Anyone familiar with the mortar-less brick siding?

ive never seen this product n.y. what is it made of ?

Funny you should ask that, I was doing more research last night into it. The main company is Novabrick, I just googled “mortarless brick” and they are the top item. The brick is made from concrete and actually comes with a 50 year warranty.

They claim the material cost is equivalent to a “high grade wood siding”. Not sure what that means yet. Got to stop at my local 84 and get a price list.

Once you have the exterior wall sheathed and put a vapor barrier up they recommened running vertical ferring strips to provide a 1” gap between the brick and the wall of the house for moisture and air flow. Then you drill every brick that hits a ferring strip (every 4 rows you do this) and put in a deck screw or SS screw.

I am not sure how the interior and exterior corners are installed yet, figured I would wait to see the pieces and if I am still stumped either send away for the installation DVD or attend one of their installation seminars.

Seems like a lot of drilling, I have 27 square to do and lots of corners, that is not counting the garage we would do someday to match the house. Though I think I would still take drilling over mixing, hauling and pointing mortar.

I am new here, so this is my first post.

I used it on one of my house’s I bought to flip. I actually like it. once you get the hang of it, it goes very easy and is not that hard to put up. It turned out nice and we saved about $2000 by using the Nova bricks Vs. traditional bricks and labor.

-- Don Kelley, McAlester Oklahoma

Just a word of caution about the weight. If you’re walls are framed very sturdy, it shouldn’t be a problem, but if you are lacking rack bracing (such as ply on the wall exteriors, or dadoed in 1×4’s at 45’s in the corners) it would be more than I would like hanging on there. Check also to see how the ceilings are tied into the walls, if they are pretty much just sitting there and not acting as any kind of a hold in for the walls, then you could have a problem with the weight bowing out the center of a long wall. Just some thoughts…

You all ever hear of a product called dry-vent. When i worked in construction field 20 some years ago that was the thing that they sheathed the outer walls on a lot of the buildings my crew worked on. Its basically white styrofoam panels of various thicknesses They tapcon it to the walls, then they use a special glue/mortar that they trowel over the top of it. Can tint it any color that you want. Nice thing about the stuff is that it adds “R” value to the building. You can hit it with a baseball bat & you won’t damage it & if it is damaged it’s easily repaired.

-- kwhit190211

That mortarless brick sounds like a whole heck of a drilling. What happens when the brick finall eats through the fastener? Even if you used stainless screws, it all depends on how much chrome they put in the mix if it rusts or not. And, some stainless steels do rust, just like some are also magnetic. Just seems like a lot of grief to me.

-- kwhit190211

I am a master mason and a general contractor who designs and builds custom homes. my thoughts on this is,,
Ahock is right, check your framing,,who built it and how long ago. if it’s a track home Do not do this..
I seen several jobs with the Nova Brick.. Not so nice. A little of this goes a long way. too much cheapens the look. Your horizontal and verticlal lines need to be dead on. I also seen Nova Brick applied correctly and with good scale and balance. Think about your windows and doors. You will need to build them out and make them accent the brick.. You can do this,,take some time to look at thier web site and look at custom homes that have good details. Scale ,balance, design and color are the key to a succcessful job. good luck

The idea sounds good and the pics also look good. I would just be concerned about the awful amount of drilling that would be required. I like the idea of using the brick tiles along with mortar.

-- www.roklinsystems.com provides the Best Concrete Repair Products

I design and build homes in central Pennsylvania and I would never put it on anything that I build. As far as cost, where I live it costs the same as real brick installed by a decent mason not to mention it just looks really cheap.

It’s just another one of those short-cut DIY products that looks like a cheaper and easier way to go, but ends up costing you in the long run. Go with the real thing. It will add value to your home and preserve the structure instead of adding stress to it.

New one on me

-- If at first you don't succeed ask some one at Home Refurbers

I’ve seen the stuff used around here, but only as a partial siding. They are generally covering the lower 3 to 4 feet and then running like Certainteed cement board siding the rest of the way. I read the code restrictions here, and it calls for an engineer to approve the structure for the weight prior to installation on homes more than 40 years old.
After reading the installation instructions I would be leery of trying to hang this on a 151 yr. old structure. It calls for adding additional plywood reinforcement over doors and windows to strengthen the headers. Now your getting deep. That would not be typical siding installation. I’M JUST SAYIN!!!!

Cheers for the replys

-- ugg boots

Ihave instaled Nova Brick and it takes a lot of drilling and is hard to keep level. Ijust completd a wainscoting job with a new real stone look product called Stack-N-Tack by Silvermine Stone Co It went on in less then half the time it took me to install the Nova Brick and I like the finised look of the Stack-N-Tack over the Nova Brick. You can see a video of the product and how fast it is to install at www.silverminestone.com