Brick
Brick is the most versatile masonry product on the market today. From endless designs, patterns, and even hand carved murals of brick today’s brick manufacturers have made it a science. Kilned using carefully timed heat cycles to determine hardness, color, and texture. Brick that are freshly formed are sculpted before being kilned and hardened.using this technique brick manufacturers can create murals out of individual brick and combining them together to create massive brick sculptures, waterfalls, statues, columns, and basically anything you wish. When looking for ideas in brick masonry try looking to the past. Early American as well as Old English brickwork is far more detailed than the majority of brick and stone you will see today.
Concrete Block
There are many options to concrete products in todays masonry world. With concretes easy workability virtually any shape, texture, and color is possible. Lite wieght block are also an option made from a mixture of flyash, portland cement, and aggrigate. Lite wieght CMU’s or (Concrete Masonry Units) also have a higher fire rating and special fire rated CMU’s are also possible. Today with better applications and high quality materials concrete block have changed the industry. Steel reenforced concrete block can withstand tornadoes and earthquakes. Foundations made of concrete masonry units in the early years of hollow core concrete block have previously given a bad name to concrete block. Strenght in concrete foundations specifically comes from the steel grid of rebar inside the concrete. Without rebar in the walls the foundation would crack and bow the same way a foundation made of concrete block would do.
The key to a strong foundation is the steel inside of the wall. By using the proper grout, mortar, and size of block, as well as the proper sized rebar, reenforcing galvanized durawall, and rebar placement horizontally and vertically all combine to ensure a very strong project.
Precast or cast stone
A very high quality man made stone used for structural and architectural masonry. Used for thousands of years for it’s easy workability compared to carving of natural stone. From smaller window sills and a basic keystone to large archways and header stones that can weigh thousands of pounds each. Precast stone also comes in a wide variety of colors and textures.
Cultured or Manufactured Stone
Often called fake stone it is a product used on lower end homes and structures in place of natural stone. Easy to install and at a fraction of the time of natural stone masonry.
The only fallback is the fact that when these stones are cut or damaged the aggregate used while manufacturing these products show through.
Natural Stone
Natural Stone is still number one for a timeless masonry project. When properly installed and shaped natural stone can not be surpassed in beauty.
There are many styles of stone masonry such as cobblestone, flagstone, river rock, drystack, crazy quil, and much more. One of the newest natural stone masonry products is Natural thin veneer stone.
With this new product on the market why would you choose fake stone when you can have a natural stone product that is much stronger and priced competitively.
