Facing brick in the interior: make a choice
The beautiful geometric relief of brickwork leaves few indifferent. Maybe that's why, over time, the brick does not lose its relevance, not only as a structural material, but also as a finishing one.
There are many materials, imitations, they are used for styling brick concrete or block walls. But why imitation, if a decorative facing brick for interior decoration, will best cope with this task?
The content of the article
Brick for interior decoration
There are many types of facing bricks. There are options that are often used for facades.
We’ll talk about which facing brick for interiors is the best choice when planning and designing premises.
Glazed and embossed brick
Brick glazing technology dates back to ancient Egypt. It was used in different countries, and many of them had their own technologies, which have survived to this day.
So:
- Some glaze raw brick, and then burn it, others apply glaze to the burnt brick, and subjected to secondary firing. Each technology provides the product with its physical and mechanical properties, in accordance with which its price also increases.
- And if the technology has been worked out for centuries, then the decorative surface of the brick is regularly adjusted, due to the emergence of new trends in design and decoration. Standard red brick is not so popular right now.
- The main consumer demand falls on the brick with the finish of its front surface. And it can be not only glazed smooth, but also embossed, and engobed, that is, covered with a composition of white clay, glass and quartz sand.
- As you understand, these species facing brick have the highest cost. It can vary depending on how many sides have a decorative coating: two or four.
- Brick with double-sided coating (spoons and poke), used for masonry bearing walls or their cladding. With a masonry thickness of one and a half to two bricks, on the one hand the decor will simply not be visible.
Why pay more for a brick decorated on all sides?
- If you need to build, for example, an interior partition with a thickness of one brick, then the four-sided decor will make it possible to get ennobled masonry in two rooms at once.
This is very relevant if you are building Vacation home or bought an apartment in a new building without finishing. In such apartments, as well as cottages and townhouses, there are no internal partitions, and the space is planned at the discretion of the owner who bought the house.
The construction of the partition
In order for the design to work out well, you need to erect a partition correctly. And if you decide to do it yourself, you will have two questions: “Where to start?”, And “Which decorative facing brick for interior decoration is better to choose?”.
So:
- Start laying with setting orders: both intermediate and angular. They are verified using the building level and plumb line, although professional builders use a level for this.
The order is a metal profile, or a wooden plank, on which serifs are applied corresponding to each row of bricks.
- When the lighthouses are laid out, the orders are aligned and fixed, cords are pulled between them, called moorings. It is they that ensure the horizontalness of the rows when performing masonry, and serve as a guide for the position of each brick and the equal thickness of horizontal joints.
- It is better to choose a hollow brick for the construction of a partition, so the load on the supporting structures is significantly reduced. To ensure the stability of the future partition, its rigidity is strengthened by performing anchoring.
Metal anchors are laid at one end in the joints between the bricks, and at the other - in the strobes punched in the bearing walls. - A strip of roofing material is laid under the first row of masonry, and the layout of bricks begins along the axis of the partition. Masonry is done with dressing of the seams, by shifting each subsequent row by half-brick.
A small gap formed between the ceiling and the masonry is filled with foam.
- In principle, for the device of the partition without subsequent plastering, you can take both brick brick and silicate. They can simply be coated with hydrophobic impregnation, which protects the surface from absorption of moisture and odors.
- These types of bricks have a dense and smooth front side. Therefore, the masonry is often simply covered with a water repellent or stained. In this case, no surface preparation is required, except for removing the influx of the solution.
We outlined the process of erecting a brick wall only in general terms.
If you decide to take on this work yourself, be sure to watch the video. A master class from professionals is the best instruction.
Brick cladding for load-bearing walls
The construction of a brick wall from front brick is only one of the options for obtaining brickwork for interior decoration.
But sometimes it is necessary to revet a bearing wall:
- An ideal option when the interiors of rooms are thought out in advance, even at the stage of building a house. In this case, the wall cladding decorative brick performed during the construction of walls.
Decorate along the masonry, you can not only the facade, but, if necessary, and the internal walls.
- If you have to finish and repair the old house, then the options for wall decoration should be considered. It is necessary to make a decision based on constructive wall material.
If the house is built of brick, you can create a beautiful interior design without additional cladding. - The best option is when the brickwork was not plastered before, and the wall was, for example, sheathed with a board or dry plaster. Then, having removed the old coating, the wall can simply be cleaned, the surface of the brick should be sanded with sandpaper, primed and painted, as in the photo below.
- You can hardly clean the plastered walls so as to completely free the masonry. Even if the stucco does not hold well, there will certainly be places where you have to use a punch, and they can damage the surface of individual bricks.
- This is the case when a decorative facing brick for interior decoration is simply necessary. His choice is made depending on what kind of room design you would like to implement.
You may even need several types of cladding. You can see such a finish in the picture below.
- Here, two types of decorative bricks of a contrasting color and with different reliefs are used. The whole charm of this interior is that the facings are made in separate fragments and, as it were, zone the room - this is called design.
- Even if the walls of the house are made of other structural materials: panels, blocks of cellular concrete, wood - they can also be lined with decorative bricks.But it is advisable to do this only if you know for sure that the foundation of the house will withstand the additional load.
- Of course, finishing small fragments of walls will not create any problems. But if you want to clad a whole wall or the whole room, the masonry should rest on the foundation or floor slab, which may not support the weight of the cladding.
- Then comes to the aid of ceramic tiles, stylized brick. Using the example from above, the walls of the room are lined with it. But, not knowing this, few will guess that this is not a brick, but a tile.
- Performing decoration of the house with facing bricks, it is possible to solve constructive problems. One of these tasks is to strengthen the load-bearing walls.
For this purpose, the most durable, and, therefore, the most expensive, hyper-pressed brick is used.
We did not mention it today just for the reason that most often it is used for exterior cladding. Although, if there is a need to strengthen the walls from the inside, nothing prevents the use of this type of brick in the interior, too.
By the way, imitation of brickwork can also be done using facade tiles, which are produced using the same technology as hyper-pressed brick.
A few words about brick design
Brickwork is able to decorate the walls of any room, and not just the living room or kitchen. Here, for example, is the interior of the corridor, the walls of which are erected from facing bricks and painted the same color as the ceiling.
The monotony of such a finish is broken by doors, lamps and frames of paintings of a contrasting color.
So:
- In connection with the brick design, one can not help but recall the loft style, the hallmark of which is the combination of walls without decoration with expensive accessories and decorative coatings. In the interior decorated in this architectural style, you can see bare brickwork, or concrete wall, and expensive flooring, chic ceiling structure, or a magnificent wrought-iron staircase.
Against the background of deliberate simplicity, in such a room you can see magnificent furniture and antique lamps.
- Any room, even a bathroom, can be decorated in this style. We also want to present an example of such an interior to you.
Most often, only one or two walls are left without decoration. Walls are also made in the case when the structural masonry is not decorated, but its lining is performed. - And in this case, the room is fully lined, but with different types of bricks. Moreover, an unusual, pearlescent paint was used for staining.
The result is an unusual and original bathroom interior.
- Loft style is not the only one where brickwork is used in the design. There are other styles, such as ancient: English, Mediterranean, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, as well as more modern ones, for example: hi-tech or fusion. By the way, there are something in common between the loft and fusion styles.
Namely, confusion. Only in the loft mixes cheap and expensive, and in fusion style - various forms and elements of other styles.
In conclusion, we can conclude that the brick was and will remain a priority for a long time - and not only in the decoration of facades, but also in the design of the premises. Choosing a brick to create a beautiful interior in your home, you are unlikely to have to regret it.
Provided, of course, that all conditions and technological processes were met.
