Concrete ceiling - a great option for the severe and brutal style of the loft (26 photos)

The concrete ceiling in the interior of the room is a modern trend in design art. Previously, concrete was used only as a rough finish, requiring plastering and painting, but now the situation has changed radically and this building material is used to finish walls and ceilings in the bathroom, bathroom, guest room. The fact is that the use of concrete in the interior as a finishing material helps to shade bright colors and textures. Its advantage is an excellent combination with metal and wood products. A few years ago, few could have imagined that in a flat you could just leave a concrete cover without any decoration. This could only be imagined in the garage or in the workshops, but the popularity of concrete as a finishing material gradually increased due to the great demand for the loft style, minimalism, and industrial.

What is the popularity of concrete?

This brutal material in the hands of a designer can turn into an attractive and aesthetic. It will not yield to ceramics or stone.

The main advantages of concrete include:

• availability;
• not very high cost;
• fire safety;
• resistance to moisture, mold, fungi.

Concrete coating gives conciseness and rigor to the room, bright spots in the form of paintings or photos look great against its background, but you should not use concrete to decorate children's rooms, it puts too much pressure on the psyche of the child with its dullness and rudeness.

Since it is not very practical to make ceilings from real concrete in apartments, it is possible to imitate this material. Apply decorative concrete slabs, decorative paint and plaster, which mimic concrete surfaces, architectural concrete, microcement. The combination of architectural concrete and microcement will create a real concrete screed effect with color transitions and a characteristic surface roughness.

Important points when creating a concrete ceiling

The technology of pouring the ceiling with concrete is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance, and the practicality of such a ceiling leaves no doubt, because the concrete ceiling makes the room stronger and more durable. Among the minuses can be noted the considerable weight of concrete and the duration of the work.

Before work, it is necessary to clean, primer, seal cracks in the ceiling and carefully calculate the thickness of concrete, taking into account the load that the surface will have to withstand. If the overlap will have a thickness of less than 15 cm, then it is reinforced with metal reinforcement. The reinforcing material is laid crosswise and its joints are welded. Moisture-proof plywood and supporting boards are used for formwork. Filling is quite simple, especially if it is carried out by two people. The work is carried out from the corners, along the way they align and remove air bubbles from the mass. For 2 months, the ceiling canvas is left to dry together with the formwork. If you remove the formwork earlier, then cracks will appear on the ceiling and the integrity of the surface will be compromised.

Warming

Many owners of loft-style living quarters think about how to insulate a concrete ceiling. Since the ceiling is the floor of the next floor or attic, residents of the last floors or one-story houses can insulate it from the outside. Others have to insulate their ceilings from the inside. This can be done using a frame and frameless design. The choice of scheme depends on the type of insulation, the height of the ceiling.

Frameless insulation

With the help of a frameless design, thermal insulation is provided, while the ceiling practically does not lose height. With this scheme, rigid heat-insulating materials are used, which are firmly mounted on the ceiling, and then the finish is performed. The frame structure provides comprehensive protection for the concrete ceiling due to the presence of layers of heat, sound, hydro, vapor barrier, but the frame method of insulation reduces the height of the ceilings by at least 7 cm.

When choosing thermal insulation, you should pay attention to the following characteristics:

• resistance to mold and mildew;
• light weight;
• moisture resistance;
• heat resistance;
• environmental friendliness.

There are a large number of heat-insulating materials of organic and inorganic origin and every day there are more and more of them. The choice depends on the height of the ceilings, the desire of the buyer and his financial capabilities.

You can choose a foam or its varieties (polyvinyl chloride, polyurethane foam, polystyrene foam). You should choose a material with low thermal conductivity. When choosing polystyrene, you need to remember that it does not absorb noise.

Before warming the concrete ceiling from the inside, it is necessary to remove all irregularities (alignment), then primer the surface and seal all cracks with cement.

Ceiling waterproofing is performed using insulating means of deep penetration. It can be bitumen or a polymer mixture. When the waterproofing dries, mark the sheets so that there are no narrow strips or small insets of insulation. Foam sheets are attached to the marking with a sealant, joining the sheets tightly to each other and to the walls.

When the work on aligning the joints is completed, the ceiling is allowed to dry (24 hours). After drying, a fiberglass reinforcing mesh is placed on top of the foam onto a thin PVA adhesive layer with an allowance of 5 cm stripes on top of each other and on the walls. No sagging or bubbles should be allowed. After leveling and fixing the reinforcing mesh, they proceed to the main fastening of the insulation to the ceiling with the help of mushroom hollows. The result is a flat surface, which is then leveled with gypsum or a cement mixture, and painted.

Instead of solid insulation, stone wool is also used, but the process of insulation becomes more difficult to perform, since fibrous insulation is difficult to fix.

Mineral wool frame thermal insulation

This method of warming a concrete ceiling is more expensive and more complicated, but still it is the most common one.

The ceiling must be cleaned from all delaminations, worn parts, then primed with a latex solution. When the primer dries, seal and putty cracks, and smooth the rest of the surface with a cement-based mixture.

After hardening, the ceiling is waterproofed with a penetrating waterproofing agent. For vapor barrier, dense polyethylene is mounted on the frame. The frame is made of drywall or antiseptic treated wooden blocks, which are fixed with self-tapping screws. Insulation sheets are located between the frame and the concrete base. After filling with a heater the entire surface of the ceiling, another layer of film is laid under the frame. Then, drywall, siding or decorative tiles (depending on the material chosen) are attached to the frame of the insulated ceiling, and finishing is carried out if necessary.

If the loft style is made out, then there is no need to hide communications. Heating radiators, pipes, ventilation, electrical wiring will only complement and emphasize the style of the room.

Finish

How to cover a concrete ceiling, everyone decides for his own taste. There are several options for finishing a concrete ceiling.

Whitewash

This is a simple and low-budget way. Lime or chalk that is diluted with water will be required. To completely paint the entire area of ​​the ceiling, it will need to be processed two or three times. In this case, you get a perfectly smooth white surface. If you want the ceiling to look different you need to add a pigment of suitable color to the lime. Cover the ceiling with whitewashing is better with a spray gun. The disadvantage of whitewashing is its fragility and reaction to high humidity. You will often have to renew the painted ceiling.

Painting

Better finish of the concrete ceiling. For coloring use acrylic or water based paint. It is applied with a brush, roller, spray, but before painting the concrete ceiling with a water emulsion, it should be carefully prepared and leveled, and the concrete base treated with a primer.

Loft style

In this case, finishing the concrete ceiling, decorating, leveling, preparation for painting, puttying, primer are not required. Small flows of concrete will produce the desired effect. For brutality, you can use metal or wooden structures. It remains only to properly illuminate the room.

A concrete ceiling requires virtually no decoration, so you can save money on repairs. More often than not, people using this style simply attach lighting fixtures.

If you plan to paint the concrete ceiling, then you can do this with a thin layer and uneven strokes, which will add color to the concrete surface. Decorative wooden or metal beams are attached to concrete. If you want to increase the severity and coolness of the interior, then you can plaster the concrete ceiling and cover it with colorless varnish.

Lighting

Not all types of fixtures are suitable for such a style as a loft, so it is important to know how to hang a chandelier on a concrete ceiling so that the room does not appear gray, uncomfortable and low, because the concrete ceiling coating visually reduces the height of the room.

You should know that the concrete ceiling in the loft style needs to be lit in such a way that it does not seem gloomy and uncomfortable. The following types of luminaires hanging from above are best suited for this style:

• Lamp Ilyich. Apply conventional incandescent lamps without shades, located above the working areas. You can make suspensions for lamps of different lengths and the bulbs themselves can be of different power, size.
• Halogen lamps. They have different directions and can emphasize the desired surface area.
• Chandelier in the form of a fan. Such chandeliers adorn and well illuminate the concrete ceiling.
• High tech. Unusual and bright hi-tech chandeliers are perfect for a loft, and a grayish shade of concrete will emphasize their originality.
• Retro. You can choose retro lamps that emphasize the asceticism of the room.

If you know how to hang a chandelier on a concrete ceiling and do it right, then the concrete surface will sparkle in various colors and reveal the incredible facets of shades of gray. You can experiment with lights and show your creativity in the loft style.

A loft-style concrete ceiling is perfect for spacious rooms, which are distinguished by brutality, the presence of brick, concrete, metal structures. If you qualitatively carry out work to create a concrete ceiling, choose lighting and furniture that matches the style of a loft, then ordinary concrete will open in a new way.