At Melbourne Brick, we love everything about building with bricks. There are so many advantages to using brick when planning a new home or thinking about an extension to a house. To help you choose the right bricks for your home, we have collated some of the most commonly asked questions our clients ask us about brick home designs, brick wall designs and red brick designs.
Why use brick in your home?
In Australian construction, brick is by far the most commonly used building material and for a good reason.
From ancient beginnings as far back as 8000 B.C., humans have learned how to make simple mud bricks by leaving clay to bake in the sun. Bricks have become a popular building material worldwide which is easy to understand when you know the many advantages of them.
With a very long lifespan, the upsides of brick houses far outweigh the disadvantages. For that reason, insurance companies will favourably look upon your new home built of brick rather than any other material.
Bricks are durable
Standing for many generations, historical landmarks such as churches and countless historical homes are proof of durability when it comes to bricks. There is very little maintenance required to upkeep their high quality and presentation, so your home will stand the test of time for others to enjoy for many decades to come.
Bricks are low maintenance
As bricks can cope with high humidity, there is no need to worry about denting or rotting when you have a brick house exterior. Other outside factors such as termites and ants are no challenge to a brick home as they’ll have nothing to feed on.
There is no need to paint or wipe your wall exterior regularly. With a pressure clean every once in a while, many modern brick houses will retain their colour for over 20 years – some may even last a lifetime.
Brick walls are fire-resistant
Being made from a highly compressed material, with the density leaving very little room for combustion to ignite or spread, a brick structure has a far higher fire-resistant rating than any other building material.
As clay bricks are fired at over 1000 degrees Celsius, they can easily withstand extreme temperatures and confine the spread of a fire for hours.
Bricks are eco-friendly
Using natural and abundant materials to make bricks, such as clay and shale, means they are easy to recycle and they are resistant to mould, rot and mildew.
They can be repurposed in many different ways and do not leech any harmful chemicals or micro matters when degraded into small pieces and used as landscape mulch.
Bricks add more home value
Even though bricks might be a more costly material to construct your home with initially, building with bricks will eventually increase your house’s value and help lower your insurance risks and premiums.
Block out the noise with bricks
No soundproof insulation is required, as this building material creates natural noise reduction.
Bricks have excellent sound dampening capabilities due to being naturally thick and dense. Using a brick wall design means you can expect an average noise reduction of fifty decibels with a cavity wall. With a solid brick wall, this noise reduction can be up to fifty-three decibels.
Bricks stabilise your internal room temperature
Due to their ability to handle high humidity and keep mould, fire and moisture out, it is easy to see why brick homes are so popular in Australia. On top of that, the brick exterior of your house can stabilise your internal temperatures, keeping it either cool on a hot summer’s day or warm for longer when the fireplace or heating is on in winter.
By improving your home’s energy efficiency, your heating and cooling systems won’t have to work as hard to maintain the temperature you desire in your home which can save you a fortune in the long term.
What are the best bricks for a house?
When thinking about your new brick designs, consider the various materials and colour choices available to you. Our favourite brick home designs include clay bricks, which are cost-effective and a fantastic sustainable option that require very little to no maintenance. Nowadays, you can also choose from cement and limestone materials.
Even though red brick house designs are trendy and are found in many historic and heritage-listed suburbs, brick can come in other colours, such as browns, black, greys and even lighter tones such as white, cream and pastel shades.
Our favourite brick home designs
To provide you with further information for your renovation plan, we recommend speaking to an expert in the home extension and renovations industry. Award-winning design and construction teams around the world have worked on many brick home design projects and these are our favourites. We have chosen some of the most unique brick home design transformations, offering different qualities to homeowners in different locations whilst showcasing the universal use of bricks in modern homes.
This award-winning 1930s Malvern mansion is an excellent example of how to preserve an original brick house design when renovating and extending a home. The brick exterior and exposed timber joinery throughout the interior of the home, combined with new bold and daring design choices, bring this home into the 21st century. With more than 52 years of experience in home extensions in Melbourne and countless accolades, this builder is a fantastic option for your next project.
Source: https://spacemaker.com.au/projects/malvern/
In Western Australia, the designers of this playful Mount Lawley home used brick throughout both the exterior and interior to reflect its industrial past. The red bricks selected for the build were originally sourced from demolished properties in the area, making it highly unique and a nod to days gone by.
Mount Lawley – Exterior (Source: https://www.realestate.com.au/news/playful-mount-lawley-home-inspired-by-industrial-past/)
Mount Lawley – Interior (Source: https://www.realestate.com.au/news/playful-mount-lawley-home-inspired-by-industrial-past/)
Breaking up standard white walls within the home, brick has been used to create a feature wall inside this Palm Springs-inspired architectural home. With a combination of both smooth and textured brick finishes laid in a geometric pattern on the exterior, brick creates a distinctive look that is sure to impress.
A perfect example of how to use darker coloured bricks throughout the home can be seen in this Heritage Sydney home. Here, dark grey exposed brick walls on the inside provide warmth and a fantastic contrast between natural window light and the darkness of the bricks.
Build your dream home – brick by brick
Founded on the historic site of City Brick in Glen Iris, Melbourne Brick has been serving the local community and building industry for over thirty years now. We share a passion for our local region and assist our clients with building and renovating homes that represent them the most.
Our family-owned business delivers great quality throughout, offering you bricks, pavers, stone, retaining walls and more. Visit one of our showrooms and speak with our fantastic consulting team today to discuss your building needs – we’d love to help build your dream house, brick by brick.