"Weatherlawyer" wrote in message
oups.com...

wrote:
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?



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