How to make brick do it yourself

Homemade brick manufacturers have been practiced long before the construction of plants for their large-scale production. Here today, many economical owners prefer to make bricks with their own hands, instead of spending money on purchased products of similar quality. Building materials made by hand, sometimes even stronger factory, and sometimes it is not necessary for the construction of a shed or garage in the country. In this article we will tell 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 self-made bricks over those manufactured in factory conditions, not only in their cheapness and economy. The most important thing is the absolute environmental safety of building materials. You know exactly what brick is made, and you can control its physico-chemical characteristics at its discretion, making more durable, light, durable, warm, etc.

Make bricks at home is quite simple, and the methods of their manufacture have known for a long time. At the same time, you will not need special technique or professional skills - everything happens in handicrafts. The combination of proven production methods, natural materials and new technical techniques allows you to get a quality product at minimum cost. So, in raw materials for bricks, various polymer additives and plasticizers can be added to improve its thermal insulation qualities.

Construction of a new building in the country, whether it is a sewage pit, a fence, a small barn or a guest house, not always conjugate with great financial costs. If you know the secret of making homemade bricks, you can save a significant amount and spend it on high-quality finish, furniture or celebration of housekewing!

What makes brick

By and large, the brick is an artificially created stone of rectangular shape. Why rectangular? For construction, it is this geometric form that is most convenient - it is able to withstand long loads, ensures strength, stability, rectangular building materials easier to transport.

The most important thing in the manufacture of homemade bricks is to find high-quality raw materials. This will require finding a good clay deposit or purchase it on the basis, factory, construction market, etc. From how clean it is clay and what inclusions are present in it, the strength and durability of products will depend. So if you found a clay deposit near the house, do not rush to rejoice and fill the bags - first check the quality.

Not every clay is suitable for bricks. So, it is necessary to check the level of its fat. To do this, dial a little clay and swing it with water until it starts sticking to the hands, and it will be possible to sculpt from it. Take a small ball about 5 cm in diameter and damn with a thickness of 1 cm and 10 cm in diameter. Put the products into the shadow outdoors for 2-3 days.

When they are dry, you can proceed to testing strength. If cracks formed during drying on the surface, then the clay was too fat and for the preparation of a "brick test" should be diluted with small river sand. If the cracks did not appear, throw a ball on the asphalt from a height of 1 m without effort - if he fears, then you got the perfect clay for the production of bricks.

If the clay for the manufacture of brick is too dry, it does not crack, but will be rather fragile. In this case, it must be diluted with a more fatty. For the preparation of the solution, inch clay with water and how to disperse, to achieve a consistency of very thick sour cream. If necessary, add to a mixture of river sand or fatty clay at the rate of 5 parts of the sand on 1 part of the clay. Must warn that this is only an approximate proportion, since all clay have a different composition, and you may have to experiment to find your recipe for the preparation of the perfect solution.

As mentioned above, plasticizers and other additives can be mixed in homemade bricks that can improve the performance characteristics of the material. For example, in ancient in the brick mass, minor sawdust was added as a heater. And today the manufacture of saman bricks with straw is becoming popular. Such "dough" is perfect not only for homemade bricks, but also for waterproofing and insulation of foundations.

How to give brick shape

When the issue with the materials is resolved, you should take care of the form of future products. On factories for forming an unhappy brick (raw) use the press, at home, it may well be replaced by self-made molds in the form of rectangles from boards or plywood. Press for the manufacture of bricks can be useful if you started large-scale construction. But for a small building or the fence, there are enough wooden blanks.

The elementary form for the manufacture of bricks is made from latitive boards, a couple of pieces of plywood and nails. To speed up production rates, it is recommended to make several blanks immediately, otherwise you will have to wait until the composition dry to release the shape and proceed to the fill of the next brick.

Form dimensions can be any depending on your needs and preferences, but it is better at first not to fantasize, but to make cells with the dimensions of the classic brick - 250x120x65 mm. On the shape lids on top and bottom to build small conical protrusions so that emptiness remains in products to improve adhesion with cement mortar.

Flip out the shape of the boards, attach the bottom of the plywood, and leave the top cover is not fixed so that it can be easily removed after filling the shape and remove the formated neat brick.

How to make brick - instruction

There are several types of bricks depending on the specifics of the creation: an unreleased brick or raw and burned - molded, and then underwent heat treatment in the oven. It is very easy to distinguish them - burned bricks have a rich red shade, and raw remains black-brown, like a dry clay. On operational characteristics, these species are practically no different, although there is an opinion that the burned brick is stronger. However, if the raw is formed from high-quality clay and dry properly, it will not yield to the strength of the product treated in the furnace.

Homemade bricks are suitable for the construction of small structures, such as Sarai, baths, garages. Below we consider the process of manufacturing both types of products.

Unsecured brick

The manufacturing technology of raw brick is quite simple, anyone will cope with it. If you wish, even children can be attracted to work, since the forming process is quite interesting and resembles the modeling of the "Kulichiki" in the sandbox.

How to make an unknown brick:

1. Wooden shape moisten from inside with cold water.
2. Pour a clean dry cement or conventional shallow dust so that molded bricks are easily removed and do not lose form.
3. Spread the clay mixture on dwarves and shake the shape threshold so that the "dough" filled all the corners.
4. Surplus the solution remove the piece of plywood or a wide spatula.
5. Close the shape of a removable lid.
6. Leave the shape in the shade for several days.
7. When bricks get sick, remove the lid and leave products to dry another day.
8. Then turn the cells, carefully shake the molded products and leave to dry.

Such a homemade "machine" for the manufacture of bricks will allow you to make high-quality building materials in a short time. To speed up the process, make several shapes with many cells, but not too large so that they can be easily flipped.

Drying is the most important and responsible stage. In the process, bricks are sitting at about 15% and can crack, if not to comply with technology. In no case, do not exhibit forms with a solution in the sun - this is in no way accelerate the drying process, but only rules the material. Also, do not leave forms in the shade of the tree or at home so that they do not go under rain or dew. It is best to put them under a canopy or in a barn with good ventilation. Keep bricks can from week to 16 days depending on the dimensions, the composition of the solution, temperature and humidity of the air.

Kirpich firing

How from clay make brick raw more less clear. But if you need burnt products, it is worth getting ready for more laborious work. Such a red brick may be needed if you need to close a hole in the fence from a similar material or build a small partition, make a mini-stove or barbell on the summer kitchen. That is, if we are talking about 30-50 bricks, but not about large-scale buildings.

Of course, if you do not accidentally accidentally find an industrial furnace for firing, then there is another matter. In all other cases will have to improvise. In handicraft conditions, clay bricks are burned in ordinary large barrels of about 200 liters.

On the free plot without vegetation and communications underground, dig a hole with a depth of about 50 cm and a diameter of a little less than the diameter of the barrel bottom. Cut small holes at the bottom of the tank or remove the bottom at all. At the edges of the pit, put stones with a height of about 20 cm, bricks or iron legs to install a barrel - so in the pit it will be possible to maintain fire and heat. At the bottom of the pit, throw the fire, put the barrel and put the raw inside. Bricks laid with gaps and slightly with a shift so that they warmer evenly. Cover the barrel with an iron sheet so that cold air does not penetrate.

The roasting process itself is quite tedious and long. It is necessary to constantly maintain a high combustion temperature in the pit, laying firewood or coal, for 18-20 hours. For this reason, it is better to start work from early morning. After the expiration of the specified period, give fire to burn yourself alone, and barrel - to cool completely.

IMPORTANT: in no case do not extinguish a fire - a sharp temperature difference will lead to cracking of the cacked clay.

After several hours, the barrel and all the contents are cooled, and it is possible to remove ready-made baked bricks without fears. But before laying it is necessary to check the quality of the work performed. To do this, you will have to sacrifice one brick. We break it with a building sledgehammer and look at the rift - a well-burned brick color is uniform and the same, without gradients and stains. The structure should also be uniform. Fill the wreckage by water for a couple of hours and see how the material will behave after clarifying. The quality product must keep the structure and color.

In exactly the same way, you can make a decorative brick with your own hands for facing the facade or fence, decorating the oven inside the house. Beautiful color of burned brick will give the exterior of comfort and completeness.

Making bricks with your own hands: Video instructions

We hope our article helped you deal with the question of how to make a brick in handicrafts, and you can not only save money, but also to gain valuable skills to subsequently build everything with your own hands.

Finally, we suggest familiarizing yourself with the useful video material about the manufacture of homemade bricks using a compact press:

And like this make bricks at the factory: