How to select brick?

11 years ago

Hello GW friends,

We are in the process of selecting our brick. We have decided on all brick, no siding. Seems like most of the homes in the area are monarch size. Why would someone consider a larger size? Do you think because I will have so much brick it woulD look better aesthetically to go larger? One of the brick stores informed me larger brick may actually cost less since you don't need to buy as much brick. He also said labor would be less because bigger brick weighs less and takes less time to build.

Any advice? Basically, what do people consider In picking the size of their brick?

Thanks!

Comments (2)

mydreamhome
11 years ago
Are you sure they are using the monarch sized brick on residential homes in your area? Those are some REALLY long bricks. They're roughly double the length of the most common residential brick used out there. Unless the other homes in your area truly have brick that is 15"+ long or you were going for a truly unique look, I would stick to 'oversize' or 'modular'. From a quick search online, I only saw the term 'monarch' associated with Belden Brick. If that 'monarch' size is with Belden Brick, their equivalent size to 'oversize' with most every other brick maker is called 'jumbo modular'. Do you have any pics of the area houses with brick that you like? If you post them, posters on GW should be able to tell you roughly what size those bricks are.

On the cost end, the brick layers in our area charge by the brick. Special detailing around windows & doors or as accents are additional per brick cost. It was either $0.03 per brick or $0.33 per brick in labor--I can't remember which--when we built. So from that standpoint, using a larger brick should save you some labor cost, however, even though the # of bricks you need is less, the cost of the brick goes up, so it's likely a wash in terms of money for just labor and materials. Where it may save you is time--and we all know time = money. With larger bricks, the brick should go up quicker saving time.

How to decide? I know when we were looking at brick, we wanted the house to look like it had been here a long while. We wanted an oversized tumbled brick with a weathered appearance to make it look like the house had withstood the elements for many years. The size was dictated by the older homes we were trying to imitate having thicker bricks. It all really comes down to what look you are going for. Remember as you make this decision that you will need to be happy looking at this brick every single day when you pull in the driveway for the next however many years you live there.

Hope this helps!
lynn
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks mydreamhome. They were modular not monarch! I know there is also queen size. Is this next size after modular?
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