Through the body colored brick

Just a quick post before I go on my journey today. This home is the Acme Glacier White brick. This brick is a clay product, but the clay is from the mid US. This type of brick is usually specified for commercial jobs, but it makes a very new home as well. I will do a more in depth post showing the difference between the two products. The mortar is Giant Almond type N. Ken Cohen of Cohen Homes of Virginia Beach was the builder. Great Job!!!

How to identify a brick complaint.

This post will deal with brick problems. Yes, brick manufactures do make mistakes. The range of problems stem from mining to packaging. Believe me there are a lot of steps in between. Most problems are ones that are visible after the brick are installed into the wall. When you look at the picture above you will see a brighter top half than the bottom half. This problem stems from the extrusion or milling department. This is where they add color agents to the face of the column during extrusion to give the brick color. The way they add color is to use engobes, sand blast, dry box, drag rags, mud box, and a whole arsenal of contraptions. More than likely this complaint had a little help by 2 runs of brick were used on this job. That is a no no. When purchasing your brick ask to have the whole job from the same run. More than likely they had 2 different people to run the color additive during the production of this brick. One person set the controller on #3 and the next person may have set the controller on #6. This is probably why the color is a lot heavier. With my professional trained eye, I can see that the brick is the problem. However, do not always assume the brick is the problem. I have seen brick walls as bad or worse and the brick was not the problem. The mortar was the problem. Of course you are saying in your head, "WHAT, HOW?" Keep in mind, when you look at a brick wall, about 18% of the color your brain is receiving is the color of the mortar. Mortar has a big influence on the appearance of the wall. If the mortar is not consistent in color, this will effect the brick. There is a simple way to determine what is the problem, if you don't have a trained professional eye, such as mine. Take take some 4" inch wide masking tape. Block off a square area that covers the good and bad area. Example, our taped box would include the bright area with darker area in the same box. Now take some 1/4" masking tape and cover all of the mortar joints inside the box. Stand back at least 20 feet. Do the brick inside the box match? If the brick match then the mortar is the problem. If you still see the color problem inside the box, them the brick is the problem. I could tell you some stories about how I had to convince some people what the true problem was with there home. There are steps that could be used to resolve these issue, but the best solution is if a problem is identified, get the supplier out on the job so the issue could be resolved before the brick get into the wall. If you are adding on to your home or building a new home, check the job everyday to make sure the brick meet your expectation.

How to chose brick and stone

Just a quick note about the brick. This is a nice brick. See how you have whole red brick and whole black brick. This brick has a checker board affect. This would not be a good brick to mix with stone, I am not saying it can't be done, but some changes would have to be made. I would use red or a dark buff mortar to tone down the contrast between the brick and mortar. The red mortar will help the black range to drag into the red brick. The stone would have to be a dark rich earth tone color or something in the rich earth tone green color would be interesting. But, anyway this is an example of brick range I would stay away from when talking about stone.

How to chose brick and stone

Here is a home built by LR Hill. Notice how the brick has an almost transparent color. No one brick has one solid color and all the colors drag into one another. This is actually the Rose Range Tudor. I manufactured many of these brick in my manufacturing past. I have stained many of the Rose Range Tudor, if was a tough brick to manufacture due to tight temp set points during the burning process. However, there are about 12 to 14 different colors in this brick. This is a good example of an Earth Tone category. This is one of the few red bricks that work with stone. But see how the two do not compete and how they compliment each other. The burgundy color pull the stone to the brick and the brick stone give a soft but bold contrast. Nice combination. Good job Larry.

Brick and Stone selections

Here we go on picking brick and stone selections. The brick is a nice choice without the stone. The stone is a nice choice without the brick. The two do not compliment each other at all. It's like wearing stripes with checks. I would put the brick in the Earth Tone category and the stone is of earth tone colors. Put them both together, it is too busy. It's like both of my boys fighting for their mother's attention. The stone should have been a lighter color, almost a cream color with slight color ranges. If the stone was the preferred choice, then a rich colored brick should have been chosen.

Brick and Stone Selections

I am back, the Brick and Stone Guy. It has been a while since my last post, But I am at it again. What I would like to spend time on with this post is brick and stone selection. Here is a prime example showing several mediums, as they say in the art world. You have Hardie siding, stone and brick. Also, the stone has what is called "spotters" in the mix. A mountain ledge profile stone with a fieldstone profile mixed in. I would guess about 90% was mountain ledge and 10% was spotters. When you mix stone with brick, PLEASE take time to get a good feel for the contrast between the two. Definitely when you add another major medium, Hardie Board, please get opinions. Only if you are a professional, and don't try this at home. To start the process of selection start with the dominate material. Example, what is the material that will have the strongest punch? The stone is definitely the dominate material on this home. I would choose the stone to start with. The second choice would be the brick and then the siding. How to choose the stone profile is a choice inside of the selection. Typically the size of the area would influence the profile. Keep in mind the style of home if that is a factor. If it was a Tuscany influence the stone should reflect the Tuscany look. Typically if the area is small a ledge profile should be used, if the area is very large, like a whole wall, a field stone profile could be used. Be careful not to use different stone profiles close in proximity of each other. If you do, try to match the colors, or have one stone in the front and the other in the back of the home. Enough about stone, I could talk all night. The second choice was the brick. So far I have only seen a limited amount of bricks that compliment stone. I will try to show good matches such as this picture along with bad ones. It's kinda like that bad boss, they show you how not to do it. I will do my next post showing a bad combination. I have given a category for these brick as "Earth Tone Range." A way to describe this type of brick could be described as the number of colors in the range, also the colors are dragged into each other. Typically, a red brick is not going to be a good selection. The Earth Tones will be in the greys, browns, and cream ranges. Also, the profile of the brick is tudored, usually a straight edge does not have character. With the two materials together ask yourself these questions, what contrast do I want between the stone and brick? Where is my eye being pulled towards? What is a focal point? Do I want my stone to blend in with the brick and vice verse? My last professional advise is, do not pick a brick just because you like it, and don't chose a stone just because you like it then expect the two will work together. Make sure it will be a great marriage between the two.

Capping steps with Natural Stone

I'm back. It has been a while since my last post, my computer crashed, my camera broke, you name it. What you see pictured here is man made stone with natural stone treads. NEVER EVER use man made product for foot traffic. As time passes the wear on the product removes the color agents on the surface. Then all you have left is exposed aggregates. Now there are some man made products that can with stand wear. Make sure you ask if foot traffic is recommended for the use of the product you putting down. In the picture you see man made stone on the "vertical" surface and natural stone on the "horizontal" surface. These are considered two worlds, the vertical world which are products that go on wall, the horizontal world which are pavers, flag stone and is sometimes called "hardscapes". Other areas to consider for this train of thought would be hearths for fireplaces, hips on exterior chimneys, and tops of columns or mailboxes.