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it says above that i do find it flattering.
(as flattered as one can get over a painted brick wall)
worded a bit harsh to say i find it annoying.
i may have mentioned it can get annoying to have alot of people coming in wanting to talk about the walls and get the exact formula, only because
were usually pretty busy taking care of clients or any number of things besides stopping to discuss the wall treatment.

i did walk over to a guys house once to give him advice on the treatment (i think thats how this started) i do like to chat about the making of anything. but sometimes were just busy.

so im writing really to save anyone the headache
of trying to mix 50/50 plaster and compound???
and then hate me, i believe theres a misunderstanding.
itll get hard in 2 minutes.

for the record there is no secret formula
and thats why its not given out.


just use drywall compound straight! add a bit of plaster (if you know what your doing)to make it dry faster and have more
body when filling big voids. ive messed with a bunch of different things but if you want it simple just use straight compound it works fine. smear it on with anything and wipe it into the brick with brush or sponge. other than that it can get kind of complicated with trying to get a mechanical adhesion with something cementitious
and still getting the texture, and ive never had anything work much better than straight compound
thats worth the extra steps. and i dont give it up not because its secret i jsut dont have
anything i could say technically "works" as some mentioned its not really a sound building
practice, brick needs to breath. its not going to ruin the building but im sure does have long term affect on the quality of the mortar. basically anything that can brathe lasts longer.on exterior walls you will have spots where the paint blooms
and comes off a bit. dont use exterior or moisture barrier paints, interior latex breathes a little
better but youll still have some problems on exterior walls. on interor wall your fine.



any questions, just email me. i promise not to get annoyed

tyler hays
bddw

oops i also noticed it said
sand, dont! ceratin i didnt say that

skim coat the wall, while its still wet wipe it
in with brush or sponge....that its your texture.
paint it.

you cant be a total hack and make it look nice but if you can mud, this is easier.

Do you think this would work on larger, more irregularly shaped bricks. My mother has a wall of white bricks with mica flecks (not sure what the white stone is) that is the bane of her existence. This could be my holiday project when I'm down in Florida, but I wonder if the wider spaces in between the brick (about an inch and a half) would fill in too much.

When we bought our house, the home inspector told us the worst thing you can do to brick is seal it off (he was talking about the fact that the 1938 chimney had been painted)becaue it doesn't allow the brick to breathe and traps moisture, causing eventual degradation. He recommended we leave the wearing off paint alone, and let as much brick as possible be exposed. Are the rules different for interiors or is that we live in the moist PacNW and have different rules?

regards,
trillium

generally I think the rule is that poor quality brick tends to crumble. I know a beautiful 18th century house that still has a bit of ochre paint left on it way close to the eaves if you look carefully for traces... probably 200 year old paint! My point is that we have been painting brick for hundreds of years without our cities crashing down on top of us. Sure moisture can sometimes collect under a coat of paint. But that moisture is just as likely to appear on plaster walls as it is anywhere else. Plus, I have heard plenty of stories concerning incredible oversites made by so-called "home inspectors".

Painting Brick CAN be horrible. (or benign)

horrible:
Here's why: water vapour (really abundant in combustion by-products, but it's everywhere) moves around from higher to lower concentrations...and generally from hot to cold.
There are whole classes and degrees taught on this subject, so trust me.

If you seal the brick (and paint makes a decent seal for this purpose) you can trap vapour which can then condense if conditions are right (like your bricks get cold, which, say on the outside of a chimeny or outside wall of your house, will happen) when that happens you have bricks saturated with water, which can freeze, which causes water to expand (which incidentally is one of those accidents which makes life on earth possible) but which will crack and flake bricks in no time at all - and much else masonry -stones, concretes, mortar.

Benign:
If you are sealing the warm/humid side of the bricks you *usually* won't do any harm


Solutions:
When "painting bricks" , "paint" them with something that has high vapour permeability, or better yet, don't do it.

Breathing: Not just good for bricks.

wow, you answered my question before i even got around to asking it. i was considering going into BDDW to find out how they got their walls like that.
thank you!

by the way, since most of your brick walls (in nyc anyway) are party walls between two buildings, i would guess you don't have to worry about liquid water infiltration, or water vapor infiltration due to temperature difference on the two sides of the wall

What about liming (spelling?) the brick. I have always thought that the beautiful whitewashed brick and stone walls in Europe were limed with a calcium wash. I would think a lime wash would breath; certainly the brick and stone walls in Greece, Italy and England that I have seen in a brilliant white are very, very old. So, it must be safe to use.
Does anyone know how they do it? Seems like a durable option for outside walls.

I have a question--is there something that can be done like this to brick that has already been painted? I'd like to have the more interesting texture so I don't get those "oh, too bad your brick is painted" comments. Would the plaster adhere to the paint?

...i use milk paint...a natural product that breathes...easy application with a gorgeous chalky matte finish...

mgr-

what is the benefit of mixing plaster and joint compound, as opposed to using one or the other?

plaster of paris makes the jc harder and dry faster.

I don't really understand why he won't share the recipe, or why people asking about it annoys him. He should take it as a compliment.

If it was something he sold, I could obviously understand not wanting to share.

Does anyone know how to get that lovely rustic peeled paint look. You know the old house that is more brick than paint but the trim is nicely painted so that it doesn't look neglected. Can you do that with the soft brick? I have heard that lesser quality brick needs paint or it will crumble away. How fast does this happen and can one acheive that look with inferior older bricks?

Bddw has a great space. Tyler and his entire team are talented and wonderful to work with. Have a little understanding here. It's a showroom for furniture not brick walls. I think Tyler has been more than helpful here regarding these brick walls. Now let him get back to taking care of his business at hand.

I've done brick walls in the "BDDW" style for clients of mine and the easiest method I've found is using a caulk gun and Alex Plus "brilliant white" caulk (found at Home Depot). Squeeze it into the cracks and use your finger to smooth it. You'll need many tubes of caulk, but at a couple bucks a piece it won't break the bank. Keep lots of wet towels on hand to clean your finger(s) and a couple bottles of wine 'cause it's rather tedious work, but the results are totally worth it.

Once it's dry and you've achieved the right texture go ahead and paint it using "decorator's white" flat finish interior latex. A couple coats should do the trick.

Good luck!

The Dangers Of Joint Compound Joint compound is composed of gypsum or sometimes limestone, polyvinyl acetate, and benzene (the preferred solvent). A natural or synthetic starch is used as a binder and mica, clay, talc or perlite is used as a filler. Ethylene glycol helps to control the drying time. Antibacterial and anti-fungal agents are also added. Many of these substances are known toxins. In a Harvard study done for the EPA, joint compound was found to release as many as 25 volatile organic compounds or VOC's. Six of the compounds they identified are suspected human carcinogens. The picture gets worse because the release of these VOC's into the air of your home increases over time. That's right. Instead of decreasing as you might expect, the vapors were found to increase rather than decrease depending in temperature and humidity conditions. Interestingly, the higher the temperature and humidity the more VOC's released. This means breathing the air in your home may increase your risk of cancer - indefinitely.
The Dangers Of Joint Compound Joint compound is composed of gypsum or sometimes limestone, polyvinyl acetate, and benzene (the preferred solvent). A natural or synthetic starch is used as a binder and mica, clay, talc or perlite is used as a filler. Ethylene glycol helps to control the drying time. Antibacterial and anti-fungal agents are also added. Many of these substances are known toxins. In a Harvard study done for the EPA, joint compound was found to release as many as 25 volatile organic compounds or VOC's. Six of the compounds they identified are suspected human carcinogens. The picture gets worse because the release of these VOC's into the air of your home increases over time. That's right. Instead of decreasing as you might expect, the vapors were found to increase rather than decrease depending in temperature and humidity conditions. Interestingly, the higher the temperature and humidity the more VOC's released. This means breathing the air in your home may increase your risk of cancer - indefinitely.
http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/QandA/materials/plaster.htm

I had a "modernized" (read uglified) fireplace in a 19th C house. The surround was made of hideous, kind of ribbed, red brick. So I ghosted it with a thin wash of cream latex paint. It looked so good I had to restrain myself from wandering around the house ghosting everything.