We choose to decorate our homes, offices or guest houses with the most exotic or unique artifacts and showpieces that we could find on several antique stores both locally and from abroad.
Command strips can be used on brick walls to hang popular decorative items but unlike others, they have some complications as well – which you can learn from the abstract below.
Can you use command strips on brick?
Commands strips cannot be usually used on regular unpainted bricks because they have an irregular and dusty surface which prevents the strips from sticking. However, they work just fine on painted smooth surface bricks because the adhesive can firmly stick to the surface.
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Command Strips are strips with an adhesive layer that is used to hang decorative items on your wall without the need to use glue or drill holes into the wall which would ruin the appearance of the wall.
Command strips are popularly used to hang decorative items on the wall due to its longevity and durability to hold things as well as their removability.
Unlike drilling – which leaves holes on the wall, and glue – which leaves a sticky residue on the wall, these strips come off the wall cleanly without any residue or damage to the plaster.
The use of command strips have been widespread on smooth surfaces because of how effective they are at sticking to them and handling heavy objects attached to them.
However, complications arise when the command strips are attached to rough or non-smooth surfaces because the adhesives don’t work great on surfaces that aren’t smooth.
Unpainted bricks are usually rough and uneven with a dusty surface which means that the command strips will not work if you stick them to an unpainted brick.
But this complication goes away if you try to use the command strips on painted bricks because those bricks are smoothened with their porous surface filled with paint – thus making their surface even.
Therefore, command strips can be used on a wall of painted bricks to hang items stably but they won’t stick to unpainted walls and may fall off after a while.
The location where command strips can be used are also another factor to consider because the environment indoors is very different than outdoors.
Indoor:
Command strips work very well on smooth walls that are inside the homes because they are not exposed to the dust or harsh impacts of the environment that the outside faces.
Outdoor:
On the other hand, command strips are not very durable when used outdoors because their adhesive capabilities drop rapidly when they’re exposed to dust and sunlight.
Can you use 3m command strips on brick?
3m command strips are adhesive strips that are used to hang decorative items to your wall without having to drill the wall or use glue.
The advantage of using them over other methods is their sheer strength of holding heavy objects attached to the wall while being easily removable without leaving any residue or marks on the wall.
However, despite their effectiveness at being able to hang items on the wall – they are not always successful in doing so on all types of surfaces. These strips only work as intended if the wall is smooth and non-dusty, irregular surfaces would cause them to fall off.
Therefore, uneven walls such as walls made of unpainted bricks would not be the best for using command strips to stick items to.
But that doesn’t mean that command strips don’t work on all brick walls – if the wall is constructed with painted smooth bricks, then they would just as they would on plastered walls. Thus, 3m command strips can be only used on painted bricks and not on unpainted ones.
Can you use command strips on painted brick?
Regular bricks are not smooth like the regular walls due to their porous and irregular surface – which makes it complicated to attach command strips to.
However, the case is different in terms of painted bricks because unlike unpainted regular bricks – the painted bricks have their porous surfaces smoothened and irregular surfaces evened.
Therefore, the command strips can stick to painted bricks just as intended and are durable similar to regular walls.
When does command strip work on brick?
Command strips usually do not work on bricks but if several conditions are met, you can attach a command strip to a brick and make them work well. Below explained are some of the conditions which allows command strips to work on bricks when met:
If the brick is painted:
Usually unpainted bricks are bad at allowing command strips to stick to them because of their porous surface which leads to them having less surface area to stick to and thus have a less strong bond between the brick and the adhesive layer.
However, that complication changes if the brick is painted because the paint layer effectively clogs all the porous surface – increasing the surface area and thus providing enough area for the adhesive layer of the strip to stick onto.
If the brick is smoothened:
The reason why command strips don’t work on unpainted regular bricks is due to their irregular and porous surface which reduces the surface area the adhesive layer of the command strips could stick to.
However, if the surface of the bricks could be smoothened – then the command strips would work on bricks to some degree.
If the brick is non-dusty:
Besides the surface irregularity of the bricks, another huge factor that prevents the strips from sticking to bricks is how dusty bricks are and the layers keep coming off the brick no matter how much you clean them.
The adhesive layer only sticks to the dust and thus doesn’t get attached to the brick – rendering them useless.
If the bricks could be cleaned in such a way that no more dust comes off, the command strips may be usable on them.
How to use command strips on brick?
Commonly you cannot use command strips on regular bricks, but if you have painted bricks – you can follow the steps below to make the command strips work on bricks:
Make sure all the use conditions are met:
In case of bricks, only use painted bricks for the strips. Next, make sure the temperature of the location stays between 50 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent the adhesive layer from melting away – humidity also causes the strip’s adhesive to weaken.
In addition, check whether the items you’re planning to hang are within the hanging limits of the command strips. Exceeding the hanging limit would increase the risk of the strips coming off.
Mark your target location:
In order to accurately hang the item onto the brick, you need to mark the positions according to the size of the item to ensure they are properly aligned. If it’s a wide object, you should take the measurement of its width and mark it up on the brick for reference.
Attach the strips to the brick wall:
Each strip has two parts, one part goes to the wall while the other goes to the item. The wall strip has a black liner in them with “wall side” label in them, so peel away the wall side strip to separate it from the item side strip.
Afterwards, attach the wall side strip to the wall and firmly press it onto the surface for at least 30 seconds – then peel off the blue liner and press the hook against the strip for 30 seconds.
Let the adhesive cure for at least 1 hour to make sure the strip is firmly attached to the wall.
Attach the strips to the item:
Next, attach the item side strip to the item by aligning the item to the wall strips. Once the strips are in place, press them firmly to ensure the adhesive sticks well to the item and then leave them for an hour to cure.
Hang the item to the wall:
Finally, with all the strips attached to their respective items – attach the item’s strip to the wall strip and hold it firmly for 30 seconds to properly attach both strips together.
What are the command strips alternatives for brick and textured walls?
Since command strips pose complications for bricks and textured walls, there are several alternatives that you can use to hang items to brick and textured walls. Some of the popular methods are listed below:
- Nails
- Adhesive Hooks
- MonkeyHooks
- Hardwall Hangers
- Drywall Hooks
- Wall Anchors
- Double-sided Tape
- Adhesive Putty
- Magnetic Dots
Final Thoughts
Command strips are often not used on ordinary unpainted bricks because of their uneven and dusty surface, which inhibits the strips from clinging. However, they perform perfectly on painted smooth surface bricks since the adhesive can securely cling to the surface.