Solid Brick vs. Brick Veneer: Costs, Installation, and Benefits

What is Solid Brick Construction?

Humans have been using bricks to construct sturdy, warm, protective structures for centuries. These familiar blocks of red are made from natural components like shale or clay, bonded by a process called vitrification after being heated in a kiln to 2000˚.

Depending on regional costs and the expertise of your contractor, you can expect to pay around $14 square feet. Since brick (or double brick construction, as it’s sometimes called) doesn’t require any wooden elements for support, pests like termites or carpenter ants aren’t an issue. 

There are usually two walls in this type of construction — an interior made of concrete blocks and an exterior made of brick. Each horizontal layer of concrete block or brick is called a wythe. 

To ensure that the two wythes stay together and increase the wall’s stability and strength, header bricks are installed every six rows, laying across the wythes like a bridge. When you’re looking at the exterior, you can tell which is a header brick because it’s shorter than other bricks. 

Solid brick masonry is slightly more expensive due to the expertise needed by masons to install it successfully.  It is impervious to pests and fire, but brick masonry isn’t ideal for extreme winters, since you can’t install it with insulation. You can only install brick walls when you first build your home. It isn’t something that you can add on after the fact.