Designing in Brick - Brick Details

POPULAR BRICK DETAILING IN RESIDENTIAL DESIGN

Brick is one of the most consistently popular building materials among architects, designers and builders alike, due primarily to brick’s versatility to adapt to various designs. Glen-Gery boasts an extensive selection of brick to create extraordinary details within the extruded, molded, and handmade brick lines.

Here we’ll break down four of the most common brick details used in residential construction so you can decide which patterns and accents are most appropriate for your home style. Regardless of the brick and details selected, your new brick home will provide the same unbeatable benefits of brick that no other building material can offer… for a lifetime and beyond.

SOLDIER COURSE & ROWLOCK
A soldier course is a row of brick are laid standing up with the narrow edge (or face) exposed. Think of a soldier course as a rank and file of bricks standing at attention, as the soldiers do. This detail is used for decorative effects over doors, windows and other openings such as fireplaces, or as a transition between two materials. A rowlock is a course of brick laid on the long narrow side with the short end of the brick exposed. The rowlock is similar to the header course except that the brick are laid on narrow or face edge. This type of course is often used as the top course or cap of garden walls and as window and door sills.

QUOINS
Quoin is the accentuation of a building’s corner with short side header bricks and long side stretcher bricks or stone blocks that may or may not differ from the wall masonry in size, color or texture.

CORBEL
Corbel refers to an architectural piece that projects out from a wall and serves as a bracket to carry weight, such as that imposed by a balcony. Corbels are built into walls to a depth that allows the pressure on the embedded portion to counteract the load on the exposed portion.

Corbelled Arches
Corbelled arches are decorative curved elements in the corners of an opening that appear to be supporting the opening. A corbel arch is constructed by offsetting successive horizontal courses of brick, beginning at the springline of the walls.