Hello everyone, I have a customer who likes the look of exposed brick so much that they want to leave one wall exposed in their walk-in shower. There are a million reasons not to move ahead with this, but this customer want’s to exhaust all possibilities before we right off the idea? The brick is an interior wall and we’ve tossed around a few solutions including facing the whole wall in a sheet of tempered glass. Any idea’s ?
Cheers, Stephen.
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Replies
My first thought would be condensation on the back of the glass.
How will you intergrate the floor pan into the brick without it looking stupid?
maybe copper?
run up and let into the brick like chimney flashing?
mud bed ... tile ... then tile just caulked to the copper?
don't know if that'd work ... but it'd be water proof.
my thots ... how to seal what ever runs into the brick ... unless it's a whole wall of brick ... say the back wall ... and the sides are glass ... which is simply caulked along the brick?
is there a brick sealer that can be built up enough it's actually water proof as opposed to water resistant?
Would look pretty cool.
now I'm thinking about it ... I have seen pretty realistic "brick" tiles
almost sure I've seen ceramic.
that's that way I'd go ...
just get a brick-looking ceramic tile.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
Hi Jeff,
The plan is to have the side walls glass, with just the back wall being the exposed brick. The customer would love to have the brick sealed and completely exposed, but unless there is some sort of expoxy based sealant I'm going to do my best to talk him out of it.
Thanks,
Stephen.
The epxys I know will yellow, but polyester resins I think can stay clear.There will still be collections of stuff to be cleaned in grout lines/mortar joints.reason I asked what kind of wall and brick is that no mater what you seal it with, if there is a chance of cracking, that will cause trouble. Also, if this is a structural wall - outside wall,in an old building, that wall will be cold and attract tremendous amts of condensation and the movement right there relative to three feet away from thermal expansion will have to be dealt with
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
I guess you could cover the copper in tar and pretend you're showering on the roof.
What you suggest would work but it sounded like the OP was trying to come up with reasons not to do this.
OK ... sealed or not ...
the brick is probably gonna move.
Jeff Buck Construction
Artistry In Carpentry
Pittsburgh Pa
<I guess you could cover the copper in tar and pretend you're showering on the roof.>
Man, you've sure got a feel for romantic imagery!
Forrest
This wall is existing?
I really like interior brick too, but if the wall is already there, I think a piece of glass spaced off the wall would allow for the effect but be 10000X easier to keep clean and not nasty. Plus there wouldn't be any drainage issues.
My thoughts also. Leave 3-4 inches between the glass and brick wall to be able to clean it out occasionally. Maybe even go with a light sandblasting on the glass to provide a frosted look and hide occasional dust. But still show some of the texture beyond.
Cleaning behind the glass is definitley an issue, the customer has talked about using a squeegy on a long pole to keep things clean ( I don't think he knows what he's in for) The frosted glass would certainly mean cleaning less often.
Thanks,
Stephen.
Bad idea!!!! Sealing will cause the brick surface to breakout in chunks. Unsealed will grow mold and mildew, also effective cleaners will eat up the brick.
Tempered glass 18" away will allow cleaning of both sides.
I'm shocked nobody mentioned mold for starters.
There is fake brick in glazed tile but to have the real deal?? NFW.
I was in my tile/granite store a few months ago waiting on some fab to be finished up when a customer came in wanting to put travertine in the shower. The sales lady gushed about how BEAUTIFUL it would be -- very elegant and tasteful, stunning, etc. Then she spent about 10 minutes instructing the customer on the regular cleaning, sealing and maintenance that would be MANDATORY. ("Oh, it'll just require a bit of extra work. Be absolutely sure to wipe it down after every shower, clean and seal it two or three times a year with these products , blah, blah, blah.")
Customer changed her mind. Didn't think that travertine was such a good idea for her shower after all.
I thought the sales lady did a masterful sales job. Praised the client for her wonderful taste, but gently discouraged the client from pursuing her plan while making the customer think it was her own idea to switch to tile instead of travertine. In the end, everybody was happy.
I commend this approach to you. There are countless reasons we've never seen a shower built out of brick. There are all sorts of problems with making it waterproof. But even if you solve those problems, you'd still have a brick wall in the shower. An exposed brick wall in a shower would look great until the first time someone used the shower. It would suck in soap, etc., like a sponge and would be virtually impossible to keep clean. It would be a virtual petri dish for mold and mildew. Putting glass in front of it would mean designing a system where you could remove the glass to clean the back (it WILL get dusty/dirty) -- yet another sealing problem. It would tend to effloresce. Etc. Etc.
Using tile that looks like brick might work, but you'd end up getting a lot of comments like "Hey! That tile looks kinda like brick!" Not what the homeowner is envisioning probably.
In the end, the HO will end up hating it and blaming you, every day, for the way it looks in two years.
Just my $.02.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
People who have brick or travertine walls in showers should be rich enough to hire someone else to clean it! ;-)
Hey Stephen -
You said 'walk-in' shower which implies a larger space than most. How far away from the immediate shower area would the brick be and can you keep the shower pan/drain away from it, substantially?
If the exposed brick is far enough away that it isn't part of the immediate shower area (directly wetted) or integrated with the shower pan you'd have a better shot.
Jeff
Hi Jeff, your're right, it will be a faily large shower space, approx. 4x6 feet. The plan is to have multi-directional spray's (i.e top and sides) so I think the brick wall is pretty much guaranteed to get quite wet.
Thanks,
Stephen.
Are you trying to plan a new house or is this an existing?
What kind of brick is it if the latter?
What kind of wall?
What is the floor?
Do they have a full time cleaning slave?
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
This is an existing building, an old firehall in fact. As for the type of brick, I'm not a mason so I don't know specific's, but it's a fairly soft white brick that is part of the tower used for drying fire hoses. The floor will eventually be tiled, and I'll check on the cleaning slave.
Thanks,
Stephen.
I think tempered glass veneer would look goofy, and exposed brick and mortar is way too porous for health and maintenance issues. Time to rethink the project.
Scott.
Always remember those first immortal words that Adam said to Eve, “You’d better stand back, I don’t know how big this thing’s going to get.”