Hello,
I have inherited a house built in 1967 with basement walls made of "interlocked Ytong bars," blue, of course, due to the nice by-products. Unfortunately, when the house was built, the masons neglected to insert the lovely yellow locking plates, so besides having fun objects to place in bicycle spokes when I was little, the basement walls have quite a few cracks. I have therefore planned to mesh and plaster the walls. To prepare, I have sanded down the walls to the Ytong; they were previously only filled with sand putty, which is both soft and water-soluble.
Some questions I've been pondering:
Mesh: Steel or fiberglass mesh? I imagine that steel mesh is stronger, allowing the entire plastering to be done in one go (?). However, might it create a Faraday cage resulting in poor mobile and Wi-Fi reception? I'm a beginner in plastering but have learned to make it look reasonably decent when replastering the house's plinth. I'm not overly keen on doing it in two rounds as I understand is done with fiberglass mesh, as plastering isn't that fun. I was thinking of thin plaster, maybe 8-10 mm thick.
Which plaster mortar and what is priming?: I have understood that it should be low-alkaline plaster mortar, and there are three options: Finja's Putsbruk C Lågalkaliskt, Weber Base 131 putsbruk C - KC Lågalkaliskt, and Combimix Grå A Anl. The latter is explicitly a priming mortar, but can you plaster with the other two in one go? Or is a slurry considered priming, allowing one to plaster with any (regular and cheaper) plaster mortar afterward? (What exactly makes light concrete require low-alkaline mortar?)
Availability of low-alkaline plaster mortar: Despite living in northern Greater Stockholm, low-alkaline plaster mortar seems to be a special order. Since I need >1 ton, I'm not too keen on ordering everything at once, partly due to logistics but also due to the risk of losing motivation halfway through or realizing I've planned incorrectly. Does anyone know if the aforementioned mortars might be available over the counter at some building supply store?
