Brick cladding of a house: wooden (beam, log, frame), aerated concrete, slag, technology, prices, photos, videos

Building a house from one brick in our climate is not the best idea: its thermal conductivity is too high, which is why the walls must be thick. But using it as a finishing material is already more economically justified: facing the house with brick, with proper insulation, will help save on heating, and give the building a “capital” appearance. If the walls are made of foam block or other light and warm building blocks, then such a finish will also be windproof. Wooden houses are also covered with bricks, but in this case there are some peculiarities: it is necessary to ensure the removal of vapors from the wood, otherwise mold, fungus and expensive repairs with a complete overhaul of the finish.

What brick to use

Facing bricks are produced using different technologies, due to which it has different characteristics and prices:

• Ceramic. Of all the finishing, it is the most inexpensive. Of the minuses, high hygroscopicity can be called: 6-15%, depending on the technology and batch. When water gets into the pores, it expands when it freezes, causing destruction, the brick begins to crumble. Even a special finishing one, in which the bed (the part that turns out to be outside) is specially protected at the factories. Exit – after laying, cover the wall with a hydrophobic composition. Only those that do not form a vapor barrier film. When choosing, pay attention to this: excess moisture must be removed. Frost resistance of ceramic facing bricks is 25-75 cycles (how many times it tolerates freezing / freezing without deterioration in quality). The higher this figure, the higher the price. This is explained by the high production costs.
  

• Hyperpressed or non-fired. This type of facing brick is obtained not by firing, but by pressing. It no longer contains clay, but lime with various fillers and pigments. The possibility of using pigments allows you to get a wide range of colors. The front surface is often non-linear, imitating wild stone. Looks decorative. But such a non-linearity threatens with delamination: an uneven surface, water flows into the pores more abundantly, and freezes in frosts. This is treated in the same way as in the case of ceramics: hydrophobic impregnation. Frost resistance of high-quality non-fired bricks is declared by manufacturers from 75 to 150 cycles.
  

• Clinker. This brick is also ceramic, but a special technology gives it very high strength and density. A denser material absorbs water much worse. This is good for operation, but when laying it leads to difficulties: in order for the wall not to “float”, it is necessary to put it on a hard, low-plastic mortar, and it is more difficult to work with it. Another disadvantage that limits the wide distribution of a material with excellent characteristics: compared to previous materials, it is expensive: prices are 50-150% higher, depending on the manufacturer. Frost resistance of clinker is from 100 to 150 cycles. Clinker cladding of a house with bricks is an expensive pleasure, but the most attractive in appearance.
  

• Silicate. The cheapest, but also the most “quickly deteriorating” of facing bricks: its frost resistance is 25-50 cycles. It conducts heat better. Not much, but still: the average thermal conductivity of ceramic is 0,16, silicate is 0,18. In addition, it is heavier: on average, the weight of ceramics is 2,4 kg, silicate of the same size is 3 kg. More weight requires a more powerful foundation and the price gain (silicate is cheaper) is not so big. If we take into account that heating costs will also be higher, then the gain is doubtful at all. It is advisable to overlay the house with silicate brick in warm regions. In the north, this is completely unprofitable.
  

Choosing the type of brick is far from everything. It is also necessary to pay attention to the size and shape of the holes. A solid finishing brick is rarely used: it costs more, weighs more. On average, voids occupy about 28%, but they are large and small. With equal characteristics, give preference to bricks with small holes: the mortar will not flow into them. This will reduce the consumption of masonry mortar, and increase the strength of the masonry.

If they decided to veneer the house with hyper-pressed brick, it should be produced no earlier than 15-20 days ago. During this time, it gains basic strength (about 80%) and it can already be safely transported and loaded.

Please note that during storage, the brick packaging should not be exposed to water. This is especially true if you are going to leave it for the winter.

Finishing the house with siding is described here. 

How to overlay a wooden house (timbered, log, frame) with bricks

Most of the difficulties arise when bricking a wooden house: materials have very different characteristics, it is not easy to make a good bunch of them. The whole secret here is the need for a ventilation gap between the cladding and the insulation layer, which is usually stuffed on a wooden wall. A windproof membrane is laid over the insulation. A prerequisite is that it must be vapor-permeable (Izospan A, Isospan AS, Tyvek HouseRap, Megaizol SD, etc.). Only under such conditions will there be normal humidity in the room and rot and fungus will not develop between the cladding and the wooden wall.

Instead of windproofing, you can protect the surface of the insulation with fiberglass or fiberglass. With a sufficient thickness of the wooden walls, the thermal insulation layer is simply absent, the wind insulation and the ventilation gap remain.

The ventilation gap must be at least 60 mm. It stretches from the very bottom of the wall – it starts after the base – and to the top. To ensure the flow of air in the first row, ventilation ducts are made through which air enters. Outlets are arranged under the roof in the eaves. Vent area 75 cm² for every 20 m² walls. The products in the bottom row can be made in several ways:

• put on its side a brick with through holes;
• partially fill the side seams with mortar (when laying the mortar, lay a ruler, then remove it);
• make two or three holes and install gratings.

About what kind of insulation to use. The most acceptable option is mineral wool in mats or rolls. The use of polystyrene foam or expanded polystyrene is undesirable: they do not conduct steam. This will lead to the fact that the wood will rot, and the humidity in the rooms will be higher than normal.

Another important point: it is possible to overlay a wooden house with bricks only after the main shrinkage of the log house has passed. And this is at least 1,5-2 years. In this sense, it is easier with old wooden houses: the main processes have passed in them.

Read about other options for exterior decoration of the house here. 

Pros and cons of a wooden house lined with bricks

The combination of materials so different in all characteristics is a complex and completely ambiguous matter. Of the positive points can be identified:

• Reduced fire hazard.
• Reducing heating costs.
• Wood is protected from direct contact with precipitation.
  

There are enough negatives:

• When building houses for a normal microclimate, it is necessary to adhere to the rule: the vapor permeability of materials varies from less to more from inside to outside. If you overlay a log house with a brick, the situation is reversed. As a result, moisture accumulates in the insulation. In winter, it freezes there, turning mineral wool into dust. In summer, it creates conditions for the development of mold and rot. Only the creation of a ventilated cladding can correct the situation.
• A wooden house is constantly changing dimensions, therefore, rigid connections with a brick wall cannot be made. Facing the house with bricks and the walls themselves must move independently of each other.
• Brick is a heavy material and its mass must be taken into account when calculating the foundation: the load becomes much higher. Therefore, either a higher grade of concrete is required, or a greater width in a strip foundation, or a greater thickness in a slab foundation. On a pile or pile-grillage foundation, cladding can be placed only after calculations.
  

All in all, not an ideal solution. If the house is still being planned, think a few times. Maybe it’s better to build a house from foam blocks (gas silicate), and then overlay them with bricks. These materials are much better matched and complement each other’s qualities. It is worth lining a wooden house with brick if the house is old, the wood has darkened, it is necessary to give it a more attractive look.

Wall cladding technology

First, the wood is treated with a protective impregnation for outdoor use. Then a crate of planed timber (also impregnated) is stuffed. The dimensions of the beam depend on the required thickness of the heat-insulating layer. Usually, for Central Russia, the thickness of basalt wool is needed on the order of 50 mm, for more northern regions from 100 to 150 mm. But specifically, everything is considered depending on the thickness of the wall (from timber or logs) and the brick chosen for facing.

The insulation is laid very tightly, without gaps: the crate is stuffed taking into account its width. The distance between the bars should be a couple of centimeters less than the width of the insulation. So the material will fit with effort. It will fit snugly to the crate, which minimizes the formation of cold bridges.

A windproof membrane is laid on top of the insulation. It must necessarily be vapor-permeable, and if the vapor permeability is one-sided, then the removal of moisture is necessary from the room. Fasten the membrane with staples to the crate. Next, leave a gap for ventilation of at least 60 mm and put a wall of facing bricks.

How to do it right

There are a few subtleties that you need to know. The house is usually lined with half a brick. Without support, the wall turns out to be shaky, especially with large areas. To make it stand firmly, it is tied to a wooden wall. There are two ways:

• A nail (100-150 mm) is driven into the wall half the length, bent up. A piece of soft wire with a diameter of 3 mm is tied to it. The length of the piece is a little over a meter. The wire is fixed in the middle by the nail, twisted and led to the middle of the twisted brick, then it is bred along the masonry to the sides. Finish the nail so that it twists into a ring.
• Use strips of tin 25-30 mm wide and about a meter long. The strip in the middle is nailed (the self-tapping screw is twisted), as well as the wire is led together to the middle of the brick, there it is bent and spread apart.
• Use a masonry net, cutting it so that the rods reach about the middle of the bricks. So that the bar does not jump out of the solution, it is better to bend it to the side, as in the photo. Such dressings are arranged in every fifth row.
  

Single dressings should be located over the entire surface of the wall. There are different recommendations – at a distance of about 50 cm from one another or 4 pieces per square meter.

If you are going to brick the house with your own hands, there may be problems with the horizontal and vertical laying. The following technique can help, allowing you to simultaneously control all directions:

• In the corners of the house under the roof and above the plinth, long pins are hammered horizontally. They should protrude from the wall to a distance greater than the entire thickness of the finish.
• At one corner, to the upper pin at a distance corresponding to the outer edge of the masonry, a wire is tied and lowered down, movably fixed on the lower nail.
• Its verticality is checked and set with a plumb line, and it is rigidly fixed.
• Also, at the same distance, a vertical wire is tied at the other end of the wall.
• A horizontal cord is tied between two stretched strings. It will serve as a guide when laying: it can be moved up as the rows are laid. Only each time it is necessary to check the horizontalness with a level.

All of the above applies to frame houses. They also require a ventilation gap device. The situation is similar: on the outside there is a material that conducts moisture much worse than those located inside. Only wire or strips of tin for dressing are attached in this case to the racks of the frame.

Reinforce or not

In general, reinforcement makes the wall more durable and reliable. Therefore, it is better to reinforce. But this complicates and slows down the masonry, which leads to an increase in the cost of work (if the craftsmen were hired).

If you do it yourself, then you need to lay rows with reinforcement approximately every 5th row. As reinforcement, a special mesh is laid with a cell of 50-50 mm or two longitudinal bars of reinforcement with a diameter of 6 mm. At the same time, the size of the seam, whether in a row with reinforcement or without, should be the same.

Facing the house with a brick “live” filmed on video, laying technique “under the rod”. The seams are beautiful, but water flows into them, which is then absorbed by the brick. Therefore, in this form, the seams cannot be left. They must be filled with mortar and embroidered in the same plane with the surface of the brick. Then the absorption of water during bad weather will be significantly reduced, and the “life” of the brick wall cladding will be much longer. The laying process itself was demonstrated correctly: the mortar is laid neatly, drops that have fallen on the surface are immediately rubbed off.

Facing the house with bricks made of aerated concrete, foam concrete and gas silicate

The vapor permeability of cellular concrete is also higher than that of bricks. That is, the situation is exactly the same: inside the room there is a material that better removes vapors. Therefore, to ensure a normal microclimate in the room and a long service life, a ventilation gap is required between the brickwork and the wall and the foam blocks.

If you overlay a house made of aerated concrete (foam concrete, gas silicate) with bricks without a gap, its service life will decrease by about 60%: condensate will accumulate at the border of the two materials. At low temperatures, frozen moisture will destroy the shell of the bubbles, gradually destroying the entire material and significantly degrading its performance.

Additional heaters are used very rarely, if they are still needed, all the rules are the same as for the lining of a wooden house: basalt wool, protected by wind insulation.

Read about the features of finishing a house made of aerated concrete (gas silicate) here.

The value of the ventilation gap is from 60 to 150 mm. The number of connections between two walls: at least 3 pieces per square meter of masonry, their cross section is at least 5 mm² on 1 m². For connection, screw or stainless nails with a length of at least 120 mm can be used. They are not hammered perpendicular to the wall, but at an angle of at least 45 °. You can use perforated galvanized strips, which are nailed to building blocks on one side, and the other end is inserted into the brickwork, where it is bent at an angle. Note: ties should not be laid in the seams of the masonry of the main wall. Only nailed to the front surface of the blocks.

Slag or slag house

Brick cladding in the case of buildings using slag is used more often when cracks creep along the walls. This happens mainly when the slag has exhausted its resource and began to crumble. On average, its service life is 50 years, it is reduced if the humidity of the walls was increased.

Brick cladding of a cinder block (slag-filled) house will only delay the inevitable: it will slow down the destruction, but will not stop it. The length of the delay depends on the condition of the material and the measures taken. On average, he is 8-15 years old. It is hardly possible to do without consulting a specialist: the price of an error is too high.

In most cases, it is recommended to build a frame around the house, on which to transfer part of the load of the floor and roof, to carry out waterproofing work. One of which is the external protection of walls from atmospheric precipitation with the help of brick cladding. Brick is selected with the lowest water absorption. For greater protection, the masonry can be impregnated with a hydrophobic compound (only not creating a vapor barrier film). Penetrating hydrophobic impregnation of the main wall will not be superfluous. To do this, you can use impregnations such as “Penetron” and analogues. They will simultaneously strengthen the material and significantly reduce water saturation.

Watch the video about the practice of facing old buildings with bricks.

About the choice of suppliers and prices

Prices for the same materials are very different depending on the region. In order to correctly assess the situation, you need to conduct your own market research: call or visit the largest suppliers, look at offers in the region on the network. During the call, you need to get technical data, find out the prices. Then compare the characteristics of bricks, compare prices.

What can be advised: do not buy too cheap materials. If the difference from the average market price is 15-20%, most likely, these are last year’s remnants of not the most successful batch. Otherwise, look at the ratio of price and declared characteristics.

Average prices in Moscow are as follows:

• silicate facing brick – 11-21 rubles / piece;
• ceramic facing – 18-35 rubles / piece (corpulent 45-65 rubles / piece);
• hyperpressed non-firing – 25-31 rubles / piece;
• clinker – 27-40 rubles / piece.

After choosing several possible suppliers, see their product in person. Smooth edges, uniform color, no cracks or any defects – that’s what you should see.

About the size of the party. It is advisable to buy the entire volume of cladding material at once. This will save you about 10-15%. some suppliers of large lots offer to bring in dumping norms directly from the factory. It’s cheaper and eliminates additional overload, which means less combat.

The advantage of buying in bulk is that there will most likely be one batch, which guarantees color uniformity. In any case, the facing of the house with bricks is carried out from several packages at the same time. So even slightly different shades will not create color spots.