Wall cladding: how to brick a house with your own hands

Recommendation points

• Advantages and disadvantages
• Features of wall cladding made of different materials
• Brick
• Cinder block or cinder block monolithic houses
• Aerated concrete building blocks
• Wooden houses
• Preparatory stage for old houses
• Types of facing bricks
• Facing brick laying

Despite the fact that brick wall cladding is one of the most costly and laborious, it is still in demand for private houses. A brick house has always been a sign of respectability and solidity, and the cladding allows you to achieve complete identity when using other materials for the facade..

Advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of brick cladding include not only externally attractive properties. The cladding plays the role of protecting the main wall material from the effects of destructive climatic factors.

If we compare facing brick with facade plaster, then it has much higher resistance to mechanical stress..

Compared to vinyl siding or painted trapezoidal sheet (as part of ventilated facades), any type of brick withstands solar ultraviolet radiation better. And the facing of the facade with stone tiles or porcelain stoneware may collapse due to poor adhesion of walls and mortar.

Finishing with facing bricks allows you to simultaneously insulate the facade. Of course, the thermal insulation properties of dense materials are low, but the use of hollow bricks and a layer of insulation makes it possible to achieve a high level of energy savings when heating in winter and air conditioning in summer..

The disadvantages, in addition to the cost and labor intensity of the work, include the high load on the foundation, which must be taken into account when designing or renovating a house..

Features of wall cladding made of different materials

The facing masonry runs in half a brick. The self-supporting capabilities of such a false wall are low. It must be literally tied to the facade. For this, different materials are used: ready-made flexible ties, anchors, nails, sheet metal strips, masonry mesh.

The method of bonding, the need for insulation, the presence of a ventilated gap and vents depend on many properties of the facade material: strength, vapor permeability, holding strength of fasteners, dimensions of building blocks, etc..

Brick

In this case, everything is relatively simple. Both the wall and the cladding have almost the same parameters, including the dimensions of the brick. The most common fastening method is ready-made flexible metal or fiberglass ties. A flexible connection is a rod with seals at the ends in the form of a “powder” of quartz sand (to improve adhesion). Such a rod is fastened with one end in the horizontal assembly joint of the wall, and with the other in the cladding. If the seams do not match, then in the facing masonry, the rod is placed in the vertical seam. Such cladding usually takes place simultaneously with insulation. For a newly built brick house, this allows you to reduce the thickness of the outer walls and the total load on the foundation..

If polystyrene foam is used as insulation, then the ventilation gap is not needed. When using mineral wool, there is a need to weather water vapor from it. Therefore, from the side of the facing layer, a washer with a retainer is put on the flexible connection, which presses the insulation mat to the wall of the house and leaves a ventilated gap between it and the cladding. That is, the flexible connection also serves as a fastener for insulation (you do not need to use umbrella dowels, as in curtain walls).

The number of connections per 1 sq. m walls – 4 pcs. (in openings – along the perimeter after 30 cm), the minimum penetration into the seam is 90 mm, the maximum is 150 mm.

Cinder block or cinder block monolithic houses

Cinder block refers to lightweight concrete. Depending on the voidness, the material can act in different qualities, including as thermal insulation. Its main disadvantages are its unattractive appearance, low resistance to precipitation and wind loads. Therefore, insulation of a house from a cinder block is usually not required, but cladding is required. The best material for this is a brick with a low water absorption (for example, clinker or hand-molded).

The vapor permeability of the brick is lower than that of the cinder block. As a result, the dew point in cold weather can “get” exactly on the cinder block, and water vapor through the cladding cannot weather out. To prevent the main wall from dampening and collapsing, a ventilation gap and air vents are needed at the bottom of the cladding (at the base) and above (under the roof).

As a flexible connection, a masonry mesh is used, one edge of which is fixed to the wall on a bracket and a dowel, and the second (in the masonry seam of the cladding) should not come out. The grid is laid in every fifth row of brickwork.

Aerated concrete building blocks

Despite the differences in the technology of manufacturing aerated concrete and foam concrete, they have similar bearing and thermal insulation properties, there are only differences in vapor permeability (aerated concrete has higher). Facing for aerated concrete blocks is required – the reasons are, in principle, the same as those of the cinder block.

As for the cinder block, insulation is not necessary, but a ventilation gap is needed. Therefore, the method of attaching the facing masonry to the wall is the same.

Wooden houses

This is perhaps the rarest case of brick cladding..

It is almost impossible to brick a blockhouse from a log because of the characteristic corner cuts of the rims. Log houses do not have such a problem, but the expediency of facing is very doubtful – the acquired advantages are much less than the disadvantages.

Frame (or frame-panel) wooden houses are attractive due to the absence of “wet” works, the speed of construction and relatively low cost. Brick cladding is possible and practiced, but negates these advantages.

In any case, insulation when facing a wooden house with a brick, in principle, is not necessary, and a gap is necessary – the lack of ventilation and weathering of excess moisture will lead to rotting of the tree. In addition, the walls must be treated with antiseptics..

If warming is carried out, then it is carried out using mineral wool mats, which have a high vapor permeability. Installation of insulation is carried out on the crate using the technology of ventilated facades – with laying on top of a windproof vapor-permeable membrane.

When insulating, not a masonry mesh is used as a flexible connection, but pieces of wire attached to the wall with nails or self-tapping screws (at the rate of 4 pieces per 1 sq. M).

Preparatory stage for old houses

For old houses, it is necessary to strengthen the old one or arrange a separate foundation that can hold additional brickwork.

1. Strengthening the strip foundation. A trench is being dug along the perimeter just below the depth of the old foundation. A cushion of rubble and sand is poured onto the bottom, a formwork is placed on the side of the ground, the wall of the old foundation is cleaned from dirt, primed with a bitumen primer, holes are drilled for steel bars, to which the reinforcement cage is knitted. Pour the concrete mixture, not forgetting about the underground floor or basement windows.

2. The expansion of the slab foundation is carried out using the same technology as the strip foundation..

3. If the house stands on a pile or columnar foundation, then a similar one is made for facing..

In principle, the pile foundation can be considered universal. Its carrying capacity is enough to withstand the weight of a half-brick wall.

Another feature of the cladding of old houses is the “bad” geometry of the walls. As a result of shrinkage and settlement of the house, a deviation of levels usually occurs. If shrinkage is more pronounced in wooden houses (especially from materials with natural moisture), then the settlement depends on the type of soil and the weight of the structure. Therefore, when strengthening the foundation, this factor must be taken into account.

Everything is simple with the “horizon”. And the “vertical” for new corners and walls must be counted from the point of maximum deviation of the old facade (taking into account the width of the masonry and the thickness of the insulation).

Types of facing bricks

Facing (or facing) ceramic brick differs from ordinary brick in its improved appearance, including a large selection of colors and textured surface. As a rule, it is a slotted (or hollow) brick that has good thermal insulation properties..

Hollow clinker bricks are initially considered facing. It has high mechanical strength and very low water absorption.

Hand-molded bricks are chosen for the retro style. High price and generally full-bodied format.

Hyper-pressed brick has high decorative properties, but it is produced exclusively as solid.

The last two types are used either for wall cladding with high thermal insulation properties (for example, warm ceramics or aerated concrete), or together with the installation of a layer of insulation.

Facing brick laying

The cladding brick laying algorithm is standard – from the corners, which are used as beacons, with periodic verification of compliance with the levels.

A calibrated square metal bar is used as a template for making a masonry seam of the same thickness – this is one of the easiest ways.

If the cladding passes without insulation and ventilation, then the solution is applied not only to the brick, but also to the wall itself.

If a masonry mesh is used as a connection to the wall, then reinforcement is not done. In other cases, every fifth seam is reinforced with a mesh or two rods laid in parallel.

It is better to join the jointing in the same plane with the wall surface so that water does not collect in the seam, but flows down.

The use of colored masonry mortar makes the cladding more attractive.