Outdoor Fireplaces, FireRock

This product is probably the best thing in the masonry world since sliced bread in the kitchen. This is a full masonry fireplace that can be used internal and external. This fireplace can be assembled in one day by two people. Assuming footer has already been poured. FireRock is the manufacture of this product. I assembled this fireplace in our brick gardens at our Williamsburg shop. I left sections of the fireplace uncovered so you can see the fireplace. Also, I left a cut away in the fire box to show how the fire brick line the box. If you use this product in doors, you would add a damper, for outdoors leave the damper out. You can set the fireplace up for gas use as well. The stack on top can be extended up to a height needed to clear a roof line. The best thing about this product is the time needed to assemble and the cost. For a typical brick and block fireplace the cost will be around $15,000 to $30,000 and higher. You will need around 8,000 to 15,000 brick and flue liners and filler brick. It will take around 1 week to assemble. Oh yah, make sure the mason has experience in building the fireplace. I had a customer who designed a 2 sided fireplace in the middle of his home, the mason did not design the smoke chamber correctly. The fireplace would not draw and the smoke filled the home with smoke. This is not a problem to have. In order to correct the problem, they will have to tear the chimney down to the smoke chamber and redesign and then rebuild the chimney.

Brick Complaints

On my travels today I passed this building. Do you notice the off color between the windows? If you don't, stay out of the brick business. Just kidding. Everytime I have encountered a brick complaint like this job, I spend half the time convincing the customer that nothing is wrong with the brick, the problem is with the mortar. This is a great example showing this situation. Mortar accounts for roughly 18% of the color your brain receives from the building. Mortar colors change from several reasons. One reason could be the quality of the mortar. A couple of other reasons could stem from the manufacturing process, wrong bags, changed the process, different person mixing the batches..... Things on the job that could change mortar color are, Initial rate of absorption (IRA) of the brick, change of people who mix the mortar on job site, strike mortar too soon, strike mortar too late. These factors could change the color of the mortar drastically. There are ways to tell which of these cardinal sins have been violated.

Brick Quoins

The accents you see on the corners of the home are called "quoins." These are raised quoins, some quoins are flush with the wall and the joints are raked out. This will give a depth perception. Be careful when raking the joints, this could be a possible water leak. Because you are removing mortar from the joint. One way to avoid this problem is to use solid brick for the quoins. Keep in mind when doing quoins, you can use the same color of brick and still get an accent. Or you can use another color, like this home, to help with the accent. Either way, this adds character to a home. Around the windows is called a single batt. Some homes you will see a double batt around the windows. You could rake the joints a little to add to the accent, and you could use a different color of brick and add to the accent. These are simple things that do not call for special shaped brick and still give added value for your home. When I see items like this on a home, it tells me the homeowner and or the builder took time to think about this detail. Good job Wilmik Homes.

Efflorescence

Here is another example of efflorescence, but on split face block. This building is about 2 years old. I would be checking the top edge of the roof. It does not look like a lot of water, but it will not get better.

Brick stains, efflorescence stians

The white stuff you see is efflorescence. You will see this on new construction typically. In a simple term, this is soluble salts. Water is getting behind the structure and is weeping out through the mortar and the water evaporates from the surface and a layer of salt is left behind. This is a new structure and I would not be too concerned, "yet." However, if this continues, the efflorescence can be your friend. What this tells me is that water is entering behind the wall and could lead to bigger problems if it is not addressed. See how the white is on the mortar joints, this means the efflorescence is coming from the mortar. If the white was on the center of the brick, the efflorescence would be from the brick. Another place you will efflorescence is on chimneys. If it is an older home you need to check the top of the chimney for water leaks. A good quick fix is to cap the top of the chimney with metal flashing or cap. Some people think to blob mortar on top to seal the top of the chimney, the mortar will crack after a time and the leaks will continue.

Stains on brick

Here is the front entrance of of home with an awful stain on the brick. Most people have know what the stain is, but for those who don't, it is an iron stain. This is caused by the sprinkler system. In our area most people use shallow wells for irrigation. This adds to the problem with the increased iron from the ground. Most people do not filter or treat ground water for irrigation, and why should they? The first line of fix is to make sure that sprinklers are not hitting brick work or any other item that you do not want iron stains on. To remove this iron stain one should check with your local brick person and ask for brick cleaners to remove stain. If this is not an option try u

sing CLR, this is Calcium Lime Rust remover. This is usually in local hardware stores or Lowe's or Home Depot. If you go this route, treat a small area to make sure the result is desired. Keep those sprinklers off the brick!!!!

I forgot to add, " DO NOT USE A PRESSURE WASHER!!!!"

Remember the previous post, the color layer is a very thin layer of color, the pressure washer will wash the color off the face of the brick. Then the brick would be a wire cut red. Blah!!!

Clay body brick

The brick to the right show an example of a red body brick (top ) and a buff body (bottom). The amazing thing about the red body brick is the stark white face. The red body is typically used fro residential construction. The red clays are typically found through out the US. A thin layer of coloring is applied to the red body before firing. The colors range from white, gray, black, browns, and just about any color in between. Typically the color range can be broken down into whites, browns, grays, pinks, reds, orange (terracotta). It's not as though a consumer can contact a brick manufacture and ask for a green brick.

The buff brick (bottom) is typically used for commercial jobs. Notice the body color is the same as the face of the brick. This is through the body color. If you chipped the top brick you will see a red spot, if you chipped the buff brick you will see the buff color. Other than price, this is the big difference between the two. Some people refer to the buff colored brick as "add mix." Most of the buff brick are manufactured in the mid US. However, there are a couple of buff producers in the Carolina's. I was a Plant Manager for a plant in Mississippi a couple of years ago, and it was then that I learned of the buff material. Basically the buff material used for brick manufacturing is of a low grade kaolin clay. The high grade Kaolin are used in Rolaids and fine china. Also, kaolin is known as a treat such as ice cream in the Appalachian region. Yes, people consumed the stuff, NOT ME. Depending on the size of the deposit of the kaolin, surface mining or pot mining will be the process to reclaim the kaolin. Thousands of years ago the Gulf of Mexico would flood up into Tennessee. Then the waters would recede and the buff clays would be washed down from Tennessee and deposit down through Mississippi. The clay deposits would be in pockets. This would happen several times, which caused a layering effect. It is amazing the layers you can see in the mining pits. The fossil hunters love the mining areas. Anyway, I could go on, if you find this interesting go visit a student from a university and ask about this process, they will talk forever. They very seldom get some one interested on this topic. I did enjoy the information. Thank you Ole Miss.