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The very word "alabaster" came to us from Greece. It suggests that such material was also used in antiquity. At times Ancient Greece so called calcite (calcium carbonate). Now this word is mainly used for naming gypsum - calcium diquasulfate.

It is not clear to many: what is the difference between gypsum and alabaster? Gypsum is very soft, it is easy to scratch it even with a fingernail. Calcite is more durable, it can only be damaged with the help of steel tools. Calcite alabaster reacts with hydrochloric acid, gypsum in this case will be inert. Nowadays, the term "alabaster" has no clarifications: it is calcite or gypsum, so we are always talking about the gypsum variety.

Features of gypsum alabaster

Today, the production of gypsum alabaster goes through heat treatment of natural two-water gypsum. It is kept at a temperature of 150 - 180 ° in special apparatus, where the composition of alabaster turns into semi-aqueous gypsum. This product is ground into a fine powder. The degree of grinding affects the scope of the substance. The smallest fraction is medical gypsum, the larger one is molding gypsum, and the largest one is building gypsum.

Technical characteristics of alabaster

Scope of application

Alabaster found its application in everyday life and in construction. The main direction is construction and repair work. Since it is an excellent binder, building alabaster is used to seal cracks, seams, and level surfaces, such as ceilings. The photo and video show how easy it is to perform these works and how great the result looks. Just remember that it does not withstand high humidity, because of this drawback it can only be used in rooms with a humidity of no more than 60%. To improve its resistance to moisture, the surface treated with alabaster is coated with paint and varnish pastes. If you have to apply alabaster dough on a surface that strongly absorbs moisture, it must first be treated with a primer. Often, alabaster is used as an additive that can accelerate the setting of the solution.

Benefits of alabaster

Among the main advantages of alabaster is its environmental safety. This material from natural ingredients cannot be harmful to health. It perfectly absorbs noise, does not burn, does not pass water. Its fire resistance allows it to be used to create fire protection coatings. Alabaster coatings look even, resistant to cracking.

Features of use

Alabaster is easy to use. However, everything must be done very quickly, because the alabaster solution begins to harden 6 minutes after dilution with water. And after half an hour it will become completely solid. Therefore, those who have already encountered a similar problem and are wondering: how to breed alabaster should heed the recommendations and make solutions in portions. After all, the thickened solution is not suitable. Additives in the form of wood glue or wallpaper glue will extend the life of the mortar a little, and you will have a little more time to work.

Preparing the solution is in many ways similar to the principle of working with wallpaper glue. It is necessary to mix the alabaster in the proportion of 1 kg of the substance per 0.6 l of water. The finished solution should resemble sour cream. It must be applied immediately after mixing, no breaks can be made. Reviews of those who often use this substance suggest that immediately after finishing work, thoroughly rinse all tools and containers. Otherwise, the rapid hardening of alabaster will make them unsuitable for further use.

Nowadays, there is a huge variety of powders, mixtures, some intermediate materials used to make the final building product. The choice of one or the other depends on the goals set for the implementation. So, one of the well-known and popular materials is alabaster.

General concept, properties

Those who are faced with the question of what alabaster is should know that it is an environmentally friendly non-flammable natural material, which has first-class sound insulation and excellent water resistance. Generally speaking, building alabaster has the following properties:

• Fast hardening (sets after 5 minutes and reaches full hardening in half an hour)
• Crack resistance
• Maximum possible evenness of the product on the surface
• High level of sound insulation

Most often he white color, but options for alabaster of yellow, light gray and even green, pinkish shades are possible. In the course of working with alabaster, some of its features should be taken into account. So, in addition to the rate of solidification, it must be borne in mind that after drying, the alabaster slightly increases in volume. Another, no less interesting detail is that alabaster does not stick to rubber at all, and therefore some even advise to breed it in an ordinary ball.

If it is planned to breed alabaster in a bucket, then the container is first lined with polyethylene. Otherwise, you will have to throw out the bucket if even a little alabaster gets on the walls of the container. Store such material in places inaccessible to moisture. To date, three types of alabaster are known:

• Normal hardening
• slow curing
• Fast hardening

Gypsum and alabaster - the main differences

Most people who are inexperienced in this matter naively believe that gypsum and alabaster are one and the same. In reality, things are somewhat different. In fact, alabaster is gypsum, which has only undergone serious processing. So, gypsum is ground into powder, and then heated to 180? This powder is nothing but alabaster. It turns back into gypsum when it is mixed with water.

Scope of application

As a rule, alabaster is used mainly in the construction industry, in particular, as a finishing material. A product such as alabaster, the use of which refers specifically to the performance of construction work, is indispensable in the manufacture of drywall panels, dry sheet plaster, stucco moldings and much more. It is known that this material is subsequently quite often subjected to different kind polishing: horsetail processing, filing or scraping. However, if even the slightest contact of the final alabaster product with water is allowed, there will be no trace of polishing - it will fade.

Breeding Technology

Everyone who sooner or later comes across this product should know the basic rules of how to breed alabaster. The technology for preparing alabaster is very similar to the process of diluting glue for wallpapering. In order to properly dilute alabaster, the ratio of product and water should be 1: 0.5, where 1 kg of alabaster falls on half a liter of water.

The resulting mixture is stirred until it reaches the state of "sour cream". After a couple of minutes, you can start using it directly. However, it is worth remembering that the use of alabaster is permissible only immediately after its manufacture. After repeated drying, it is no longer suitable for any type of work. The only way to delay the setting of alabaster is to add 2% animal glue or a solution of lime to the solution.

Modern building materials are diverse and their diversity causes surprise and confusion when choosing. Masters use both new materials and very old ones, which have been known since ancient times, such as gypsum or alabaster.

Often the question arises, is there a difference in the compositions? What mixture to apply in this or that case? To do right choice, it should be understood how gypsum differs from alabaster.

Building mixtures: alabaster and gypsum what is the difference

You can figure out what the difference between alabaster and gypsum is after a detailed study of the methods for obtaining one or another dry mixture and the scope of these compositions.

Gypsum, what is it? Dry composition based on natural natural gypsum stone, extracted from sedimentary rocks, crushed into a fine powder, is called gypsum. It is odorless and unaffected by high temperatures and high humidity. Gypsum is hypoallergenic building material to humans and completely harmless.

Gypsum pretty widely used in Everyday life of people. It is used in construction work, it is the basis for the manufacture of gypsum boards. It is used as finishing material. The most finely ground mixture, powder, is used in medicine, as a fixing material in traumatology and dentistry.

For designers, artists, sculptors, all people involved in creativity and art gypsum universal material allowing to embody the most daring creative ideas. Gypsum stucco is used to decorate the facades of buildings from the outside.

as material gypsum has plasticity. Dries fairly quickly. After drying, the gypsum may slightly increase in volume, this quality should be taken into account. The dry mixture of gypsum is practically not stored due to its hygroscopicity. The ability to absorb moisture and quickly harden inside the package is very high. The composition should be stored in dry rooms.

Alabaster - what is it

Alabaster is the Latin name for the dry mixture from which the vases were made. In a word, alabaster is called rock, which consists of fine-grained gypsum. Alabaster in its composition contains a powder of fine fraction, extracted from gypsum stone.

But in its manufacture use high temperatures, grinded raw materials are fired, the output is a gypsum mixture with new technical specifications. Its second name is building gypsum.

Alabaster becomes the hardest compared to gypsum. The curing of the composition is faster. Choosing alabaster as a composition that levels the surface of the walls, you can plaster the walls in twenty minutes. Alabaster mixture has several advantages:

• more resistant to high temperatures;
• has the ability to regulate the humidity in the room;
• completely safe for humans.

The use of alabaster in construction and finishing works is widespread. In electrical work for fixing electrical wires due to rapid hardening, it is convenient to use alabaster solution. The use is more expedient for sealing seams, chipped sections of the wall and cracks.

The composition penetrates deeper inside the crack. This means that the binding will more reliable and better. Expose beacons and slopes with alabaster, because the composition has a high hardness and dries quickly. Alabaster is used for puttying walls and structures that enclose or divide a room.

Building plaster, alabaster, use for decorating rooms and production of decorative items. Alabaster, the use of which is widely used in the manufacture of vases, figurines and various crafts being polished. Products are polished according to old methods, using horsetail or scraping.

For better polishing use crushed mother-of-pearl. The only requirement for using items in the interior will be the humidity of the room. With high humidity in the premises, the characteristic properties of alabaster are lost until destruction. And also rather dry air can lead to cracking of the material.

Building gypsum quick-drying composition to change this property into alabaster add polymer impurities. A mixture with various additives has about twelve varieties. One or another composition differs in its hardness and hardening time. The hardened composition of alabaster is light, no changes in volume or shape occur, there is no shrinkage.

The working composition of alabaster is obtained by adding a certain amount of water to a portion of the dry mixture. Any alabaster mortar will be fast-hardening, this must always be remembered.

The solution, which began to harden, cannot be reanimated, it is disposed of. There is a few rules, using which you can avoid unpleasant moments in the preparation and use of the solution:

1. The solution of the alabaster mixture must be prepared so much that it can be used in six minutes. The portion of the finished mixture will be small.
2. Alabaster mix is ​​very difficult to clean off plastic or metal surfaces, therefore, it is better to breed alabaster in a container made of rubber or silicone. If there is no rubber or silicone container at hand, then by covering the dish with a plastic bag, you can use a plastic or metal container.
3. Depending on the application of the building alabaster composition, strictly adhere to the proportions of the dry mixture and water.
4. In order to avoid the formation of lumps of the solution and the appearance of unnecessary air bubbles, it is necessary to add the dry mixture in small portions to the water, constantly stirring.

To perform various construction works, the proportions of the dry mix and water will be different. Wall plastering with a liquid mortar of building gypsum can be done by diluting alabaster in a ratio of 1:1, 500 grams of alabaster and the same amount of water are taken.

The resulting slurry of building gypsum is suitable for leveling the surface of the walls, as well as leveling the surface of the partitions. A thicker solution of alabaster can be obtained in a ratio of 0.5: 1, i.e. there will be 500 grams of water in the composition, and 1 thousand grams of the dry mixture. This composition is recommended to glue plaster molding to walls or ceilings.

For electrical work, a solution of building gypsum is required even thicker. It is this consistency of the composition that will allow you to fix wires or cup holders for sockets and switches in the walls almost instantly. Construction alabaster is diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 2, that is, one part of water and two parts of a dry mixture are taken.

It is necessary to dilute the dry mixture room temperature water. If the water is hot, then the diluted mixture will shorten the hardening time. After completing all work, immediately wash all tools in warm water. Complete drying of the solution on the instruments will not allow it to be cleaned. The composition hardens and sticks to the tools "tightly".

Building material based on natural stone versatile and time tested. Alabaster products and mixtures will not lose their uniqueness. Alabaster is easy to work with. The combination of aesthetics, accessibility, range of applications and high-quality results, building gypsum for a long time will take its high place in the variety of building materials.

For more than one millennium, this unique building material has been used in the construction and repair of premises, for decoration, the manufacture of sculptures and vessels. Alabaster, which is often called building gypsum, is aesthetically pleasing and easy to process.

About the intricacies of breeding alabaster

The main feature of water mixtures with alabaster is their rapid solidification. This circumstance should be taken into account before proceeding with its breeding. In addition, the setting speed leads to the formation of hardened residues of the mixture in containers from under it. Therefore, sometimes it is not easy to remove them from metal buckets and tanks.

To save yourself from mistakes when breeding alabaster, you must:

• prepare the mixture in small portions to prevent it from setting before five minutes
• for breeding, it is better to use containers made of rubber or silicone, which are easy to clean
• put a plastic bag inside the container, the upper edge of which is securely fixed before stirring
• strictly observe the ratio of alabaster and water for the preparation of a specific solution
• pour dry alabaster into water gradually, stirring constantly until a mass is obtained without lumps and bubbles

At what proportions is building gypsum obtained

Building gypsum can be prepared for various finishing operations. For each of them, the regulatory documentation provides for certain requirements for the preparation of an asbestos solution. So, if it is supposed to be used to fill the strobes when performing work related to the laying of electrical wiring, one kilogram of alabaster should be diluted in half a liter of water.

In the case of preparing a plaster mortar based on alabaster and lime, a kilogram of dry powder is diluted in 650 grams of lime mortar or water. A liquid putty mortar, with which uneven walls are leveled, a kilogram of dry building gypsum is poured into a liter of water.

The main thing when breeding alabaster is pouring the dry mixture into water. If this is done in small portions while stirring, the formation of lumps is minimized.

However, a quality solution is also provided:

• using mechanical tools in the form of a drill with nozzles for stirring
• moistening the alabaster while stirring by hand, after which it is intensively stirred with a spatula
• the inadmissibility of diluting the mixture that has seized with a liquid due to loss of quality

The main property of alabaster is the ability to quickly harden, mixing with water. This creates a hard, stone-like surface. Thanks to these properties, he finds wide application in various industries construction, industrial production, art. With its help close up seams in surfaces, openings and roughnesses.

When conducting electrical wiring with alabaster, wires and cables are fixed in specially prepared grooves. They putty walls and other surfaces of premises, various building structures.

However, ordinary alabaster quickly sets and hardens, after which it is not recommended to re-mix it with water. The quality of such a mixture deteriorates sharply.

Experienced craftsmen have their own methods for extending the action of the finished solution. According to one of them, a small amount of wallpaper glue is added to a container with such a solution.

After that, it is tightly closed with a piece polyethylene film. Masters claim that this allows, without losing the quality of the alabaster mixture, to increase its setting time.

Types of alabaster

Different types of alabaster, as a natural mineral for the manufacture of building gypsum, are mined in many countries.

So calcite alabaster is formed by flows of calcareous waters and sediments. It can have various, mostly greenish hues. Breaks down on impact of hydrochloric acid unlike gypsum alabaster.

Gypsum alabaster is the main raw material for the manufacture of gypsum. As a result of its processing at high temperature in special devices, a powder-like binder gypsum for construction is obtained. If it is subjected to finer grinding, the resulting powder can be used for molding operations. Specially purified raw materials are used for the production of gypsum for medical purposes.

There are rare forms of alabaster. In Italy, China and the USA, in addition to white, pink and black alabaster is also mined. There is a reddish and brown alabaster.

The setting time varies:

• fast-hardening, which begins to harden after a couple of minutes and finally sets in a quarter of an hour
• normally hardening with the onset of setting no earlier than six minutes later and the final hardening in half an hour
• hardening slowly, which begins to set no earlier than twenty minutes

For the most part, the powder of modern building gypsum is white. The most applicable in the construction of such gypsum, which is marked G-5, G-6.

This alabaster is widely used for:

• plastering work in dry rooms
• preparation of putty and plaster mixtures according to special recipes
• production of partition panels based on gypsum
• dry plaster sheet
• various types of drywall sheets
• gypsum fiber boards and gypsum boards

Such building gypsum is used where high strength characteristics of the material are not required. Due to the presence of a coarse-grained component, it has lower strength and greater porosity.

To meet the needs of industries that need high-strength molds for casting parts for various purposes, performing special work, it is necessary to opt for alabaster, which is highly durable, marked from G-13 to G-25. Such material complies with modern safety and construction standards.

The cost of quality alabaster

Ordinary building plaster is considered a relatively inexpensive building material, making it extremely popular in the market. It is sold mainly in strong paper multi-layer bags, designed for 5-50 kg. One kilogram of ordinary building gypsum grade G-5 can cost an average of 5-15 rubles.

Alabaster, characterized by high strength, is significantly superior to ordinary building gypsum. They are made from gypsum stone, both using traditional technologies and complex chemical and technological processes.

Therefore, such materials are indispensable for:

• completion of drilled wells in the oil and gas industry
• production of ceramic products and sculptural works
• manufacturing elements decorative design building objects
• in medicine for the manufacture of orthopedic and dental prostheses
• molding castings in the manufacture of jewelry
• high-strength molds for the needs of some industries

Alabaster- this is building plaster, which has a snow-white tint, sometimes gray and pale red. It has a significantly lower hardness, unlike various minerals. Alabaster is a soft material, and in terms of properties it lags behind only talc. Alabaster is used in the manufacture of small sculptures, as well as watch boxes and other crafts. In our shop" Mixes Moscow”(it is located where the building materials market is located near Auchan) there is a lot of this type of material.

How to breed alabaster correctly?

First you need to choose a great alabaster in our store. For example, we sell dry building mixes Eunice Alabaster 5kg. There are purified alabaster mixtures, they are also sold with dirt impurities. The main thing is that it should be noted on the packaging that this is a purified mixture. This composition mixes better and carefully seals holes. Thus, the material will last a long time.

Before diluting the alabaster, you need to take an old rubber ball and cut it into 2 parts. The alabaster lags behind the rubber perfectly and can be removed without problems. In addition, one ball can immediately provide you with containers in two quantities. If you stir this material in ordinary dishes, then you will most likely spoil the solution and you will not be able to use it anymore. The material hardens quickly and after that it is not diluted with water, and the alabaster will harden, the dishes will be damaged.

If, nevertheless, you did not find such a ball, then use a pot or bucket. However, before kneading the alabaster, it is worth laying out the container from the inside with polyethylene. And this must be done so that there are no gaps. In addition, the edges of the plastic film must be hooked onto the bucket itself with rubber twine so that they cannot roll inward. It is clear that if the alabaster gets into the bucket, then they can only be thrown away ...

Mixing alabaster mortar is similar to the procedure for making wallpaper paste. First, the alabaster mixture is poured into a bowl of water. If it is one kilogram of material, then water for the composition will need about 0.5 liters. Everything is thoroughly mixed in order to form a mass similar in consistency to thick sour cream.

After the mixture has been prepared, you need to wait thirty seconds for the components to adhere, and then immediately get to work. Otherwise, the composition will harden, so you will have to do the mixture again. After all the work is completed, you must immediately wash all the tools from the alabaster.