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brickwork

Shumock Masonry Inc. est. 1981

PHONE: 215-840-0321 / 215-491-9525 FAX: 215-343-7647 E-MAIL: SHUMOCK MASONRY

Serving Eastern Pennsylvania - Bucks, Montgomery, Chester Counties area since 1981

We Can Offer A Wide Range Of Reliable Resources And Possibly Great Discounts For:

BRICK WORK

BRICK is as one of the original American construction methods arriving here with the pilgrims of Jamestown, Va. in the late 1600's.

When Jamestown had the great fire in the days of the settlers the then governor of Jamestown instructed all new construction be done of brick, it then became law.

There were no brick manufacturers back then, all the bricks were made on site, by hand. Indigenous clays & dirt were used by wetting them into a wet muck and putting it into a wood mold box where it began to dry. The bricks were then laid out to dry the bulk of the water out of them for a brief period of days or weeks, they were then placed in a crude brick oven to "fire" them. This process dried the bricks into the resilient hard material we use today.

The bricks of then were dependant of the color of clays used, hence forth color selection was extremely limited. Colored bricks are more of a Nuevo technique developed when oxide powders were induced into the wet clay mix or sprinkled an the forms like a cinnamon covering a pie. It is then fired, infusing the powder oxides with heat, which then imbedded itself into the clay producing colored / tinted bricks we see today.

Bricks can be made to any shape or size desirable. However, today's industry has standardized these various sizes and shapes into industry standard used today.

An interesting fact or legend?: When Thomas Jefferson completed Monticello (his plantation home @ U.V.A), which was made of solid brick he had 1 (one) brick left over!

"STANDARD BRICK WORK" is the method used to install brick.

The standard way to lay standard brick in running bond, coarse by coarse (tier by tier), pointed in variety ways. Brick sizes evolved from a standard size, to a jumbo size, to a handmade size, to a utility size, to a modular or paver size.

Each size of bricks have their own unique characteristics which may influence what you can do and how they are installed. Nominal widths of bricks are about 4" wide and can be used for exteriors, interiors, fireplaces, walls, pavers for your patio or sidewalks, "hands down" the most versatile masonry material still used today.

Patterns range from standard running bond which is prevalent, to Flemish bond which was used to build complete brick structures tying brick walls across each other, or to simulate as such.

English bond which was also used to tie across the brick to each other but only occasionally, to Herringbone which is an English method which is an appealing method of more diagonal / vertically laying brick or a Basket-weave pattern.

"CULTURED BRICKWORK" Is the economical answer to standard brickwork as we discussed above. Like the cultured stone this brick is a "thin set" brick which can either be a real brick sawn to thin (which does cost more than cultured), or a cultured / manufactured brick made of cements & pigments.

Unlike standard real brick where a brick ledge or shelf is needed this product needs no ledge or shelf but installed in the same manner as manufactured stone. However, standard brick mason skills will be needed because there is a certain amount of layout skills that are needed in order to resemble real brickwork.

Uses for manufactured brick ranges from exterior to interior, fireplace facades, kitchen backsplashes, to veneers for block work or brick accents for stucco facades.

"BRICK PAVERS" have been used for streets / roadways in the past. Today the applications vary from side walks & patios to walls tiles. Generally a "wire cut" brick which is precisely dimensioned and clean edged to be able to lay them tightly together without cement if so desired.

Brick Paver now come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes for any specific paving needs. They can be wet laid in cement or dry laid in sand and grit, in a wide variety of patterns, running bond, herringbone, basket-weave, etc. They can even accent concrete walkways as borders or inlaid panels.

Today's brick manufacturers have developed modular paver kits.

These kits are a schemed system that establishes a particular pattern or even unique designs, which can be pre determined by the particular kit pattern chosen before hand and is not as dependant on the quality of mason as would be with standard brick.

Anyway they are laid in any pattern they still remain a durable, attractive way to accentuate any property!

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