Do-it-yourself brick – natural clay products, artificial stone, imitation. How to make decorative brick

Homemade bricks were practiced long before the construction of factories for their large-scale production. Even today, many thrifty owners prefer to make bricks with their own hands, instead of spending money on purchased products of similar quality. Hand-made building materials are sometimes even stronger than factory ones, and sometimes building a shed or garage in the country does not require too strong products. In this article we will tell you how to make bricks with your own hands at home without the use of specialized equipment - machines, presses, etc.

Homemade bricks - highlights

The advantage of homemade bricks over those made in factories is not only their cheapness and efficiency. The most important thing is the absolute environmental safety of building materials. You know exactly what the brick is made of, and you can control its physical and chemical characteristics at your discretion, making it stronger, lighter, more durable, warmer, etc.

Making bricks at home is not at all difficult, and methods for making them have been known for a very long time. In this case, you do not need special equipment or professional skills - everything happens in artisanal conditions. The combination of proven production methods, natural materials and new techniques allows for minimum costs get a quality product. Thus, various polymer additives and plasticizers can be added to the raw material for bricks to improve its thermal insulation qualities.

Construction of a new structure in a country house, be it a sewer pit, a fence, a small barn or a guest house, is not always associated with large financial costs. If you know the secret of making homemade bricks, you can save a significant amount and spend it on high-quality finishing, furniture or housewarming celebration!

What to make a brick from

By by and large, brick is an artificially created rectangular stone. Why rectangular? This one is for construction geometric shape is the most convenient - it can withstand prolonged loads, guarantees strength, stability, and rectangular building materials are easier to transport.

The most important thing when making homemade bricks is to find high-quality raw materials. To do this, you will need to find a deposit of good clay or purchase it at a base, factory, construction market, etc. The strength and durability of the products will depend on how pure the clay is and what inclusions are present in it. So if you find a clay deposit near your home, don’t rush to rejoice and fill bags with it - first check the quality.

Not all clay is suitable for bricks. So, you need to check its fat content level. To do this, take some clay and soak it with water until it starts to stick to your hands and you can sculpt with it. Make a small ball about 5 cm in diameter and a pancake 1 cm thick and 10 cm in diameter. Place items in the shade outdoors for 2-3 days.

Once they are dry, you can begin testing the strength. If cracks appear on the surface during drying, it means that the clay is too greasy and to prepare “brick dough” it should be diluted with fine river sand. If no cracks appear, throw the ball onto the asphalt from a height of 1 m without force - if it survives, then you have the ideal clay for making bricks.

If the brick making clay is too dry, it will not crack, but will be quite brittle. In this case, it must be diluted with a fattier composition. To prepare the solution, soak the clay with water and knead it thoroughly to achieve the consistency of very thick sour cream. If necessary, add river sand or fatty clay to the mixture at the rate of 5 parts sand to 1 part clay. We must warn you that this is only an approximate proportion, since all clays have different composition, and you may have to experiment to find your recipe for making the perfect solution.

As mentioned above, plasticizers and other additives can be mixed into homemade bricks that can improve the performance characteristics of the material. For example, in the old days small sawdust was added to the brick mass as insulation. And today making adobe bricks with straw is becoming popular. This “dough” is perfect not only for homemade bricks, but also for waterproofing and insulating foundations.

How to shape a brick

When the issue of materials has been resolved, you should take care of the shape of future products. In factories, a press is used to mold unbaked brick (raw brick); at home, it can easily be replaced by homemade molds in the form of rectangles made from boards or plywood. A do-it-yourself brick making press can come in handy if you are undertaking large-scale construction. But for a small building or fence, wooden blocks are enough.

A basic form for making bricks is made from thin boards, a couple of pieces of plywood and nails. To speed up the pace of production, it is recommended to make several blanks at once, otherwise you will have to wait until the composition dries to release the mold and begin pouring the next brick.

The dimensions of the form can be any depending on your needs and preferences, but it is better not to fantasize at first, but to make cells with the dimensions of a classic brick - 250x120x65 mm. Build small conical projections on the mold lids at the top and bottom so that there are voids in the products to improve adhesion to the cement mortar.

Knock down a mold from boards, attach a plywood bottom, and leave the top lid loose so that it can be easily removed after filling the mold and removing the neatly formed brick.

How to make a brick - instructions

There are several types of brick depending on the specifics of creation: unfired brick or raw brick and fired brick - molded and then heat-treated in an oven. It is very easy to distinguish them - baked bricks have a rich red tint, while raw bricks remain faded brown, like dry clay. In terms of performance characteristics, these types are practically the same, although there is an opinion that fired brick is stronger. However, if the raw material is molded from high-quality clay and dried properly, it is in no way inferior in strength to a product processed in an oven.

Homemade bricks are suitable for the construction of small structures, for example, sheds, bathhouses, garages. Below we will look at the manufacturing process of both types of products.

Unfired brick

The technology for making raw bricks is quite simple, and anyone can handle it. If you wish, you can even involve children in the work, since the molding process is quite interesting and resembles sculpting Easter cakes in a sandbox.

How to make adobe brick:

Wet the inside of the wooden mold with cold water.
Sprinkle with clean, dry cement or regular fine dust so that the molded bricks can be easily removed and do not lose their shape.
Spread the clay mixture into the discs and shake the mold thoroughly so that the “dough” fills all the corners.
Remove excess mortar with a piece of plywood or a wide spatula.
Close the mold with a removable lid.
Leave the mold in the shade for several days.
When the bricks are dry, remove the lid and leave the products to dry for another day.
Then turn the cells over, carefully shake out the molded products and leave to dry.

This homemade “machine” for making bricks will allow you to make high-quality building materials in a short time. To speed up the process, make several molds at once with many cells, but not too large so that they can be easily turned over.

Drying is the most important and responsible stage. During the process, the bricks shrink by about 15% and may crack if the technology is not followed. Under no circumstances expose the molds with the solution to the sun - this will in no way speed up the drying process, but will only damage the material. Also, do not leave the molds in the shade of a tree or house so that they do not get wet from rain or dew. It is best to place them under a shed or shed with good ventilation. Bricks can dry from a week to 16 days, depending on the dimensions, composition of the solution, temperature and air humidity.

Brick firing

How to make raw brick from clay is more or less clear. But if you need fired products, you should prepare for more labor-intensive work. This red brick may be needed if you need to fill a hole in a fence made of a similar material, or build a small partition, or make a mini-stove or barbecue in a summer kitchen. That is, if we're talking about about 30-50 bricks, but not about large-scale buildings.

Of course, if by chance you don’t have an industrial kiln on your property, then that’s a different matter. In all other cases you will have to improvise. In artisanal conditions, clay bricks are fired in ordinary large barrels with a volume of about 200 liters.

On free plot without vegetation and communications underground, dig a hole about 50 cm deep and with a diameter slightly less than the diameter of the bottom of the barrel. Cut small holes in the bottom of the container or remove the bottom altogether. Along the edges of the pit, place stones about 20 cm high, bricks or iron legs to place a barrel on them - this way you can maintain fire and high temperature in the pit. Light a fire at the bottom of the pit, place a barrel and place raw materials inside. Lay the bricks with gaps and slightly offset so that they heat up evenly. Cover the barrel with an iron sheet to prevent cold air from entering.

The firing process itself is quite tedious and long. It is necessary to constantly maintain a high combustion temperature in the pit by adding firewood or coal for 18-20 hours. For this reason, it is better to start work in the early morning. After the specified period, allow the fire to burn out on its own and the barrel to cool completely.

Important: Do not put out the fire under any circumstances - a sudden change in temperature will lead to cracking of the baked clay.

After several hours, the barrel and all contents will cool down, and you can safely remove the finished baked bricks. But before installation, it is necessary to check the quality of the work performed. To do this you will have to sacrifice one brick. Break it with a construction sledgehammer and look at the break - in a well-fired brick, the color of the break is uniform and the same, without gradients or spots. The structure must also be uniform. Fill the debris with water for a couple of hours and see how the material behaves after soaking. A quality product must retain its structure and color.

You can do it in exactly the same way decorative brick with your own hands for cladding the facade or fence, decorating the stove inside the house. Beautiful colour baked brick will give the exterior comfort and completeness.

Making bricks with your own hands: video instructions

We hope our article helped you understand the question of how to make bricks in artisanal conditions, and you can not only save money, but also gain valuable skills so that you can later build everything yourself.

Finally, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with useful video material about making homemade bricks using a compact press:

This is how bricks are made in a factory:

Firebox old stove for firing

IN modern world prices for building materials are quite high. However, you can save a lot of money by knowing how to make bricks yourself. After all, not everyone can afford to build even a small structure from materials purchased in a store.

For example, you don't have to buy bricks to build walls. You can do it yourself. You will have to spend money on material for manufacturing, but in any case it will save a significant part of your finances. Precisely for preservation Money Knowledge of how to make bricks yourself will come in handy.

A brick is a rectangular stone made by human hands. Thanks to this shape, it is more convenient to use during construction than natural stone. So, what do you need for a homemade stone?

Materials

When making bricks with your own hands, you should start by finding clay. You can get it on your summer cottage. But if this is not possible, it is recommended to go to the nearest quarry. Making bricks at home involves the use of certain materials. You should first make sure the quality of the clay. It should be clean and normal in fat content. You can check this most in simple ways. Here's one of them.

Pour water into 0.5 liters of clay prepared in advance. Do this until the clay becomes sticky. Roll a ball with a diameter of about 5 cm. Leave the product in the shade to dry for 2-3 days.

Next, evaluate how strong the ball is. If there is not a single crack on it, then the clay is not too greasy and there is no need to add sand to it. Then throw the ball from a height of 1 m. If cracks do not appear this time, then the material is definitely good quality and suitable fat content.

However, it also happens that the clay is not cracked, but at the same time is not strong enough. In this case, you need to mix clay and sand. Do this gradually, in small portions, constantly checking the consistency of the solution.

We make bricks when the ideal proportions of the mixture have been determined. You should choose the usual size for bricks - 250x120x65 mm. You need to fasten several molds with nails. A well-made mold will be the key to making bricks strong and suitable for construction.

A product made according to all the rules will be no worse than red brick made and fired at the factory. It is well suited for small structures. It is for such purposes that you need to know how to make a brick yourself at home.

The factory uses a specialized molding press because high-quality bricks are required to build houses. However, the owner who decided to build a barn does not have to buy such expensive equipment.

To make a brick mold, you need to purchase 2 sheets of plywood and several boards about 2.5 cm thick in advance. To speed up the process, you will need several molds. As a result, such a design will completely replace an expensive press, and the final product will be no worse than the factory one.

There should be voids in the brick to improve contact with the mortar. To do this, you need to make small cone-shaped protrusions on both covers. Fasten all the components of the mold with 5-6 cm nails, leaving only the top cover unfastened. This is required to fill the mold with mortar and remove the homemade brick from it.

Product molding

Take some clay, put it in a mold and press it down on all sides. Make sure the corners are filled.

Here's how to make a brick using a do-it-yourself mold. First, wet the mold with water and sprinkle with cement. This will eliminate problems when removing bricks. Place the clay mixture into the cells and shake the mold to distribute the clay into the corners. Excess material is carefully removed and covered with a lid. After time, you need to remove the homemade bricks.

Next, the main stage begins - drying. It is quite complicated due to the brick shrinking by 15%.
It is most convenient to carry out the process on a rack with a canopy. It is important that the future construction material well blown by the wind, not exposed to sunlight or rain. This procedure takes from 6 to 15 days, depending on weather conditions. The higher the air temperature, the faster the products will become dry.
So, the raw material is ready. How to make products fired? Most likely, the household does not have an industrial kiln, so you will have to make your own equipment for making bricks at home.
The firing process is complex. It is unlikely that it will be possible to build a large-scale structure from homemade materials, but if 30-50 products are required, then it would be wise to start processing the product yourself.

DIY firing

Making bricks at home requires only a barrel. Its volume should be about 250 liters. You need to lay bricks made by yourself there. Leave a small distance between the products so that they heat evenly.

Pre-prepare a hole 40-50 cm deep for the fire pit. For uniform heating of the products and convenient control of the fire, place the barrel on the fire with 20 cm legs.

Now fill it with content. Place the products one on top of the other, not forgetting to leave gaps. Then cover the barrel with a sheet of metal to prevent cold air from entering it. It is recommended to attach handles to the lid so as not to get burned when you need to remove it.

Bricks need to be fired for 18 to 20 hours. Maintain the fire under the barrel at the required level throughout.

After this, let the container cool. Do not remove the cover under any circumstances! The cooling process should occur slowly, gradually. It is necessary to regulate the temperature, slowly reducing the strength of the fire.

5 hours after the barrel has completely cooled, you can open the lid and take out the burnt brick.
The quality of the work done should be checked. To do this, conduct a test. You need to break one product with a hammer. If all firing rules are followed, it will be the same color in all places.

Next, pour water over the split building material. At the end of its stay in water, the product must also have a uniform structure and the same color.
If the test is passed successfully, the firing process can be considered completed and you can continue to use building material made by yourself.
So the brick that is made on our own without abs and industrial equipment, in no way inferior to the factory one.

You will need

- clayey soil;
- bayonet and shovel shovels;
- screwdriver;
- garden wheelbarrow;
- boards 25-30 mm;
- 2 thick bars 20 cm long;
- cement M400 or red clay;
- self-tapping screws;
- rammer made of beech, ash or oak.

Instructions

Make a machine for making an earth breaker in the form of a box without a bottom with strong wooden handles on the sides. It is believed that the thickness of adobe walls should not be less than 50-60 cm. This determines the size of the form. For example, very easy to use earthen bricks can be made using a 30x60x20 cm machine. Use self-tapping screws to connect the mold parts.

Prepare the brick mixture. It is better to take loamy soil for digging. You cannot use peat or garden fertile soil. Collect soil from a depth of 50-70 cm and remove stones and various kinds organics. Dig a hole 4x3 m, pour soil into it and pour some water. For strength, add red clay or cement (up to 10% by weight) and straw (30-60%) to the mixture. Knead the solution with your feet until it becomes completely homogeneous.

Test the resulting soil mixture. To do this, take a bucket without a bottom and fill it with earthenware. Do the installation in layers of 10-12 cm with a tamper. Dry the resulting brick in the shade under a canopy for two weeks. Drop the finished stone from a height of one meter. If it does not break, the mixture is suitable for making earthen bricks.

Pack the mixture into the molds, compacting each layer with a strong tamper. Level the mass on top and remove the mold from the resulting brick. Make a few more of these stones. Leave the earth bricks with straw to dry for 3-4 days in the shade, and then turn them over on their edges and keep them like that for a few more days. As the stones dry, lay the walls using the “brick” method on a reinforced rubble concrete strip foundation.

Video on the topic

note

The soils in Russia have different compositions and it is quite difficult to select the appropriate proportions of earth, clay and straw when making an earth breaker. Therefore, in order not to take risks, it is better to first build some insignificant economic structure from earthen bricks - a barn, summer kitchen, extension, etc. If everything works out, you can use the material you prepared yourself to build a residential building.

Helpful advice

If desired, you can build an earthen house using simplified technology. In this case, stones and organic matter are also first removed from the loam, and then a little cement is added to it. Next, the earthen “dough” is kneaded and compacted into ordinary polypropylene bags. The result is large “bricks” suitable for construction, including residential buildings. Walls made from bags of earth are laid with bandages.

People have been using brick for a very long time. The reason for this popularity is the unique properties of this building material, as well as the ease of its manufacture. In areas with active sun summer time it can be made artisanally, at home. The brick obtained in this way is suitable for the construction of one-story structures intended for housing or for household needs.

Preparing and testing clay

Suitable clay is not available in every area, but often the raw materials for making bricks are located almost on the surface: it is enough to remove a layer of turf. If such a deposit is located directly on your site, this is very convenient, but if not, you can use clay deposits in a public quarry or purchase them in a commercial quarry.

The suitability of clay as a raw material must be verified. To do this, you need to take a sample of the soil in the area: when you add water, does it turn into a reddish mud with an oily consistency? This means that this place is suitable for extracting the clay you need. But you should also check the fat content of the raw materials - the quality of the resulting building material depends on this. To check, you need to take samples in different places on the site. Half a kilo of earth is mixed with not big amount water. Stirring should continue until the clay has completely absorbed all the water and begins to stick to the skin. The “dough” obtained in this way is formed into a cake 10 cm in diameter and a ball with a diameter of about 5 cm. This procedure must be carried out with each sample and the resulting samples must be left to dry in the open air for a couple of days. If the samples become covered with cracks during this time, this means that sand should be added to the alumina to reduce the fat content. If no cracks are observed and the ball dropped from a meter height remains intact, it means that the fat content of the raw material is within normal limits.

It is necessary to distinguish between lean types of clay: they also do not crack, but they do not have sufficient strength. To eliminate this drawback, fattier varieties, as well as sand, must be added to such clay.

This must be done in several stages, each time checking the quality of the mixture. This must be continued until the required proportion necessary to obtain quality products is established.

How to make raw brick and adobe

The following types of clay brick can be made using non-industrial methods: adobe (unfired with chopped straw), raw brick and fired red brick.

Adobe, when made from high-quality raw materials in compliance with drying conditions, will be in no way inferior to ordinary baked brick. Buildings made from this material can last up to 70 years.

To make adobe, a container is assembled for mixing the components: two types of clay are used - lean and fatty, to which straw is added in a ratio of 1: 1: 5. After this, a certain amount of water is added and the resulting mixture is carefully mixed with a shovel. The straw must first be crushed: this helps to increase the strength of the adobe. Unchopped straw is unsuitable as a raw material. The ideal option is to use dried wheat stalks.

To form bricks, make equipment from boards and plywood. The standard shape of bricks corresponds to dimensions 250x120x65 mm. To improve adhesion to the mortar, you can make special protrusions in the lids that form recesses in the brick. The parts of the equipment are connected using long nails, and the top cover must be removable. The number of templates should support the expected performance.

After preparing the solution, the equipment is filled. First, it must be moistened with water inside and sprinkle with fine sand, dust or cement: this is necessary to facilitate the removal of the formed product. When laying, the raw materials are compacted so that the equipment is completely filled. Excess clay is removed with a spatula. After this, the top covers are installed, which are then removed. The formed bricks are removed from the mold after it is turned over.

The picture shows an example of adobe construction

Drying of bricks should take place under a canopy, on racks. During this process, the product decreases in volume by approximately 15% (shrinkage occurs). It is recommended to protect the wet brick from direct sunlight, but to ensure good ventilation. Drying time depends on humidity and air temperature, as well as wind speed and varies from one to two weeks.

Due to the low water resistance of unfired bricks, additional protection of the walls from moisture should be provided. To do this, increase the edges of the overhangs to at least 60 cm and carefully bandage the masonry seams; window and door openings are located at least one and a half meters from the corners. But the best way is to line the outside walls with some moisture-resistant material or apply a layer of plaster on them.

Raw brick without straw is made in the same way as adobe, with the only difference being that instead of straw, a small amount of fine fine fraction pure quartz sand is added to the clay in a ratio of 1:5.

This is not an easy task, but it is still possible to make a small batch of baked bricks using an artisanal method. The whole process is divided into three parts: heating, direct firing and cooling.

Raw firing can be done in a simple metal barrel with a volume of about 250 liters. You need to cut out the top and bottom bottoms and install them on a metal stove without a top. Raw brick is placed inside the barrel and fired.

Another method of firing is using a fire. You should dig a hole half a meter deep and place the barrel on low legs (about 20 cm). This is necessary for uniform heating. The raw brick is laid in a column inside the barrel with small intervals. The filled barrel must be closed with a lid to prevent cold air from entering. You need to maintain a fire for about 20 hours: this depends on the quality of the clay and is chosen experimentally.

During the drying process, under the influence of high temperature, the clay is sintered - it turns into ceramics.

The cooling process of the brick must be controlled: this can be done by gradually reducing the amount of fuel supplied. The barrel must remain closed at all times. A sharp change in temperature leads to cracking of bricks. The barrel can only be opened 5…6 hours after the brick has completely cooled.