How to make a window opening in masonry. We are building the first floor of the house, installing quarters in window openings

When it comes to the appearance of your home, you should take this issue seriously. Before you start decorating the facade, you should go through all the possible options and choose the most suitable one. Cladding the facade of a house with brick is one of the most popular cladding methods. However, it is not always possible to use facing brick, then options for other facing elements that successfully imitate it come to the rescue. One of these is siding. Now let’s take a closer look at the possible options for finishing brick facades.

Cladding the facade of a house with brick is one of the most popular finishing methods.

All about the material, its advantages and types

Thanks to the use of facing bricks, the external defects of the building are hidden. If facade brick is used for old buildings, then it perfectly hides the presence of cracks on the walls of the house that appear due to load. But not only old houses require finishing - the brick facade of a new house looks even more impressive. Previously, many buildings were erected using brick, but now it is customary to use facing bricks specifically as a finishing element for the facade.

Facade bricks are:

• Facial
• Clinker

Thanks to the use of facing bricks, external defects of the building are hidden

Both are used to decorate the exterior walls of the house and give it a beautiful appearance. The use of clinker is necessary for houses that are made using three-layer wall technology. Of course, the expenses for such a facade will be greater, but the benefits will also increase. A favorable microclimate is created inside houses with three-layer walls, and all thanks to the fact that between the load-bearing and outer wall thermal insulation is distributed as evenly as possible.

The use of clinker bricks has a number of advantages:

1. The material has high mechanical strength
2. Frost-resistant and non-flammable, and also serves as a barrier to fire
3. Not afraid of corrosion and pollution
4. A huge selection of clinker facing material allows you to perform a variety of finishes, which allows you to make your house beautiful and attractive

Clinker brick facade

In addition to a large selection of shades, the facing material is also available in black and white. And if you take advantage of this and make the facade of your house from facing bricks of different colors, you can achieve incredible effects and show everyone that you have taste and imagination. The shapes of clinker bricks are varied; they can have rounded edges or chamfered edges. Clinker facing bricks can be perfectly combined with wood, stone and metal, so various combinations of clinker material and other facade elements will give an original appearance.

Nowadays it is customary to use facing bricks as a finishing element for the facade.

Repair is a major challenge brick facade. The cause of cracks on the wall can be not only time, but also shrinkage of the house or improper design. Sometimes it is possible to use overlays and metal belts - they strengthen the wall of the house and prevent further destruction.

Important! Outwardly, it can be difficult to understand whether a crack is growing or not. In order to understand this, glue a sheet of paper onto the damaged brick - if after time the sheet remains intact, then the crack does not increase and you can begin to carry out renovation work and restoration.

Siding

When it is impossible or you do not want to use such a finishing element as brick, you can use other options. For example, brick siding will be a cost-effective solution that you can implement yourself. Siding is lightweight, and thanks to this there is no unnecessary load on the house.
Siding can be easily processed, and it is applicable for a curtain wall.

Brick siding panels: original and inexpensive facade design

Of all the advantages of using, the following can be highlighted:

• Brick siding is so similar to natural material that from afar it can be very difficult to understand whether a building is built of brick or lined with siding
• Ideal appearance obtained by making a mold based on a cast of masonry from natural material
• For brick wall restoration is required, and it is enough to wash the facing siding with water
• The service life of the finish reaches 30 years or even more - it is not afraid of precipitation and does not fade in the sun
• Light siding panels can be used to cover not only the walls of a house, but also its individual elements.
• Wide choose color range together with the lightness and low price of the panel, made it one of the most popular cladding elements

A hinged ventilated facade is used to cover the house with siding. The panels are fastened to the sheathing after the thermal insulation layer is laid. The ability to decorate your home yourself using such panels is a huge advantage. And the fact that this work is clean and dry, unlike “wet” facades, makes it even more pleasing and enticing to do it yourself.

Siding panels imitating brickwork

Window decoration

When a façade is being restored or laid with brick, a good way to highlight the windows is to frame them. It is necessary not to forget about symmetry, otherwise the window frame will become not a decoration of the facade, but its ugliness. Properly executed framing will add expressiveness to the building and highlight window openings.

Window openings made of facing bricks

Despite the uniqueness of this design, there are times when framing begins only after some inconsistencies have been eliminated:

1. If the windows are not standard size, but they are proportionally installed, then it’s okay. But there are times when deviations from standards introduce inconsistency into the overall design of the house, and decorating the windows with brick will make this dissonance even more noticeable.
2. During the restoration of a house, there are times when the window opening should be completely sealed, and sometimes you just need to reduce it. For this there are different kinds materials.
3. If before framing the windows you need to widen the opening and install a new double-glazed window, you will need to trim the brick. This task is best handled by a professional.

Brick-like tiles in window frames

There are a huge number of varieties finishing materials, which will help to significantly simplify the process of window framing. There are hyper-pressed rounded bricks, shaped hollow bricks, solid radial bricks and many others. It is also possible to use embossed clinker bricks, which have very high frost resistance and strength, in contrast to shaped hollow material.

Window framing with facing bricks

Results

Definitely facing brick is good option façade finishing, but the modern construction market also has other successful materials that perfectly imitate natural masonry. Before starting cladding, you should think through all the options and details of the facade, so as not to encounter problems with installation or framing of openings in the future.

More and more often, in new buildings appearing here and there, I observe the presence of quarters in window openings. Some time ago, almost no one produced quarters, but with the advent plastic windows, this has become necessary for better and more convenient installation. Quarters allow you to install the window frame more tightly in the opening. If there are quarters, it is possible to use all kinds of seals. And from an aesthetic point of view, this is very good. In this material I want to take a closer look at some aspects of this issue and also reveal a couple of secrets that will allow you not only to correctly arrange the quarters in the window opening, but also to block the window opening without any problems metal corner.

Let's start with the fact that in itself quarter It must be done very carefully, however, like everything else in construction. To lay it out, the halves must be cut with a diamond wheel strictly to size. And the size of the halves is known - 12 cm, no more, no less. The size of the quarter itself is most often 5 cm. You can, of course, deviate from this size in one direction or another, but only by one centimeter. If the quarter is made too small, then it will lose all meaning at all, and it will not play any role in the subsequent installation of the window. If, on the contrary, you make the quarters too large, then a new problem will arise - the window opening is too wide. And to install a window in such an opening, you will need a copious amount of polyurethane foam, which is also not good.

In the immediate vicinity of window openings, it is necessary to especially carefully reinforce the brickwork. Looking through my publications, you have probably read more than once that you should not skimp on masonry mesh and wire. Home construction- a very serious matter and mistakes on initial stage construction, may cost too much later. And, of course, do not let go of the level throughout the entire process. Needless to say, the window opening must be vertical. Unless, of course, the opposite is provided for by the project)))).

Now let's talk about covering the window opening with a metal corner. The corner must be 100 by 100 in size and have a shelf thickness of at least 7 and no more than 8 mm. Before covering a window opening, be sure to coat it with primer. This will subsequently save the corner itself, your nerves and health for a long time. The fact is that when it starts to rust and spoil the appearance of the whole house, and this, if you do not cover it with a primer, will happen quite quickly. You will be very worried and will climb to the top with a can of paint and a brush, risking getting dirty yourself, smearing the window with paint, and generally flying off the stairs.)))
Now about one technical point: the corner must be mounted on the brickwork so that it does not protrude from behind the quarters into the wall!

The fact is that at the very top of the window opening, it is also necessary to make a quarter, raising the concrete lintels 4-5 cm above the corner. And this quarter should be located in the same vertical plane with the others. Of course, in this case, one serious inconvenience arises: the row of facing masonry, which we will drive along the corner, and with which we will block the window opening, will begin to protrude from the general plane of the wall. To prevent this from happening, several face bricks simply need to be cut lengthwise using a diamond wheel, as shown in the illustration, thereby reducing their width.

The illustration below shows exactly how not to block a window opening. I deliberately found a house under construction with such an error in order to make this material more visual. Unfortunately, this mistake is quite common among masons and I didn't have to look long to find it. There is no point in repeating this mistake and complicating your life later. Take a look for yourself: with this arrangement of the corner, the upper quarter of the window opening loses all meaning of its existence!!!

Window cladding with bricks is good way highlight the window areas, emphasize their shape and give expressiveness to the entire facade. The framing of window openings should be well thought out and symmetrical relative to the wall brickwork. A prerequisite for their high-quality design is sealing the cracks using certain masonry techniques or beautiful brick trim. The instructions in our article will tell you in detail how to cladding window openings with brick.

Features of window treatments

In order for the facade to look harmonious, symmetry must be observed in everything: the size and shape of the windows themselves, their location relative to the corner areas, the width of the partitions. These conditions must be met during the construction of the walls of the house, and for this there are certain standards. But in practice, quite often there are inconsistencies that need to be eliminated before facing the windows of a house with bricks begins. So:

• If the windows do not correspond to the standard in size, but are located proportionally on the facade, there is nothing wrong with that. But there are situations when obvious deviations introduce a certain dissonance into the exterior of the building. After the window openings are lined with brick, the asymmetry will be even more visible.
• Therefore, it is necessary to take measures even before the start of facing work. It may be necessary to increase the width of one window and reduce the opening of another. To enlarge the window opening, it is necessary to trim the bricks or partially dismantle the wall. It’s not easy to do this with your own hands - it requires skill.
• You need to act very carefully in order to maintain straight lines of the partition for the joints with the frame, without violating the integrity of the masonry. Naturally, the amount of work performed will depend on the difference in the parameters of windows and openings. The size of windows is often reduced, which may be associated not only with preparation for finishing the openings, but also with the need to insulate the house.
• Just in this case, brick cladding above the window or along its entire perimeter can perfectly cope with this task. For this purpose, a brick can be selected that is similar in color and texture to the front part of the entire facade. As an option, a contrasting finish is used, which you can see in the photo at the beginning of this article.
• If, for example, an old house is being reconstructed, it may be necessary to completely seal one opening. The presence of several windows on one wall most often interferes with the effective use of the usable space of the premises, does not allow you to arrange furniture at your discretion, and, as a rule, there are problems with the thermal insulation of such a house.

• Sealing the opening, in this situation, may be the only correct solution, but you should remember that this area does not spoil the appearance of the wall as a whole. In such cases, finishing the walls with decorative plaster usually comes to the rescue. At the same time, facing the window with brick, especially contrasting and embossed brick, will become an elegant decoration of the updated facade.

By the way, if a regular building brick, it can also be plastered. Taking a look at the example above, you can see that it is also very beautiful.

How to frame an opening

Window edging, like any other brick lining architectural elements facade, can only be performed during the construction of the wall, or during renovation, when windows are replaced. Their appearance will largely depend on the design of the lintels in the openings. They can be reinforced concrete, brick (arched or wedge-shaped) or metal (steel angle or profile). So:

• Brick cladding of a window opening, which is called a “quarter” in construction, is the most popular type of architectural facade decoration. At the same time, the facing brick is laid with a thrust forward, protruding beyond the surface of the masonry by a fourth of the brick body - hence the name.

• To lay out the quarters, use halves of bricks, which must be cut with a grinder and a diamond wheel before starting work. Based on the standard brick length (25 cm), the size of a half will be 12.5 cm. Accordingly, a quarter is 6.25 cm. When cutting, you can deviate from these dimensions by no more than 7-10 mm. If the protruding part of the window frame is too small, there is no point in it at all.
• Too large quarters can create a different kind of problem - the window opening will be too wide, and in order to seal the gaps after installing the window, you will have to fill the gaps with foam that are too large. During the construction of walls, window areas must be particularly carefully reinforced.
• Particular attention should be paid to controlling the verticality of the masonry and the horizontality of the rows. If the master's level is always at hand, then the window openings will also have correct form. The window covering must be connected to the wall masonry with a reinforcing wire mesh 3 mm thick (cell 50*50).

• To lay out the quarter, it is most convenient to block the opening with a steel corner. For this purpose, the size 100*100 or 120*120 is usually used. Before installation, it should be coated with any anti-corrosion compound, or simply painted. The corner is mounted so that it does not protrude inward due to the quarters. A concrete lintel will be installed five centimeters above the corner.
• In order for the row of masonry that will be carried out along the corner to be flush with the general plane of the wall, the bricks will have to be cut in thickness. A window that is not rectangular in shape, but, say, arched, is framed in a similar way, only instead of a corner, the opening is covered with a wooden template, according to which a quarter is drawn.
• After the mortar has hardened in the masonry, the template is removed and the seams are carefully cleaned. To create a double frame, as in the example below, the first row of the quarter is overlapped with the same pattern. Following the facing brick is backfill masonry, which is also covered with a template so that an arch is formed on both sides.

In general, there are at least a dozen styling options face brick around the perimeter of the window. Moreover, the display can be done not only with a poke forward, but also with a spoon; they can be beautifully combined, creating a beautiful composition above the window. Spoons can be placed either standing or lying down. For example, by alternating three vertical and three horizontal spoons, you can get a pattern that resembles a chessboard. And by alternating spoons and pokes, you get a jagged pattern. A figure can be made above the lintel, resembling a gable roof or a house roof or a dome. So, the design possibilities for window cladding are quite extensive.