Top 6 Reasons to Choose Clay Brick (Part One)
Whether your building a new home or remodeling your current one, there are many reasons to choose clay brick. Both in the wall and on the ground. Here are our Top 6 reasons that make brick your best solution!
- Genuine clay brick is made from natural materials
Brick made from clay and shale – some of the most abundant, natural materials on earth – and then fired through a kiln at up to 2000 degrees. The reason the brick turns into such a durable material is that the clay/shale unit actually goes through a vitrification process in the kiln, which enables the clay particles to fuse together. Many people may confuse clay brick with “brick” made from other materials. For example, concrete units rely on a cement paste to bond the materials together. Moreover, concrete units are inherently a grayish color, which means that users must inject color pigments before the setting process and use color sealant afterwards to have a color affect. On the other hand, clay brick has thousands of color and shade options that will not fade. Contrary to some people’s perceptions, clay brick is actually significantly stronger than concrete brick as well. Another brick-like material, made from fly ash, claims to meet the same performance standards as clay brick. Since fly ash has no ASTM standards of its own, don’t make the mistake of assuming that brick-resembling products automatically perform as well as genuine clay brick. - Brick has been proven for centuries
What began as a building essential in the Near East and India more than 5,000 years ago, wound its way through the ancient Egyptians, the Indus Valley civilization and the Romans and today has amazingly become the all-American building product throughout our country’s history. Just look at the structures and roadways in your community. Chancesare, at least some of them are built with brick. At the same time, bricks today are subject to much more stringent manufacturing processes than used in the past, which results in a more consistently performing end-product. While it is still possible to purchase hand-made brick, it is also possible to buy the type of architectural brick that meets extremely strict product specifications.