Wall level beacons

Today we’ll talk in detail about how to install beacons for wall plaster. Perforated beacons have been used for over 10 years. Before their appearance, various substitutes were used. Quite often, straight vertical stripes were made from the solution using the rule and level. After hardening, walls were plastered over these makeshift lighthouses.

If someone did it now, it would be ridiculous, but then it was in the order of things. Also, many for this purpose used various slats and scraps of solid and even materials and even pipes with corners. Now it has become much more comfortable to work.

For those who do not understand at all in construction, I will explain what a beacon is. To facilitate and better work in the plaster, special metal profiles are used, called perforated beacons, made of steel.

These beacons allow plastering without such jambs as lack of level and curved corners. Lighthouse plastering significantly increases the speed of work in the long run.

For example, when plastering is generally without beacons, the average plaster makes 15-20 square meters per working day. And if you make plaster on finished lighthouses, you can do up to 30-40 square meters. The only catch is that it takes time to install the beacons, their hardening and subsequent removal.

To summarize the pros and cons of using lighthouses for plastering walls.

Positive features include:

1. High quality of work performed, the walls are perfectly smooth.
2. Easier operation after installing beacons.
3. Faster work on large objects.
4. Lack of waves and navels.

The disadvantages include the following:

1. Higher material consumption.
2. Work experience required.
3. After the plaster has hardened, beacons must be removed.

Kinds

At present, metal profile beacons are used. As a rule, they are made of galvanized steel, but it often happens that they come across cheap, beacons made of iron. There are also certain types of colored lighthouses, the paint avoids corrosion due to oxidation of the metal.

The main dimensions of perforated beacons:

1. 6 mm beacon. It is he who is used for plastering walls. It has a length of 270 and 300 cm.
2. 9 mm thick beacon. It is rarely used for plaster, as it increases the consumption of material. Very often used for screeding. Due to its greater strength it is used for places of a large layer of mortar. It has the same dimensions in length as the beacon above.

Fastening and subsequent plastering

We need the following set of tools:

• level;
• generally better than several sizes;
• scissors for metal;
• putty knife;
• bucket for solution;
• kapron thread;
• hammer;

There are two main options for securing beacons:

1. On special fasteners.
2. On a gypsum mortar.

The first method is cleaner and faster, but it is not effective if you need to fix the lighthouse on a very curved wall, plus everything is more expensive. At present, the method of attaching to gypsum mortar is more popular, and we will consider it in more detail.

Consider all the points:

1. Cooking the walls. It is necessary to repel all the irregularities and then prime everything.
2. Cut the beacons of the right lengthusing a grinder or scissors for metal.
3. We make notes for future lighthouses according to the size of the rule. We start from the corner. If we have a rule size of 150 cm for plaster, then we draw dashes through 135-140 cm, later I will explain why not end to end.
4. On the first corner, we make small digs vertically plasters in 10-15 cm.
5. We put a beacon. Using a long or small level with a long rule, set the beacon. We apply the level, and according to it, where you need to press or drag the beacon. We make sure that there are no excesses and failures.
6. We remove excess solution, gloss over the beacon. Once again, check the beacon.
7. Repeat the same procedure. in another corner.
8. After the corner beacons have hardened, pull the thread (lace). This must be done at least three heights. The lace must not be attached to the lighthouse, but to the dowels on the side of the lighthouse, so as not to tear it. The lace should be well stretched.
9. Using the stretched lace as reference points, set the rest of the beacons. The lighthouse should not touch the rope 1 mm (literally 1 mm). After, we check the rule so that there are no navels and dips, without shifting the space next to the lace. We also cover the beacons.
10. After drying, clean the lighthouses from protruding plaster.
11. Apply plaster and equate it with beacons. In the framework of this article, unfortunately, we can not separately delve into the application of plaster.
12. After hardening the plaster (2-3 hours), we remove the beacons and plaster the furrows. If the beacons are not removed they may begin to rust.

Important! Do not try to set all the beacons separately and do not try to set the middle beacons in level, the nonsense will come out. Without shoelaces you can’t make a plane.

Instead of a long or small level, you can use a laser:

1. We repeat the points on the preparation and marking of the places of lighthouses.
2. We set the level at 40 cm from the wall in the corner.
3. Turn on the vertical line.
4. We make the line parallel to the wall, for this we align the distance of the line to the wall at two angles.
5. Using a tape measure, we find the place where the minimum distance from the line to the wall. Suppose we have it 37 cm.
6. We take a rail longer than 50 cm and make an even line on it at a distance of 38 cm (distance to the nearest place plus the thickness of the lighthouse with a margin).
7. If we don’t have too many beacons, say 3-5, then you can immediately make a dig and put the beacons on. You can take your time and make one beacon each.
8. We take the rail and push or pull the lighthouse so that the laser line and the line on the rail coincide, and so at different points of the lighthouse along the entire length.
9. Further, after drying, we also plaster the walls and remove the beacons.

In order to carefully remove the beacons, they need to be thoroughly tapped with a hammer. Then we simply pull them out and cover the formed gap. At one object, we cut them out with a grinder, it turned out a strob. But this is from the category of works for a perfectionist.

Perforated beacons are very cheap material. Depending on the manufacturer and destination, the average price ranges from 20 to 100 rubles apiece.

In this article, we talked in detail about lighthouses for wall alignment. And you have learned all the necessary information for successful work on plastering walls.