I love indoor exposed brick walls (depending on the bricks, obviously), and was wondering if there are any tiles around with this effect.
Like you can buy wood laminate instead of a proper boarded floor. Can you get tiles that look like exposed bricks to stick on plasterboard, that look convincing?
Any help would be great.
Thanks Nick
Nick snipped-for-privacy@NOSPAM.com (replace nospam with hotmail)
Yes. The best ones are actually just slivers of brick. You apply using a suitable bonding pattern. Some sort of modified Flemish bond, with variations to break up the pattern looks far better than a stretcher bond, which looks cheap, miserly and modern. You finish off by pointing the tiles with mortar, just like a real wall. The effect is indistinguishable from a real brick wall if done well.
Christian.
These used to very common in pub makeovers 20 years ago. My local has just got rid of them. They were quite effective.
Guys - thanks for your replies.
Can you buy slivers of brick like that? Or do you have to get them specially cut?
I'm not familiar with Flemish or Stretcher bonds? What are these?
Nick
Stetcher bond is just bricks laid end to end, alternating by half a brick's width every course. Most modern houses are built like this as it is the cheapest and quickest way to build a single leaf wall. Modern houses have cavities, so the outer wall is only one brick wide.
Older houses had solid walls, with usually double brick thickness. For this, you need some of the bricks to be laid across the thickness of the wall to bond the wall together. The most common way to do this is the Flemish bond, where you lay bricks alternately across and along the wall. You will likely see such bonding on most Victorian buildings. However, the Victorians did like to break down the monotony by varying the bond. Perhaps missing out occasional cross bonding bricks. This is why even a plain Victorian wall looks less austere than a modern stretcher bonding.
Christian.
Yes you can, or used to be able to. They are purely for decorative purposes but look just like real bricks when fitted.
Thanks again guys, great advice. I know what you mean know about the brick pattern - it makes sense.
Any idea where to buy slivers of brick? Local B&Q?
Nick
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