Brick affect wall panels

madlyn

The alcoves I have either side of the chimney breast I would like to take the plaster off and expose the brick. However I am not keen on the amount of mess this would cause but I have seen panels that can be attached to the wall to give the affect of exposed brick.
Has anyone ever used something like this and how did you find putting them up and the end result?
TIA

stuart45

Brick slips look the same as the 4 inch wide bricks when stuck to the wall. Quite easy to work with. For external work they do sometimes fall off the wall over time.

FreeBear

Bricks hidden behind plaster are likely to be all the crappy damaged seconds that the builder had to hand. Fitting panels is going to be a wise choice. Not seen any "brick effect" panels, but I'm sure they exist. Failing that, you could use brick slips - These are basically 20mm or so thick tiles (often cut from a whole brick), so can be stuck to a wall with tile adhesive. You may need to use a tile backer board if the plaster is a little dodgy.

stuart45

FreeBear said: Not seen any "brick effect" panels, but I'm sure they exist. 

They do, but plastic T&G plastic does not look as good IMHO (slight improvement on the brick wallpaper). There are some mechanical fixing methods being used externally on sites now (over from the USA) which are said to be superior to the ones stuck on. I have seen larger panels used years ago, but you could see the joins. The newer system has them put into metal rails and then pointed up later.

coffeehound

I was looking for brick effect photographic backgrounds the other day and found a couple that look realistic

https://your4walls.co.uk/products/lowry-brick-wallpaper-red

https://www.iwantwallpaper.co.uk/arthouse-urban-brick-pattern-wallpaper-faux-effect-realistic-house-stone-696600-p4786/s4786