How can I tell the difference between a whole brick veneer and a 1/2 inch brick veneer?
Question by Carolyn: How can I tell the difference between a whole brick veneer and a 1/2 inch brick veneer?
I’m looking to buy a house and the house is brick veneer. The house is 60 years old. The agent told me its whole brick, how can I tell?
Best answer:
Answer by Labgrrl
You can sideways out of the window and see if there is enough space for bricks, also, look at the corners of the house to see if the bricks “match” on all sides.
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Normally, whole brick veneer has “weep holes” about every third of forth joint between the joints in the very bottom course of bricks.
The weep hole is created by NOT using any mortar in those joints, simply leaving a gap between the ends of the bricks. The purpose of the weep holes is to allow any water that may get behind the veneer to drain out, AND allows some air circulation to reduce accumulated humidity.
Here is how I would determine the horizontal thickness of the bricks.
Make a depth measuring tool from a piece of coat-hanger wire by taking about a foot of wire and bending about a 1/4 to 3/8ths inch ninety degree [right angle] “hook” on one end.
Then insert the hook end into one of the weep holes [with the hook in a vertical position] until it stops at the back edge of the brick ledge of the foundation slab.
Then turn the wire 90 degrees to the right or left.
Then gently pull back on the wire until the hook touches against the back side of the brick.
Now mark the wire right at the front edge of the brick.
Turn the wire 90 degrees to cause the hook portion to be vertical to allow the wire to be removed from the weep hole.
Then it is a simple matter of measuring the distance from the hook [back of the brick] to the mark [front of the brick] to determine the horizontal thickness of the brick. Good luck.
The key here is the house is 60 yrs old. No fake brick was made that long ago. It’s brick and it’s full brick – simple as that.