25-year guarantee on our long-lasting beautiful facades
Building or renovating with bricks? Vandersanden offers a 25-year guarantee against gypsum efflorescence on our facing bricks and brick slips. And we are the only ones that do! We guarantee that our facades will remain beautiful for the long term.
25-year guarantee against gypsum efflorescence
Over time bricks can discolour and lose their lustre because of wet weather, air pollution or gypsum efflorescence. The result can have a detrimental effect on a building’s visual aesthetic, compromising the architect’s design vision. Vandersanden offers a 25-year guarantee against gypsum efflorescence. So, you can rest assured – your facade will remain beautiful for many years to come.
How do we stop gypsum efflorescence?
Our wire-bricks are naturally resistant to gypsum efflorescence due to the closed structure of their surfaces. To protect our waterstruck and handmade bricks, we use various techniques. A range of our products is protected by a sustainable coating. For other bricks we were able to create recipes and use different clays to make them resistant for gypsum efflorescence.
How does gypsum efflorescence occur?
When it rains a brick absorbs water into its pores. A brick also absorbs moisture from wet mortar. Minerals and small gypsum particles dissolve in the water and are transported through the brick pores. When the brick dries, water evaporates through the face of the brick with minerals and gypsum particles deposited on the surface.
The solution? Coated bricks
Vandersanden worked with Belgian University, KU Leuven, to develop a solution which treats bricks with an innovative coating after the firing process.
At its manufacturing facilities, Vandersanden bricks are given an environmentally friendly coating in a special production unit. All visible sides of the brick are treated. The bed faces of the brick are not treated; this ensures that the brick retains its absorption properties creating strong mortar adhesion. The penetration depth of the coating agent is between 5-10 mm. This ensures there is no chance of gypsum efflorescence. The coating agent changes the so-called capillary effect. This means the brick no longer absorbs water, the bricks walls remain open, allowing the moisture in the mortar to evaporate as expected. Coated bricks can be laid using standard mortars.
This innovative and environmentally sustainable process is available across a range of Vandersanden’s portfolio.
Advantages of coated bricks
With coated bricks, you can be sure that gypsum efflorescence will not occur and that your facade will be protected. These bricks offer five key benefits:
- Your facade stays beautiful for longer, and you have a 25-year guarantee against gypsum efflorescence.
- A coated brick retains its original appearance in terms of colour, shape and structure.
- The pores of the bricks remain open, and frost-resistance is guaranteed. Moisture in the core of the brick can evaporate more easily.
- The coated visible sides absorb considerably less water, reducing dirt build-up.
- You avoid the expense of having your facade cleaned. Removing the gypsum efflorescence is a job for experts.
At Vandersanden, we have been coating all our facing bricks that are susceptible to gypsum efflorescence since 2020. Our other facing bricks have a more closed surface structure. That is why we offer a 25-year guarantee against gypsum efflorescence on our entire range.
Building with confidence
When you design or build a project (or have one built), you want it to look as beautiful in the long term as it does on the day it was completed. With Vandersanden's facing bricks, you can prevent gypsum efflorescence and ensure sustainably attractive facades for years to come.
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