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An Introduction to Thin Brick Veneer Wall Systems
The Timeless Appeal of Brick, Reinvented
Brick has long been cherished for its durability, warmth, and classic charm. From historic structures to contemporary designs, brick's aesthetic remains a favorite for homeowners and architects alike. Thanks to advancements in building materials such as thin brick veneer wall systems, achieving this timeless look has become easier, faster, and more versatile than ever. Thin Brick panel systems combine the beauty of traditional brick with the ease of modern installation, making them an attractive option for a variety of applications, from residential projects to large-scale architectural endeavors.
What Are Thin Brick Veneer Panels?
Thin brick veneer panels are lightweight systems designed to provide solutions and options to architects and builders. These panels allow thin brick to be mounted on specialized backing systems, offering a cost-effective and flexible alternative to conventional masonry.
Advantages of Thin Brick Veneer Panels
1. Versatile Applications
Thin brick veneer panels are suitable for both interior and exterior use. They can transform walls, fireplaces, and even commercial facades.
2. Lightweight and Easy to Install
Thanks to their reduced weight, thin brick veneer panels eliminate the need for heavy masonry support, making them a popular option for retrofits and a variety of installation techniques.
3. Durability and Authenticity
Modern thin brick systems are crafted to maintain the durability and appearance of traditional brick. With advanced systems like Glen-Gery’s Thin Tech® Wall System or Tru-Brix, users can enjoy long-lasting, visually stunning results.
4. Cost-Effective Solution
Thin brick veneer panels reduce material and labor costs while offering the premium appearance of real thin brick. They are an excellent choice for budget-conscious homeowners and large-scale projects alike.
Installation Made Simple
The installation process for thin brick veneer panel systems is designed to be efficient and user-friendly. For builders, it translates to faster completion times and reduced labor costs.
Installation will vary slightly based on the system you employ. That said, we’ve provided a brief overview of the installation process below to give you an idea of what’s involved:
1. Surface Preparation: Ensure the wall or surface is clean, stable, and capable of supporting the panel system.
2. Mounting the Panel System: Attach the mechanical support system (like Thin Tech® or Tru-Brix) to the surface. These systems are pre-engineered for easy alignment and secure installation.
3. Setting the Thin Bricks: Thin bricks are snapped or mechanically locked into the system.
4. Finishing Touches: Add mortar between bricks, ensuring a seamless, traditional look.
Many systems come with detailed guides. For a more comprehensive understanding of installation, check out Glen-Gery’s Thin Tech Installation Manual or watch the Thin Tech Installation video.
Applications for Thin Brick Veneer Panels
For Homeowners
Thin brick veneer panels are perfect for DIY’ers looking to refresh their homes. Some common home projects include creating stylish brick accent walls and adding charm to kitchen backsplashes or fireplaces.
For Architects and Builders
These panels expand the design palette for architects, offering a lightweight alternative to traditional brick laying without compromising on style or performance. From commercial facades to multi-family housing, thin brick veneer panels are redefining modern masonry.
Conclusion: Why Choose Thin Brick Veneer Panels?
Thin brick veneer panels provide the perfect balance of aesthetics, durability, and practicality. Whether you’re embarking on a home improvement project or an architect seeking innovative design solutions, these panels offer endless possibilities. Glen-Gery’s Thin Tech® and Tru-Brix systems represent the pinnacle of thin brick technology, blending style with functionality to meet diverse needs. Explore the full range of Glen-Gery’s Advance Cladding Systems to bring your vision to life and experience the timeless beauty of brick, reimagined for modern applications.
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Brick vs. Vinyl Siding Comparison for Your Home's Exterior
When it comes to selecting the exterior material for your home, one of the pivotal decisions you'll face is choosing your exterior façade, the “face” of your home. Year after year, building with brick remains a classic choice for many reasons. Let’s explore why building with brick is most ideal through 7 key factors to consider.
1. Durability and Longevity: Brick is renowned for its unparalleled durability. Unlike vinyl siding, which can be prone to damage from harsh weather conditions, impact, and even pests, brick can withstand the test of time. A well-constructed brick home can last for generations, requiring minimal maintenance over the years. This longevity not only saves you money on repairs and replacements but also adds significant value to your property.
2. Aesthetic Appeal: One of the most compelling reasons to choose brick is its timeless beauty. A brick home never goes out of style. The warm, natural earthy tones of brick complement a wide range of architectural styles, from rustic or traditional to modern. Glen-Gery brick is also available in sleek, modern styles with glazed and Klaycoat finishes, which allow the homeowner to choose a custom color. Unlike vinyl siding, which can fade, warp, or discolor over time, brick maintains its original appearance for decades, ensuring your home always looks stunning.
3. Energy Efficiency: Clay brick is an excellent insulator, helping to regulate indoor temperatures more effectively than vinyl siding. The thermal mass property of brick allows it to absorb and store heat during the day and release it slowly at night, reducing your reliance on heating and cooling systems. This translates to lower energy bills and a more comfortable living environment year-round.
4. Low Maintenance: While vinyl siding is often marketed as low maintenance, it is not maintenance-free. Over time, it can accumulate dirt, algae, and mold, requiring regular cleaning and sometimes even replacement due to damage. Brick, on the other hand, requires minimal maintenance as there's no need to worry about fading or warping.
5. Fire Resistance: Brick is a non-combustible material, offering superior fire resistance compared to vinyl siding, which can melt and ignite in the presence of extreme heat. Building your home with brick provides an added layer of safety and peace of mind.
6. Eco-Friendly Choice: Brick is an environmentally friendly choice for your home's exterior. It is made from natural clay and requires minimal processing compared to the energy-intensive manufacturing of vinyl siding. Brick also has a long-life cycle, reducing the need for replacements, which can contribute to landfill waste.
7. Increased Property Value: Brick homes often have a higher resale value compared to vinyl-sided homes. The timeless appeal, durability, and energy efficiency of brick make it an attractive option for homebuyers, which can translate into a better return on your investment when it's time to sell.
In conclusion, while vinyl siding has its merits, building your home with brick offers a myriad of benefits that make it the more ideal choice for many homeowners. Its energy efficiency, low maintenance requirements, fire resistance, eco-friendliness, and potential for increased property value make it a wise investment that will stand the test of time. So, if you're looking to build a home that combines elegance, longevity, and functionality, brick is the way to go.
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Designing in Brick: Finishes & Textures
Designing in Brick: Finishes & Textures
Of all the building products commonly used today, brick holds a special place in the lexicon of home design. Like stone, brick’s lifespan is measured in centuries. Its wide variety of colors, finishes, and masonry techniques are what continue to make it an indispensable tool for creating texture.
Specifically, brick is perfect for adding variety and dimension to a home. While traditionally it has adorned exteriors, in the last century, masons, interior designers and homeowners have found new ways to bring brick indoors through accent walls, fireplaces, and other features.
Because brick is available in many different finishes, it allows architects, designers, and homeowners to create a wide range of textural effects inside a home.
Four Ways to Mix Finishes and Textures
Layered Texture
Layered texture involves creating intentional depth within a room, which adds interest and richness.
One of the most popular ways to accomplish this is with a background brick accent wall. A critical piece of maximizing the impact of such a background, however, is keeping in mind what's happening in the foreground. Choose furniture, fabrics, wall colors, and other materials that create layering in front of the wall
PRO TIP: For interior brick walls, choose a brick with a smooth finish to make dusting easier.
Contracting Texture
Contrasting texture is an eternal mainstay of home design trends - it's what draws eyes around a house's interior or exterior and encourages curiosity and delight.
Use contrasting textures to add visual interest and break up a monochromatic color palette. Look beyond the obvious elements like walls and furnishings. How can you use fabrics, artwork, and object placement to create contrast in a room or on a house's exterior?
PRO TIP: Contrasting textures are by no means limited to textures in the same color family. Be bold - for example, contrast burgundy brick exterior walls with brightly colored fixtures and paint choices.
Tactile Texture
Tactile texture to a texture you can physically touch - and though you may not always interact with materials by touching them, the visual effect of such textures make an impression.
Use varied finishes, ranging from smooth to rough, to create dimension in a room. For example, you can use two types of brick finishes to add multiple layers of tactile texture to an interior accent wall. You can also use different brick finishes to create the same effect on a house's exterior.
PRO TIP: Brick is particularly good at creating tactile texture because of its wide range of finishes: smooth, wirecut, glazed, etc.
Visual Texture
Different brick textures and finishes
Brick's wide range of textures and finishes keeps its at the forefront of design trends. Here are some categories from which to choose:
- Glazed bricks: These feature a smooth, glossy finish in a wide range of colors, making them perfect for contrasting textures. As an added bonus, the glaze makes these bricks impervious to the elements.
- Molded bricks: Molded bricks have softened edges, giving them a subtle contour that adds texture. Combined with the variety of colors available, they are excellent for layered texture profiles.
- Klaycoat® bricks: These are stately and modern and are an excellent option for visual texture. These are available in a smooth and wirecut texture.
Best practices for adding texture and finishes to design
Keep the following tips in mind:
Don’t overdo it.
Too much texture can cause confusion and make a home look busy and unfocused. Determine your style ahead of time and curate your pieces to fit this goal.
Start big and work downward.
Begin by choosing the largest source of texture, and add elements based on that. On a home’s exterior, this would be the exterior walls; on an interior, this could be an accent wall, fireplace, or another focal point.
Lean on your designer.
When in doubt, consult a designer — particularly if you are a homeowner taking on a large DIY project. A skilled interior designer can help you plan out your project and make tasteful choices.
Conclusion
Brick is one of the best home-building products for design choices. Not only is it unmatched in durability, but it also added incredible texture to a home's exterior and interior.
Some of the best ways to create visual appeal are through layered, contrasting, tactile, and visual textures.
Brick is available in a range of finishes and colors, and homeowners and designers can even mix different types to add texture to a room. Glen-Gery produces glazed, molded, and klaycoat® bricks, among other popular types.
Working with a designer can help you avoid texture overload and can open your eyes to new ways of achieving your goals. Visit a Brickworks Design Studio to receive a one-on-one consultation with a product expert.
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Burnt Almond Wirecut
Baxter Brown Wirecut Thin Brick, Thin Tech Classic
Design and Color Trends for 2023
Design and Color Trends for 2023
Today, builders and architects are finishing 2022 projects and predicting what’s to come in this new year ahead. What are the colors, textures, and finishes that will stay popular? What will we leave behind in 2023? And perhaps most anticipated, Glen-Gery's debut of their inaugural brick color of the year.
In 2022 we saw calming, nature-inspired tones. Serene shades of blue and green were consistently top color choices. While these soothing tones are expected to stay popular in 2023, warmer, richer colors with earthy undertones will take center stage. In fact, home design experts predict homeowners will become bolder and more creative in their color choices throughout the coming year, even opting for shades of pink and blush.
Design Colors to Expect in 2023
2023 promises to be a year of earth tones and warm neutrals with pops of pink and blush colors. The year ahead may also bring a surprise resurgence of pastel colors in elements like furniture and design accents.
Textures and Finishes to Expect in 2023
If there’s one thing architects and designers are sure of, it’s that 2023 will be all about texture. When a home’s exterior has a monochromatic color scheme, mixing home-building materials like stone or brick can create definition. Mixed-material exteriors add character and interest to a home’s outward appearance.
The use of texture inside of the house is expected to continue trending as well. With remote and hybrid work environments, homeowners spend more time at home. The use of texture can help separate indoor spaces. Mixing textures becomes an important element to add depth and interest to open rooms, and define an alcove or nook.
What Trends Have Phased Out?
Home design trends we expect to see less of in the coming year include faux finishes, stark whites and grays, and, in commercial design, smooth textures. Moving forward, homeowners are looking for authentic and realistic materials to add warmth with hygge-inspired colors that evoke a cozy and comfortable feel.
Conclusion
Home design trends for 2023 can be summed up in three words: texture, warmth, and coziness. While warm neutrals and earth tones lead the color palette, adding definition and visual interest with textured finishes will increase in popularity. For both interior and exterior finishes, brick and stone surfaces offer the best option for adding depth and dimension because of their ability to integrate light and shadows, creating variations in textual elements.
View more in the 2023 Style Guide.
Earth Tones
The kind of earth tones expected to trend in the upcoming year include warm and natural shades such as terracotta, green, yellow, or plum. What makes these particular colors especially desirable is their versatility to blend seamlessly with nearly any architectural style or home.
Warm Neutrals
Neutrals are key when designing any home, and the warm neutrals that will likely continue to rise in popularity are shades of dark brown, caramel, tan, and off-white. Yielding to this trend is Behr’s 2023 Color of the Year - Blank Canvas - a creamy white shade that suggests nearly any warm colors are possible when paired with it.
Rich, Dark Colors
Keeping in line with these warm, comfortable tones are the rich, dark colors of chocolate brown, brick red, and dark jade that will populate the 2023 color design landscape. Krylon’s Color of the Year, a deep forest green - Spanish Moss - embraced this highly pigmented trend. What makes these colors special is their ability to make a surprising statement, creating a modern home that stands out from its surroundings while complementing the inclination toward warmer hues.
Pink and Blush Shades
Homeowners are anticipated to deviate from the status quo of design, with various shades of pink, rose, and blush becoming popular color choices. In fact, a majority of commercial paint designers all selected pink-infused hues for their Color of the Year.
Benjamin Moore’s Raspberry Blush mixes coral, pink, red-orange, raspberry, and blush for its color. Sherwin Williams’ Redend Point combines blush and beige, creating a soft pink undertone. Dunn-Edwards’ Terra Rosa produces a subtle earthy variation of pink and clay by blending the colors brown and burgundy.
Sweet Pastels
Not to be outdone, pastels will be making an entrance into home design trends of 2023 while homeowners embrace their boldness and try these sweet shades. Whether in furniture or in decor and accessories around the home, colors such as soft pink, mint green, and light purple are appearing to bring a subtle pop to a room’s surroundings. This foray into pastels is evidenced by Pantone’s choice for Color of the Year, Digital Lavender, featuring a light, soft purple.
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Recycled Content
Sustainable Brick with Recycled Content
Not only are bricks themselves recyclable, but many also contain recycled content within.
Brick is the healthy, natural building material.
With today’s emphasis on environmentally sustainable living, homeowners and builders are doing what they can to reduce their carbon footprint by constructing houses and buildings from sustainable materials, like brick. Brick is a sustainable building material which is naturally sourced from clays and shales that are mined with methods to reduce environmental impact. Brick is durable and can last for hundreds of years. Brick are fire resistant making them safer than other building materials. Brick is also reusable and can be repurposed for other construction purposes.
Not only is brick the better building product for our planet, they also don’t contain harsh chemicals, plastics, or artificial compounds. Many of Glen-Gery’s products are manufactured utilizing certain percentages of pre-consumer recycled waste reducing their impact on our environment.
Reuse + Reimagine
See popular products that contain recycled content
2024 Brick Styles Catalog
Flip through our virtual catalog and request copies here.
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Discover the latest + greatest in design trends, industry news & pro tips from pros.
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2023 Brick Styles Catalog
Flip through our virtual catalog and request copies here.
You May Also Be Interested In
We Can Help With Your Next Project
Discover the latest + greatest in design trends, industry news & pro tips from pros.
For all of your project needs, you’ll find everything you need at a Supply Center.
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