Reclaimed brick – both antique and clinker styles, can add amazing charm to your home that goes far beyond the ability of new brick.
Here are the main advantages of using our authentic 100 to 300-year-old brick reclaimed European, American or clinker brick for your project.
The Charm of Historic Brick
The old brick that we provide have a history, perhaps a great story behind it. You can easily detect the many years of wear on the bricks because of how they have changed gracefully over the years, acquiring a genuine aged patina.
Rather than being all one shade, like many new bricks you might find, Monarch Stone International searches for reclaimed brick that have richly vibrant shades of burgundy, red, yellow, terra-cotta, and black. Each brick is slightly different in its hues, giving a unique look to the adjacent hardscape or interior area, as well as accenting natural stone around it.
Clinker brick are even more unusual. Clinker bricks are the result of wet bricks placed too close to the fire in the kiln, which resulted in twisted, misshaped or burned bricks. The intense heat of coal-burning traditional kilns created a hard, durable brick that actually makes a distinctive sound when banged together. Overbaking produced rich, warm colors that ran the gamut from reds, yellows, and oranges to deep, flash-burned browns, purples, and blacks. No two clinker bricks were alike, rendering them “trash” to brick manufacturers who prized uniformity, but a treasure to early modern architects, builders, and homeowners seeking uncommon architectural detail.
Visual Interest
Having reclaimed brick around your custom home and garden can add amazing appeal. A diverse mix of old brick and other natural stone provide a custom home with added character. While new bricks might be considered the natural option and are more cost-effective, antique bricks add a more luxurious feel to pavers, hardscape, and within the home.
Environmentally Friendly
For anyone looking to decrease their carbon footprint during a custom home project, reclaimed brick is a great solution. Repurposing brick rather than using new help keep the old brick out of the landfills. Typically, the decision to pull down an old home is not because of the state of the bricks but instead because the aged structure no longer meets the updated requirements. After demolition, bricks can be reclaimed and reused from the building.
The bricks are reusable and give an amazing appearance, as well as adding charm. The reclaimed material is also effective at cutting resource consumption and energy, all while enhancing the beauty of a luxury home. Also, brick typically is not painted and does not encourage mold to grow, which means it preserves good indoor air quality.
Durable and Customizable
Reclaimed brick has long-lasting durability. They are very stable and do not expand or shrink as the temperature changes. They also are not flammable or compostable, which reduces the risks of fire.
Antique reclaimed brick from Europe or the USA including unusual clinker brick, provides endless design possibilities with customizable brick patterns, providing a flexible creative choice for homeowners and contractors.
To learn more about the use of reclaimed brick for hardscape, as pavers, or other areas of your custom home, as well as how it complements natural stone, contact us today.