Thin brick basics: sizes, coursing, and what non-uniform really means

What thin brick actually is

Thin brick is real brick, just thin. It is a face-slice cut from fired clay brick, so it has the same clay body, the same fired color, and the same face texture as a full brick. What it does not have is the full depth. A full brick is a solid unit you build a wall out of. Thin brick is the front face of that unit, cut thin so it can be set into a formliner and cast into a concrete panel.

Because it is a real fired product and not a printed lookalike, it weathers and ages like brick. It reads as brick up close because it is brick.

Sizes and coursing in plain terms

Thin brick comes in sizes that line up with standard brick coursing. The face dimensions match common brick so the finished wall courses out the way a mason built wall would, with the same rhythm of brick and joint.

There are modular sizes meant to keep the math clean, so a run of brick lands on even coursing without a lot of odd cuts. There are also larger and specialty faces. The point is that the sizes are built around real brick coursing, so a wall of thin brick lines up like a wall of full brick.

Exact face dimensions and coursing depend on the brick you pick. Your rep can confirm exact sizes and coursing for the brick you are speccing.

Bond patterns

Bond pattern is just how the brick lines up course to course. Two common ones.

• Running bond. Each course shifts over so the vertical joints do not stack. The joints land near the middle of the brick above and below. This is the most common brick look and it is what most people picture when they think brick wall.
• Stack bond. The brick stack straight up, so the vertical joints line up in a grid. It reads cleaner and more modern. It shows off the brick as a repeating unit.

There are other patterns too, but running bond and stack bond cover most jobs. The bond you pick gets built into the liner, since the liner sets the spacing and the layout of the brick.

What non-uniform really means

Here is the part that trips people up. Real brick is not uniform. It comes out of the kiln with small differences in size, shape, and texture. One brick is a hair longer than the next. An edge is a little rounded on one and crisp on another. The face texture wanders. That is normal for real fired clay, and honestly it is part of why real brick looks good. Perfectly identical units read fake.

But that variation is exactly what a formliner has to deal with. The liner holds each brick and seals around it so concrete stays off the brick face. If the liner is built only for a perfect, identical brick, then every brick that is a little off leaves a small gap between the brick and the liner. Wet concrete finds that gap and creeps in. When it hardens, it leaves a thin shelf of concrete along the brick edge. That shelf is called a ledge, and you do not want one. It looks sloppy and it can trap water against the brick.

How Flex2Fit handles it

Flex2Fit is built for brick that is not uniform. It is designed to seal around brick that varies in size and shape, so the concrete stops at the joint and stays off the brick face. The result is a clean mortar line with no ledge, even though the brick underneath is real brick with all its normal variation.

That is the whole trick. Real brick varies, and the system has to seal around the real brick, not a perfect one.

Buying brick and liner together

One more practical note. It is easier when the brick and the liner come from one source. When the same people supply the thin brick and the formliner built to hold it, the fit is worked out ahead of time. You are not hoping a liner made for one brick happens to seal around another. Advanced can supply both, so the brick and the liner are matched before anything gets cast.