decorating concrete blocks to make them look like bricks?

[swimmydeepo]

This would probably sounds too wacky for all the pro out there, but surely there must be a way of turning concrete blocks into lookalike bricks?! I am about to rebuild an external wall (the back only) and I would like to use blocks instead of bricks (for costs and timing reasons). The main problem is a cosmetic one as I am dealing with a terrace house and all the other houses use red bricks.

Here are some ideas:

1) I decided to do an experiment using a router to carve brick patterns into a block. The final result looks fine (the bricks part should be painted), but the router bit is badly worn out.

2) Now I am thinking of using an angle grinder to do most of the carving and using the router where the grinder would be unpracticable (mortar junctions).

3) Another idea would be to use stucco like material to 'build' bricks on the face of blocks.

4) On a lesser impact, why not use a thick layer of texture paint?

5) Or maybe there are out there merchants selling decorative blocks which looks like bricks?

Been there before? Please let me know.

Alex

[Derek ^]

[simonsmith.uk]

I saw in a yard once "facing bricks" proper red (clay?) broicks but thinner , about 1/2 inch deep, which would be ideal (remember laughing cos they were more expensive than real bricks, but not by much)

carving into concrete sounds a bit labour intensive, and prone to "human" error.

but then again I think the same is true of brick laying :)

[swimmydeepo]

Interesting link, but these Slipbricks or Thinbricks must be quite expensive. I was thinking of concrete blocks with patterns to make them look like bricks...obviously there are a few issues regarding mortar joints. At least 2 bits alongside the perimeter of the blocks need some sort of adjustments.

[Grunff]

One of the reasons I love uk.d-i-y is the crazy ideas you get on here - and this is the craziest for a while.

I think the main downside here is that it will be both more expensive and take longer to make blocks look like bricks than to just use bricks in the first place - by quite some margin.

[Stuart Noble]

Render the blocks and stamp on the brick pattern before it goes off? I've seen driveways done like this but I don't know how easy it would be on a vertical surface

[swimmydeepo]

Carving blocks was only one of the ideas...and anyhow, as far as I know concrete blocks are sold at B&Q at about a third of the cost of bricks.

Regarding time; I am much more comfortable with angle grinders than mortar (and its mixing and 'hurry up' cos' that stuff is gonna to dry up...and yes throw away the remainder -half or so'- cos' I'm too slow!

- is that cost effective?).

Consider the texture paint...that must be the better solution...any expert out there?

Alex

[Grunff]

But after a mix or two, you learn to mix only what you will be able to use in say 1.5-2hours. You get into a routine of mixing + cleaning the mixer, and it all goes very smoothly.

I've built with both bricks and block, and they both have + and - points. Blocks are very quick, but they're heavy and hard on the wrists at height (apart from aerated, but that's another story). Bricks are slower, but much nicer to handle, and look much better.

Problem with that is that it'll need repainting regularly - which will be very costly and time consuming. A brick wall might need re-pointing every hundred years.

Another alternative is to use lime mortar (and bricks). I don't like the stuff much, but from your POV it might be ideal. It takes *weeks* to first-set, and *years* to fully set. You can mix up one lot, and use it up slowly over a week or two. All you need to do is keep it covered.

[swimmydeepo]

Sounds interesting but lime bricks? Are these yellow in colour? The bricks must be red (like the rest); also, I would have to incur in extra costs because I have already bought the cement. Most importantly, the rest of the house (the other 3 facades) are build using bricks and cement.

thanks for your suggestion

Alex

[swimmydeepo]

Render...and stamp the brick pattern?! You mean using textured paint? I am not sure what you mean...

Alex

[Grunff]

Nonono - I meant lime mortar (and bricks not blocks). Ordinary bricks.

No, no such thing as lime bricks.

You can use any bricks.

How much cement have you bought?

The colour of lime mortar is slightly different, as is the texture. If you want a perfect match, you'll have to use cement. But you can tweak the colour quite a bit.

[swimmydeepo]

Ok I get the message, a few bags of cement aren't that expensive...yet, I would have to throw away the stuff.

Probably this is a problem...having to find the right match would require some search (time consuming), I'm not an expert.

[swimmydeepo]

I take this back. The look isn't a major issue (I was more concerned about the different technicalities of cement v lime)...If anything matching the blocks rendered or sculpted to make them look like existing bricks is more problematic.

The real issue is that I would rather avoid bricks. They look great if done PROPERLY. Blocks are a much safer bet for masonry 'casuals' like me.

[Matty F]

Fill in any depressions in the wall with cement plaster. Put masking tape on the concrete wall in a pattern to look like the mortar between bricks. Paint the wall to match the surrounding brick walls. Remove the masking tape and touch up anywhere where the paint has bled under the tape.

[chris French]

In message , [e-mail] writes

No, he means render - a layer of sand and cement spread across the wall (like plaster indoors) the impress in some way (a stamp made of wood?) the brick pattern, then paint I guess.

Personally I think you are wasting your time trying to make the concrete blocks look like brick, they will just end up looking like concrete blocks trying to look (badly) like bricks. If you don't want to use bricks then just use blocks, and then paint the block wall a suitable colour (not brick colour, any colour that fits really)

But I think any attempt to make the concrete look like brick will take more effort and time than doing it in brick properly in the first place

Personally I think if this is the back wall of the house it's big mistake not to use brick. Besides spending who knows how many years looking at the awful attempts you made to try and make them look like brick ;-) if you ever come to sell the house it's gonna shout 'bodger' alert to any potential buyer and then they start wondering where else you might have been 'creative' in the house

[Stuart Noble]

I think you're right. However bad your bricklaying, it's got to look better than tarted up blocks. I once tried to colour in some mortar where an old flue had been. No problem getting the joints to look reasonably realistic but the brick faces were truly awful. I even ground up some brick dust to get the colour accurate, but matching texture is the difficult bit.

[meow2222]

Youre never going to get blocks to look like bricks. Its easy enough to cut straight lines with an angle grinder and make the wall look like a wrongly bonded brick wall, and build with joints same thickness as angle grinder blade, but youre then left with 2 problems.

1=2E texture 2 colour. Bricks are far from a uniform colour and youre not going to be able to replicate them unless youre an artist with a whole lotta time on your hands.

If you want brick, use brick. If you must use blocks to save =A3, you could at least use decorative blocks. Making your own blocks opens a wide range of decorative options up as well as saving some dough.

[Weatherlawyer]

We used to have a poster on here that was into pargetting, which is what you are after IIRYC. You might look her up. She vowed never to return one day. I believe someone has snaffled her identity out of respect for her.

Either that or she is an idiot.

[Andy]

I have seen brick paint before, and it always looks like bricks painted red. If you want to achieve the effect of real bricks that will be exceptionally difficult, and probably not very durable. However, if you simply have to do this then I suggest:

(1) Rendering the wall then removing render in a brick-pointing fashion before it has achieved any real strength. You will need to develop a technique to do this ( or you could add render in a bid to build up brick-like projections ).

(2) Break up a variety of different coloured bricks ( for texture - variations in colour look better than identically-coloured bricks ) and sieve it to get sand sized particles or smaller. Also buy in some red/golden/white sand. Make up a batch of cement made using the coloured sand to get a good base colour(s) and then adding the crushed brick for authenticity.

(3) Mask off the supposed areas of mortar pointing and 80% of the "bricks" in a random pattern and spray on a batch of one particular shade of crushed brick/coloured sand/cement binder with a Tyrolean machine. As you finish each brick ( i.e. before the moisture disappears from its surface, so I'm talking seconds ), lightly dash it with some dry, mixed coloured sand for extra texture ( optional ).

(4) Repeat process the next day on another 20% of randomly chosen bricks, having masked off the other 80%, using slightly different colour crushed brick etc from previous batch. Remember that "random" does not mean all-equispaced from each other, that'd look contrived.

(5) Eventually you will have a wall apparently composed of five slightly varying shades of brick, with extra variability added by how the "sand-dashing" process worked on each 'brick'.

FWIW I would also remember that dead smooth and perfect bricks look boring, and the really interesting handmade types tend to be somewhat irregular in profile, but quite frankly you'll have your work cut out achieving a half-decent result at all: I have some experience in trying to match colours and textures in pebbledash etc, and it really does cut your work out to get a good match.

Andy

[swimmydeepo]

I was thinking of doing the mortar lines using 2 cuts; one straight (perpedicular) and the other at an angle of about 30 degrees to join the other cut.

The idea was to get the wall done quickly in order to concentrate on the interiors (i.e. installing the central heating as the cold weather is round the corner) and then doing the finishing touches at later stages (no hurry about appearances...get the basics first).

Decorative blocks diy? Sounds interesting but not for me at this stage (The wall has to be build quickly and cheaply)...I really thought there must be some merchants selling brick-like decorative blocks.

Thanks for your suggestions anyway.