Brick types for a façade with character
Visualise the ideal façade for your project. The façade is an expression of your taste and style, has that wow factor, and remains beautiful for years. You can do it all with sustainable facing bricks from Vandersanden. Bricks are boring? Think again!
Brick: sustainable and inspiring!
Bricks are made from natural raw materials and last for more than 100 years. Thanks to many years of research and development, Vandersanden can now offer you – builders, renovators and architects – more options than ever to make your mark.
There are generally 3 types of brick: stock, waterstruck, and wirecut. Each has its own look, production process, and characteristics.
Request your inspiration guide and get your sample. Or use our texture generator to experiment with types, colours and patterns.
Traditional stock bricks
Traditional stock bricks are made from a dry, fine sand and have a very smooth, flat surface with a subtle texture for a clean contemporary look. Most of our stock bricks are coated, offering the added benefit of Vandersanden’s 25-year guarantee against gypsum efflorescence, as well as secondary protection against the effects of pollution, ensuring long-lasting, sustainably attractive facades.
Handform – timeless and full of character
Hand-form bricks have a coarse, grained surface and a characterful, timeless look. The name of these bricks is a nod to the erstwhile production method – by hand. A craftsman would have rolled the clay through a layer of sand, before pressing the sanded clay into a mould. The excess clay would have been removed before the mould was turned over for the unfired brick to be removed from the mould. It is the inserting of the sanded clay that gives the hand-form brick its typical grained texture. Machines have since taken over the hard work, and hand-form bricks can now be produced a little faster.
A special type of stock is the aged variant. Are you looking for the authentic look of old bricks, perhaps for a country style home? Our expertly produced aged bricks are very similar to reclaimed bricks, but come with a quality and colour guarantee.
Waterstruck brick – a pure look and fine lines
The Waterstruck brick is fairly smooth with a lightly grained texture that is perfect for getting creative with. Water is key to the production process. The clay is not rolled through sand and is instead pressed into a wet mould. When the formed clay is removed from the mould, the water runs along the surface of the brick, giving it its typical surface texture.
Wirecut bricks – robust and contemporary
Wirecut bricks with a smooth and angular appearance. Special techniques are used for added effects on the visible surfaces of the brick. How are extruded facing bricks made? The clay bar is pressed through a nozzle, thus producing the bar of clay. The bar is then passed by a wire cutter to be cut to size. The nozzle determines the length and width of these modern facing bricks; the wire cutter determines the height.
Sustainable facing bricks
Narrow facing bricks
Narrow facing bricks – with a thickness of 6.5 to 8 cm instead of 10 cm – offer many advantages over their wider counterparts. The extra space can be used for insulation or additional living space. The production of narrow facing bricks also requires fewer raw materials and less energy, and transport is more energy-efficient and has lower CO2 emissions.
Pirrouet®: CO2-negative facing bricks
Pirrouet® facing bricks are a milestone towards a future with zero CO2 emissions. These facing bricks absorb CO2 instead of emitting it and are made from waste streams from the steel industry. During the production process, they absorb 60 kg of CO2 per tonne of material. Our CO2-negative bricks are produced in different colours.
More than 100 colours
You can choose from over 100 colours. Get creative with materials and brickwork patterns to make your design even more personal. Curious about the range of bricks, different colours, textures, and sizes? Discover our range and be inspired by the options.
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With the texture generator, you design the perfect façade yourself. Thanks to advanced technology, textures are visualised in a highly detailed and lifelike manner.
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Selecting the right brick doesn’t need to be a difficult task. Try out the useful online colour selector and discover your favourites. Why not stop by one of our showrooms to view and compare our comprehensive collection of bricks in detail? Still not sure what to choose?
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