How to install beacons on the wall

It is well known that plastering walls and floors implies the mandatory installation of special landmarks (the so-called "beacons"), allowing you to control the level of the applied composition. That is why you can begin to work on plastering surfaces only after becoming familiar with how to install beacons on the wall.

The guides used for arranging wall beacons are made, as a rule, from metal strips or corners of one or another size; moreover, their parameters are selected taking into account the thickness of the working layer of the plaster subsequently applied. Sometimes the lighthouses after leveling the mortar are not removed from under it, which is often practiced when plastering walls prepared for subsequent tiling.

Materials and tools

To install wall beacons you may need the following materials and tools:

• putty used to fix beacons on the wall;
• spatula suitable size;
• bucket with water;
• rule with base length from 1.5 to 3 meters;
• profile level with base about one meter;
• roulette;
• marker.

The preparation of the walls for plastering involves laying vertical marks on them indicating the locations of future lighthouses.

In the course of the marking operations should take into account the width of the rule with which you have to work.

The number of metal strips required for the preparation of guides should be chosen with the expectation that in addition to the main marking, in some places of the surface to be plastered, additional (intermediate) beacons will need to be installed. Their location is usually chosen at points that are equally spaced from the installation sites of the main beacons.

Fastening beacons on the wall

The fastening of metal lighthouses on the wall is done using putty, which you will need to prepare in advance. This solution is prepared on the basis of standard building mixtures, by mixing them with water in classical proportions.

In addition, to secure the beacons can be used and ready putty, marketed in standard packaging. When choosing a mixture, pay attention to the area of ​​use of your composition. Of the variety of existing materials, preference should be given to mixtures intended for the filling of walls of brick or concrete.

The procedure for fixing beacons on the wall is extremely simple and consists of the following:

1. First of all, it is necessary to clean a section of the wall with dirt and vertical marks on it indicating the locations of the beacons.
2. After that, it should be thoroughly moistened with water and treated with the usual soil composition.
3. Then, using a spatula on the markup, several small “stains” of the finished putty are applied to the wall.
4. And finally, the beacons themselves are installed on these solution islands (they are buried in them).

Alignment of installed beacons

Before you install the beacons on the wall, you must evaluate the degree of verticality of the surface that serves as the basis for their application. To conduct such an assessment, you will need a special rule with a level embedded in it or any other (similar to this) measuring tool.

Thus, based on the readings of your measurements, you can change the thickness of the “spots” under the beacons installed at various points on the wall surface.

After fixing the beacon on the wall, do not forget to once again check the accuracy of the installation and adjust its position (if necessary). To do this, you will need to attach the level to the beacon and, gently pressing it down, to achieve the vertical position of the guide. Upon completion of the alignment of the beacon, do not forget to remove from it all the excess solution.

Before the beginning of the surface plastering, it is necessary to pause the work, during which the beacons will be able to firmly fix themselves in the putty.

Installation of intermediate beacons

If it is impossible to use a long rule for the installation of beacons, it will be necessary to reduce the distance between control points by installing additional (intermediate) landmarks.

To prepare them, you should divide the distance between adjacent beacons into two equal halves and apply appropriate markings on the wall. Immediately, we note that it will be possible to do this only after the putty used for fixing the main beacons has dried.

Then a “spot” of the solution is applied to the resulting vertical markup, after which an additional beacon is pressed into it. To align it, you can use the same rule that was previously used for arranging the main beacons.

Video

Beacons can be installed in such an alternative way: