Bricks are a commodity we think of as a building material. It’s not often you stop to admire the bricks of a building particularly, rather something you take into the aesthetic of the building as a whole, an unsung hero of architecture.
However, brick is now something that is being appreciated a little more, thanks to brick slips. A brick slip is simply a tile, cut from a full brick. It means you can use them in many more spaces with ease, as opposed to laying a full brick wall. At the forefront of this design revolution are companies such as The Brick Tile Company who promote their brick slips in 3 categories: Reclaimed, Traditional, and Contemporary.
The popular products are often the reclaimed style bricks, they have a character that we often find ourselves searching for. Something pre-aged means that it is already timeless, and something that brings an incredible amount of texture, as well as the variation in colours that the brick-making process naturally can produce, the molding of clay will crease and bake at different levels- literally baking in character.
Where Can You Install Brick Slips?
As they’re cut from full bricks, they can be used inside and outside, and even as flooring.
Most often they’re used to create impactful feature walls in dining rooms, living rooms, or bedrooms. As a fire-resistant material, they can also be used to elevate fireplaces, from just the internal chamber to a whole chimney breast.
One popular application is in a kitchen, where we focus a lot of our interior design. Brick slips work beautifully in a kitchen, but one thing needs to be considered here, as well as in bathrooms: moisture. Brick is porous and will soak in moisture, be that water, or bolognese sauce. Therefore it’s recommended to apply a breathable brick slip sealant once the installation has fully dried, to fill the cavities that make it porous. Always use one that soaks in as a membrane rather than covering the surface, this means that you can keep the brick look, rather than having a gloss or matt finish on top.
Installing Brick Slips
In wanting the aesthetic of brick, whether the creased and rustic reclaimed style range, or the smooth soft sheen of the contemporary, the slips are much easier to install than a full wall, and can be even easier than tiling, a DIY job that you may feel intimidated by, but that can be very forgiving and fulfilling.
Of course, you can get a professional in to install it for you, but following a step-by-step guide on how to install brick slips you can very easily do a good job yourself, with some basic tools from your local DIY store. If you’re looking at the reclaimed style, then none of the tiles themselves will be straight or even, and will never lend themselves to be installed perfectly straight. This means you have some leeway as a DIYer to not be perfect yourself, and in so doing, add to the overall effect in fact.
The key difference with tiling is the grout/mortar. You must not apply the mortar to the faces of the bricks, as it will soak in and dull them. Instead, pipe the mortar into the gaps, smooth it out and brush off any excess with a dry stiff brush.
Whether you install it yourself or get a professional to do it, and if it’s your kitchen or your fireplace, the character of brick can make an immense difference to your home.
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