and evenly, creating walls that look professional and are both structurally sound and aesthetically pleasing.