Melbourne Brick has been a leading retailer of bricks, pavers, retaining walls and other landscaping products including grass and turf since 1988.
We’ve been supplying builders, trades and consumers across Melbourne during that time.
So what’s New in Brick?
You could say that brick dust was in our DNA and we share an eternal love of these popular construction materials with most people on the planet. Bricks have been popular for thousands of years, and because they are both beautiful and functional – their status as the most popular product for building houses is likely to remain unchanged for another several thousand years.
Although bricks have been around for a long time, this doesn’t mean they don’t change. In fact, over the past decade or so, we’ve seen rapid development in the style, range and indeed price of bricks as a product.
In Australia, particularly on the east coast, we only have a few manufacturers. It’s difficult to get approval to build new brick kilns, and the industry has kept rationalising to now where we really only have two major manufacturers and a few smaller ones.
This has meant the price of bricks has escalated, although not necessarily impacting the whole cost of a house, since the bricks only make up a fraction of the construction cost.
We’ve also seen the development of beautiful feature bricks, some even glazed in all the colours of the rainbow. We’ve seen different sizes manufactured.
And we’ve seen an escalation in the importation of bricks from overseas including Europe and Asia.
Most imported bricks are at the high end of the market but feature some interesting sizes such as longer, thinner bricks, which can give you a nice finish on your house.
Here’s a few tips for you on choosing and using the right bricks for your home:
- Imported bricks – be sure to check your bricks for damage as they are handled a lot in moving them from overseas. And order enough to account for breakages or damage. The reason being the replacement time can be on the order of 12-14 weeks, so you don’t want to be caught short.
- Dry-pressed bricks – will usually be softer and care needs to be taken whilst cleaning to not damage the brick. Also, ensure the bricklayer takes care when installing to minimise having lots of mortar to clean off.
- Glazed Bricks – these are expensive – at $10 or more each so order enough, but ensure your trades take care in installing to prevent chips and breaks.
- European Bricks – identified by a narrow, low or longer profile, these bricks give a different look but make sure it is consistent with the design of the rest of your house. As they can look ‘heavy’ on high, large walls.
We love all bricks and want to make sure you get the beautiful finish and building benefits from the bricks you choose, without any hassles caused by choosing the wrong style, or from the cleaning and installation process. After all, if you love your home, you’re going to be looking at them for a while
Speak to our staff at our display superstores, call 1300 722 102, or go online for more details www.melbournebrick.com.au