A practical approach to selecting brick

Congratulations! If you are reading this, you’ve decided to build with brick. Great choice because it’s durable, safe, sustainable, maintenance free and above all, it’s beautiful. Now for the fun part, selecting brick for your new home. You will have a lot of choices to make but don’t let it overwhelm you. Take one decision at a time. If you haven’t started the process of selecting brick already, we suggest your start by visiting home idea sites like Pinterest, visiting a local showcase of homes or paying extra attention to houses you find attractive.  The goal should be to narrowed down the general color of brick you want to one or two. The next step should be a visit to your local Pine Hall Brick Distributor (click here to find a distributor) who has samples on hand and specialists to help you color coordinate the accents for your new home. This visit should include touring around to see newer homes that feature your desired brick. Two things to keep in mind as you tour houses. The first is the mortar color used with your brick. Mortar accounts for 20% of wall area so different color mortar can make the same brick look dramatically different in side-by-side comparisons. The general rule is that mortar color blends with that color in the brick contrasting the other brick colors and it helps unifying the overall wall appearance. For example, white mortar with white sand used with a white tone brick will make the entire wall look lighter. Gray mortar tends to contrast the individual bricks for a traditional look. Ivory mortar helps to soften the color in the wall. The second thing is to notice the roof color. Black roofs can create a powerful, stately appearance and they match up well with a white brick or a brick that has a prominent dark brick in the blend. Brown or weatherwood roofs go well with neutral colors. Gray roofs play really well with pinks, oranges or multi-colored brick like Old Brick House and Augustine series brick. For accent areas, you can be bold with up to three different trim colors. For example, make the front door stand out with one color. Highlight other features (gable, window frames, or shutters) with a second accent. Use a third more subtle color in other trim areas. There are no right or wrong choices just shades, tints and hues that blend well together in your mind’s eye.

Adding Brick Accessories

There’s nothing that finishes off a new home like a clay paver walkway or patio. We offer a wide variety of styles and colors to accent your new home. Another idea is to consider using special shape brick for the front steps or over windows. A trend in home design is using exposed brick on the interior of the home in the form of thin brick. It can be a backsplash in the kitchen, an entire wall of a furbished basement area or a mud-room floor. Check out our Thin Clad and Paver Tiles.