Brick facade - practical, beautiful, reliable

For a modern private home, the facade is its business card and cover. Some homeowners want to stand out among similar buildings located on their street, others, on the contrary, decide on harmonious integration into the general concept of the architectural features of the area. Currently, there are many options for designing the facade of a building of a private house, which will help satisfy any requests of the homeowner.

One of the most popular ways of decorating the facades of private households is brickwork. The facade under a brick perfectly combines traditional rigor, elegance and sophistication with incredible practicality. Drive a brick - this is not only the optimal building material, but also an excellent design option for the front sides of buildings. Brick facades are beautiful and durable, reliable and easy to arrange, they look stylish, but at the same time canonical. The brickwork is resistant to the vicissitudes of the weather - moisture, temperature extremes, mechanical stress.

Let's consider in more detail the advantages of a brick facade:

• clarity and conciseness of geometric shapes and sizes;
• brick facades perfectly "breathe" (due to the porosity of the material, brick walls perfectly remove moisture vapor from the premises);
• brick has a fairly high resistance to direct sunlight (due to non-fading dyes and components that are part of ceramic products);
• the brick facade does not need to be further treated against the effects of aggressive chemical constituents of the atmosphere;
• the brick facade does not react sharply to temperature changes indoors and outdoors, it also calmly tolerates sudden temperature jumps on the street;
• the service life of a brick facade is from 50 to 100 years, depending on the type of brick, the correctness of its installation and the operating conditions of the building;
• simplicity in leaving - you can just wash a facade with water from a hose;
• resistance to wind loads;
• rather low stress and strain indicators, which means that there is a low probability of cracks on the facade over time;
• acceptable heat resistance (in comparison with other construction and finishing materials, brick has a high resistance to fire);
• environmental friendliness of the material - does not harm humans and the environment;
• sufficiently low moisture absorption (from 6 to 30%), which means that the brick facade will be able to tolerate excessive moisture;
• the possibility of spot repairs (it can be quite difficult to choose a shade of masonry, but in general it is possible to repair a damaged area or replace a single masonry element);
• a wide range of architectural and design solutions - arches, niches, curved surfaces, complex structures and patterns of brick.

The disadvantages of the brick facade include the following:

• the need to install a reinforced foundation;
• the complexity of the masonry and the high cost of construction and facing;
• low thermal insulation properties of ordinary brickwork.

The design of any building, private or public, necessarily includes a detailed description of the facade. And there are many reasons for this, because when using a non-trivial facade, you can radically improve the design and style of any architectural structure.

Options for bricks used for construction and decoration of private buildings

A wide demand for building and finishing bricks is dictated by a fairly wide range of offers. The construction market is full of options for bricks of various shapes, textures, colors and, of course, value. Conventionally, the entire brick produced can be divided into two types - solid and hollow. The first option has no voids and, as a rule, is used for the construction of the foundation and basement. Hollow brick, respectively, has voids, it is much lighter in weight and has higher thermal insulation properties.

Hollow brick can be:

• general construction;
• special (refractory);
• facing.

If we separate the entire facing and building bricks according to the type of production and the material for its manufacture, then we can distinguish the following types:

• red ceramic brick - It is made of special clay with firing in a furnace with a temperature of up to 1000 degrees;
• white silicate brick - made of sand and lime in an autoclave;
• pressed brick - according to the name, it is obtained by semi-dry pressing under high pressure from natural limestone, cement and dyes of various colors (the technological properties of such bricks are close to the natural material - stone, a wide palette of colors, sizes and textures, coupled with durable masonry, allows this type of brick to be a leader in its segment of finishing materials);
• clinker brick - It is made of refractory clay at a high firing temperature (about 1100 degrees). Such a manufacturing mode makes clinker brick strong, durable, dense, frost-resistant and moisture-resistant material for decorating building facades. In Europe and America, the use of clinker bricks is very common, for more than two centuries this material has been used for the construction and decoration of buildings. In our country, this type of brick is now at the peak of popularity.

In most cases, the choice of a particular type of brick for decorating a home falls on the shoulders of the owners, but a professional architect can choose the really best budget solution for decorating the facade of a house in a certain area with its climatic features.

Today, the facade design of a private house can be the most diverse, the choice of finishing materials is truly wide, and the pricing policy in this segment of goods offers options for any budget allocated for the decoration of the building. Exterior brick, regardless of the type of production, can be of different sizes, shapes (traditional, with rounded edges or imitation chips).

Brick facade painting - features of a popular type of decoration

Not all designers and homeowners have an unequivocal relationship to brickwork as a way of decorating building facades. Some seek to emphasize in every way the features of brickwork, its texture and shade. Others, on the contrary, try to mask the natural look of the brick. Painting the facade of the building is a great way to not only give the desired shade to the entire structure, but also the ability to hide the flaws and defects of the old masonry.

But any delay has a downside - improper painting of walls can lead to a violation of the main advantage of brickwork - excellent vapor permeability. If you do not take into account the rules of how and how it is necessary to paint the brick walls, you can get a damp building from the perfectly "breathing" building with the prospect of mildew breeding.

Before you start painting the facade of your home, check out some simple rules and helpful tips:

• You must be 100% sure of the advisability of painting the facade of your private home. In the market of building decoration materials, there are enough options for bricks of various shades, which can easily do without staining and for many years to maintain their original appearance, shade shape. But the coloring will need to be periodically updated (every 3-4 years to give an aesthetically attractive appearance of the building);
• in the future, if you change your mind, it will be extremely difficult to remove paint from a brick wall, the porous structure of the material allows the paint to absorb unevenly into the surface. Thus, the options for decorating the facade of your home are significantly reduced;
• walls that have just been erected cannot be painted; it is necessary to wait a year to complete all the weathering, leaching and drying of the brickwork. When painting fresh brickwork, you are very at risk of getting defects in the paint layer in the shortest possible time;
• the complexity of painting does not lie in the very process of applying paint to a brick wall, but in preparing the surface for this activity. It is necessary to remove all traces of existing mold using special tools. The surface on which the paint will be applied must be completely dry. Moisture remaining in the pores of the material can subsequently lead to the formation of cracks and chips in the paint and bloating layer. It is best to paint the brick in the summer, in hot and dry weather. Brickwork should be completely dust-free - do not use acidic solutions, ordinary soapy water is ideal. All brick walls must be primed before painting (choose a soil that is resistant to alkaline conditions).

As a rule, old brickwork is painted for several possible reasons.

• change in color or shade of the facade of the home;
• masking defects of old brick walls;
• creating a balanced combination of old walls with new outbuildings;
• giving a more modern appearance to the house with the addition of fashionable decorative elements, designs or materials.

Facade painting should be taken seriously and the paint for exterior work should be selected according to the following criteria:

1. the paint layer should have a porous structure in order to preserve the vapor permeability of the walls of your home;
2. have a sufficiently high moisture resistance;
3. Do not respond to direct sunlight;
4. have high alkali resistance;
5. keep their original appearance for a long time.

Currently, there are many options for the sale of facade paints intended for application, both on new and old surfaces of brick walls. All information about the technological properties is on the label of the container with paint, do not trust the sellers and read these very useful information yourself.

Original shapes and colors of brick facades

Facade brick in itself is durable, beautiful and practical. But the way of presenting this finishing material to create an original appearance of home ownership is also important. Not only the literacy and accuracy of installation depends on the final result of the building decoration, but also on the originality of the laying of the material, its unusual coloring or the way of arranging colors among themselves.

There are many options for the execution of decorative brickwork, but it is obvious that the cost of installing any of the methods will be more expensive than the classic construction of finishing surfaces. But, if you want to stand out from the total mass of similar private households - it makes sense to spend a little money, then to enjoy the fruits of your labor for many years and receive admired compliments from the neighbors on the street.

For example, the so-called Brandenburg masonry is a great way to decorate the facade of your building, especially if you use enough contrasting combinations of light and dark bricks to create a pattern.

Facing brick is a very malleable material. Particularly difficult is the decoration of facades with non-standard forms - semicircles, arches and wave-like structural elements.

An interesting appearance of the facade of the building can be achieved by combining brickwork with the block execution of wall cladding. It is not difficult to achieve such an effect - part of the bricks in the order you need is covered with a so-called concrete "coat" and with the help of a contrast-light grout, the elements are highlighted.

The combination of two contrasting shades of brick within the cladding of one facade of a home can create an interesting appearance.

A simple technique for decorating a brick facade is the selection with the help of bricks of the window and doorways, corners of the building, columns and other structural elements that are distinctive from the main color of the material.

An interesting outwardly and easy to install way to create an original image of the facade of a home ownership is to use bricks of various shades from one segment of the color palette. As a result, inevitably, a rather colorful and memorable appearance of the brickwork is obtained.

Sometimes to create an original facade of a building it is enough to purchase a facing brick of an unusual shade. Its cost will be slightly higher than the standard reddish-reddish shades, but you will not have the opportunity to stand out among the neighboring buildings, but also choose the most suitable shade of tiles, window and doorways, to create a truly harmonious and attractive image of the exterior of your home.

If not only facing the facade, but additional buildings, gazebos or awnings, laying out steps and garden paths in front of your household is made of clinker brick of bright or non-trivial hue - the result can be a very harmonious and attractive image of the entire architectural ensemble.