Blocks will cope with the protection of your property. About how the laying of glass blocks is performed with their own hands in the finished opening, read in our master class.
What should be considered when working with glass blocks?
- Glass has a smooth and rather slippery surface. For this reason, all work must be executed extremely gently. The masonry will only then reliably and durable when there are no slightest deviations, both in the vertical and horizontal plane. In addition, non-acceptable seams may hopelessly spoil the appearance of the masonry. And we need to create a beautiful and impeccable surface.
- Anti-vandal effects have narrow openings, which are filled with one next to the glass blocks. Even if the attacker comes to mind to destroy the glass insert, he still will not be able to penetrate this gap into the room. If there is a sufficient number of glass rows in the wall, the room will be due to the extently highlighted, and at the same time the safety of the property will be ensured.
- Glass blocks can fill out openings of any width and height. At the same time, it is necessary to carefully measure the dimensions of the opening. Its sizes must be multiple glass dimensions. To the obtained value you need to add the thickness of the seams (5 mm x, where x is the number of seams) and 1-1.5 cm at the edges in order to be able to align some errors of the opening.
Laying glass blocks. Order of work
If you comply with the recommendations, you will get a really beautiful and high-quality laying of glass blocks. So, let's begin?
Preparation of the opening for glass blocks
How to make a suitable size of the opening, we will not describe here. For example, take the opening, in which one row of glass blocks will be laid. After it is made, gently check its geometry and, if necessary, apply a little plaster on the walls to correct possible defects.
Laying blocks without a solution. Fitting
When the opening is ready, it is advisable to check that the blocks will be laid correctly, and nothing hurts the process. At this stage, you can reveal some shortcomings and fix them. Take blocks and begin to spread them carefully without a solution. In order to obtain a truly accurate picture, special inserts are used, which are responsible for the same thickness of the seams, and at the same time and fix the blocks vertically until the solution freezes.
You need to remember care, because any awkward movement can lead to a drop in glass blocks. And this is very undesirable because they may be damaged. The glass is quite fragile glass.
Making sure to fit that all blocks are freely placed in the opening in their place, carefully take them out from there. To the upper unit can be easily removed, it is not necessary to fix it with a spacer. Gently raising each block strictly up, we will release the opening.
Cooking mortar for masonry
For working with glass blocks, special solutions are developed that are sold in the form of dry mixes in construction stores. If for some reason you can't or do not want to get a ready-made mixture, you can mix sample small sand and cement 3: 1.5. The solution should not be liquid, as the glass does not absorb water. Therefore, a ready-made mixture should be more like a thick separator sour cream or oil. Remember that excess water will not help when working with glass blocks. And it will be difficult to work with a discharge solution.
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Laying glass blocks
The finished construction mixture is applied to the base and side faces of the glass unit. Each subsequent block is installed on the already familiar remote spacers. At the same time, it is necessary to carefully and scrupulously check the position of the elements by the construction level. Breaks are undesirable, because after hardening the solution, the lower blocks of correction are no longer amenable.
The most responsible moment is the insertion of the last block. So that the masonry is not collapsed, it is desirable to resort to help assistant, which from the inside of the room will support the glass. After this element is invested in the opening, a remote space service is supplied under it, after which the entire design is aligned in terms of level.
Spatula and Kelma help position blocks. During the work, the laid glass blocks need to be wiped with a wet towel. It will save you from excessive care to remove a frozen solution from blocks after completing the masonry.
When the solution freezes, spacers are removed. After that, you can start finishing work on slopes.
Shutkish seams
When the gray color of the cement solution does not suit you, you can use the colored grouts that the seams are expanded. In this case, some part of the solution between blocks is removed, and the formed space is filled with a grouting mixture. At the same time, you need to ensure that the holes are filled, which remain after removing remote spaces.