Thin Brick Facades
A perennial favorite, thin-brick facades are designed to be as durable as their full-brick counterparts, but with weights up to 75% less. Fabrication in EEWS’s climate-controlled shop avoids the added cost, time, and safety concerns of scaffolding, site congestion, and weather-related delays associated with field-applied masonry.
Thin Brick Tiles
Thin-brick tiles are typically 5/8” thick and either extruded or sliced from full bricks. Corner tiles matching the dimensions of full brick are used to give the façade an authentic appearance. Any coursing pattern and detail possible with full brick can be replicated with thin brick. Accent bands, solider courses, arches, keystones, corbeling, and medallions are just some of the possibilities architects and designers can employ to give their building a distinctive look.
The resulting façade offers beauty, durability, and a lightweight, high-performance wall system compared to conventional brick. EIFS, quarried stone, and cast stone complement brick well when used for sills, heads, cornices, profiles, and accents.
- Thin-brick panels are constructed on the same light-gauge galvanized steel framing that EEWS uses in every system.
- Fiberglass-reinforced exterior-grade sheathing is mechanically fastened to the frame, which can then be wrapped in an air and weather barrier.
- Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) rigid insulation can be added to conform to the latest energy codes.
- Felt paper is then added to serve as a slip sheet.
- Galvanized metal lath is installed as a base and mechanical attachment for the ¾” thick, latex-modified, fiberglass-reinforced setting bed.
- The wet mixture is troweled and screeded to a smooth, high-quality, flat setting bed for the thin brick.
Skilled craftsmen carefully lay out the tiles to match the architect’s design using story poles to ensure the consistent layout of brick across many panels. Each brick tile is thin-set on to the scratch coat using high-strength, latex-modified thin-set material.
Finally, the thin-brick façade can either be pointed and hand tooled, or flood grouted to achieve the jointing between each brick.
Textures and Colors
Thin brick is available in a wide array of sizes, colors, and blends from popular manufacturers. Textures are commonly smooth, rough, or wirecut, but most manufacturers offer diverse options beyond these basics.
As a standard system, EEWS offers thin-brick panels as a barrier system with silicone-caulked panel to panel joints. EEWS can also design and manufacture thin brick systems using aluminum extrusions and a 3-gasket, weather tight system at the perimeter of each mega-panel. Designing panel-to-panel joints with gaskets instead of caulk eliminates the need for field sealing and scaffolding associated with the installation of these joints.