Stone is a common material in indoor and outdoor buildings, widely used in walls, floors, and other places. As a natural material, stone has unparalleled advantages. Throughout, natural textures, shapes, colors, textures, etc. formed based on natural changes have been good materials for conveying emotions and interpreting natural beauty. The designer has added a small detail in the treatment of wall stones – leaving gaps. Stone seams can be seen everywhere in hotel lobbies, sales offices, residential areas, as well as on walls and floors. In large spaces, the details of stone seams are applied with great precision.
What are the benefits of leaving gaps in wall stone? What are the drawbacks? It can be analyzed from the following factors:
1、 Visual factors
1. Due to factors such as the material of the stone, the backlog of the stone packaging, and the large size of the stone, unevenness occurs during the close fitting of the stone. Leaving gaps will effectively alleviate this problem.
2. After leaving seams, the problem of color difference between stones can be alleviated or avoided, achieving a natural transition of color difference.
3. After leaving a joint, it can avoid the collapse of edges and corners between stones.
4. If the pattern of the stone itself is not obvious, or it is close to a solid color, without seam treatment, the entire space will appear weak, paste into a ball, and the effect is similar to the effect presented by coating. Therefore, at this time, it is necessary to use seam treatment to make the entire space strong.
2、 Construction factors
1. After the joint treatment, the installation of large areas of stone is more convenient and fast.
2. Because we all know that the most common quality issues with dry hanging stone on walls are uneven surfaces, non verticality, and non squareness of corners. After sealing, these problems can be easily avoided and unnecessary rework can be avoided. The relationship between whether there are gaps in dry hanging stone and the deformation of the material caused by thermal expansion and cold shrinkage is not significant, because dry hanging is different from wet sticking and does not have the effect of mortar and adhesive. Normal thermal expansion and cold shrinkage will not have a significant impact on the stone.
3、 Cost factors
1. Multiple processes such as leaving gaps and grinding edges on the overall stone surface of walls or floors can lead to increased processing costs, This cost will be included in the stone processing fee, usually charged at 5-8 yuan/meter. Calculated based on the length of the gaps in the large area of the wall, it can also increase project profits appropriately.
2. If the gap is too small and needs to be pointed, it can also increase the cost of the project and achieve better decorative effects. The biggest advantage of seam retention is to avoid collisions at the edges and corners of the stone, as well as unevenness and straightness on the surface. Therefore, the three most common seam retention methods can be obtained at present.
4、 Analysis of the Disadvantages of Wall Stone Seams
1. For small spaces, it is not suitable for seam treatment. People in small spaces are close enough to the wall to easily feel the roughness of the seam. If the seam is not suitable and happens to be above or below the person’s line of sight (1300~1500mm), then the fixed steel frame inside will definitely be visible through the seam, and the significance of seam retention will be lost.
2. Although the seam leaving treatment avoids common problems such as color difference, insufficient flatness and verticality, and large and small closure joints, the size of the gaps needs to be strictly controlled. If the size of the gaps is not uniformly controlled, the final effect can be imagined.
3. The seam leaving treatment has a higher level of challenge for workers’ craftsmanship and construction process management. For tight joints, dry hanging adhesive can be applied at will, but for seam retention treatment, the dosage of dry hanging adhesive needs to be strictly controlled. Otherwise, if too much is added and not cleaned in a timely manner in the later stage, it will be difficult to remove it after it solidifies, ultimately forming a noticeable adhesive mark that affects the appearance of the final product. Based on the above analysis of “advantages” and “disadvantages”, it is ultimately stated that whether wall stone needs to be left with joints should be comprehensively balanced by the size of the space, the texture style of the stone, and the length of the construction period.
5、 Stitching process
① Process characteristics: Improvement method for stone “direct contact” closure; No need to grind the edges of the stone; Reserve a 5mm gap between the horizontal arrangement of stone materials
② Decoration effect: concise, neat, orderly, and deepen the wall’s linear effect
③ Applicable area: wall surface
④ Applicable material: stone
When laying and handing over wall stones, it is necessary to leave gaps in the stones that have a connection, that is, the stones should be offset by a certain size, leaving a clear gap. This not only facilitates construction, but also ensures the integrity of the stone. At the same time, it alleviates the monotony of the “direct touch” form of flat effect and enriches the visual effect of the wall layer.
