Brick Veneer Homes                            

I often hear people talking about "brick" houses, when in fact, during my twenty-plus years in the area, I have not seen even one brick home.  There may be one or two of them around, but I haven't seen them.  I have seen some pure cement block homes some with and some without brick veneer.

And it's a good thing there aren't more of them, because they simply aren't all that great.  Solid (bonded) brick all the way through with plaster applied to the inside walls acts as a heat repository.  The brick begins to slowly heat up in the spring and does not  cool off until winter. This can be more costly to air condition in our area.

In any case, we don't generally have all brick homes.   What there are instead --and there are plenty of them -- are brick veneer homes.  Brick veneer is not structural;  it doesn't support anything, including the roof.  Brick veneer is, in fact, mostly cosmetic.  What supports the roof structure is the wood frame wall that lives behind the brick veneer.

There are several advantages to brick veneer over bonded (solid) brick.  First of all, the walls can be properly insulated.  This is impossible with solid brick.  Next, since there is only one thickness of brick (the veneer) on the outside of the house, the structure is lighter than one built of solid brick.  Finally, given the propensity for things to shift and crack around our neck of the woods, brick veneer is easier to repair than its solid counterpart.

Brick veneer is, then, a very good system for exterior walls.  It gives a home the appearance of having been built solid, yet it maintains the advantages of wood or metal framing.  It is a very good system indeed .

In a brick veneer installation, the very first course of bricks is laid upon the portion of the foundation or "beam" that is referred to as the "brick shelf" or "brick ledge."   When inspecting a brick veneer home you will notice that this first course contains gaps every several bricks where the vertical mortar joint has been omitted.  These gaps or omissions are called "weep holes."  

First off, carpenters frame the house, and then they apply some sort of sheathing to the exterior portions which will be veneered with bricks.  The sheathing might be asphalt-impregnated fiber board or a paper product that incorporates a radiant barrier.  Sheathing can also be made of other substances, including Styrofoam and exterior sheetrock (gyp-board).

When the bricklayers do their thing, they leave about a one inch space between the sheathing and the back side of the brick wall.  They tie their wall to the frame wall using sheet metal straps called (appropriately enough) brick ties.   Air can circulate behind the bricks to dry them each time they become moist.