Brick slips in coastal location, is it feasible?

Are you working on a project by the coast and want to use brick slips? Then we have some useful information for you.

Using brick slips as a facade finish in coastal location is certainly possible, but you need to take some important things into account.

The facade finish must be resistant to salt water, i.e. corrosion resistant. There is currently no way of measuring whether or not a product is corrosion resistant, but practice shows that ceramic materials such as the clay brick slip are resistant to salt.
If you opt for the look of traditional brickwork with a joint, the joint mortar must satisfy the aforementioned requirements. With a joint-free look, there is no joint, so you don’t need to worry about the corrosion resistance of the joints.

When opting for brick slips as the finish for a facade, the E-Board® external facade insulation system is an excellent choice. When using an external facade insulation system like E-Board in a coastal location, you need to take three important points into account:

Wind resistance
Corrosion resistance (due to the salt in the air)
UV resistance

Wind load

The national annex to the Eurocode (EN 1991-1-4) imposes strict requirements on resistance to wind in coastal locations. In practice, it is largely about confirmation, and the designer needs to calculate whether or not the structure satisfies the code. Our E-Board system is tested to and satisfies the strict requirements.

Corrosion resistance

For coastal regions, there are also strict requirements on the corrosion resistance of the fasteners. No additional requirements are imposed on the subsurface. For the underlying insulation panels and fastening plugs, the brick slips and the adhesive must protect the underlying insulation panel. Make sure that your facade system is correctly fastened so that these insulation panels and the plugs are properly protected.

UV resistance

Just as brick slips and joints (or adhesive) protect the insulation panels and fasteners from corrosion, they must also protect against UV radiation. So whether you go for the look of jointed or joint-free brickwork, fitting E-Board® correctly can make it perfect for coastal regions.

We can guarantee that the adhesive mortar used for E-Board does not behave significantly differently at the coast when compared to locations inland. The cement used has higher resistance to sulphates, which makes it suitable for use near the coast.