PT 7: 2024 Garage Build – Masonry

A shorter post this time, I promise

In this post, I cover the decorative brick accent on the front elevation of the building. This was added to ensure matching appearance to the existing structure. Unfortunately, building codes have changed since 1998, and the same method of construction was not able to be employed. In 1998, the decorative brick was permitted to be the structure – so two layers deep of brick is what holds up the house. In 2024, CMU or Concrete are required, with an air-gap, and a single layer of brick as a “veneer” only. Veneer is in quotes, as the weight of the building does end up resting partially on the decorative red brick.

There are two things to note in the above plan.
1. The min height of the wall is specified as 4″, and the wall + slab depth is listed as 8″ min. No specific dimension is given
2. 4 bricks are shown in the image. If each brick is 2″ high, this would end up being 8″, but the bottom brick extends down into 1/2 the slab depth

When pouring the slab in the last installment, I had to determine the height of the concrete part of the retaining wall. I did this by measuring the existing brick + grout where it meets the corner of the building, and carrying that height across. This ended up being 3 bricks + 3 grout lines. For simplicity, we did not lower the front edge of the slab in relation to the floor height behind the stem wall. Therefore, the bottom of the first layer of brick rests at the same level as the garage floor.

Starting the brick process, the first issue was finding brick to match the existing. There are two brick manufacturing companies in my area, Triangle Brick and General Shale. Luckily for me, both have showrooms on my commute home from the office, and the brick plants are about 45 min away in Moncure, NC.
NOTE: during this process, General Shale closed their showroom on Westgate Road and relocated.

When I bought my house, there were some decorative paths lined with brick leading around the side. When doing the grading to prepare for this project, I retained some of this brick to bring to the showrooms and use as a demonstrator. Unfortunately for me, it would turn out that this was NOT original brick. Measure twice, as they say.

After visiting both locations and showing the physical brick and photos of my house, General Shale was determined as the correct manufacturer of my original brick. The people in the Westgate showroom were very helpful and experienced, and quickly identified the model of brick that was originally used, however it was “discontinued”. The replacement type was called BERKSHIRE, and after giving them dimensions of the area I needed to cover, recommended the amount for me to purchase as two “straps”.

This is where I learned the original brick was different. What was used for the pathways was a standard brick, termed “modular” in brick parlance.

The brick used in my house turned out to be “queen” brick, which is the same width, but taller and shallower than the modular bricks.

This meant a return trip down to Moncure to swap the bricks out. I was a bit concerned about being able to return the first bricks, as one of the masons I was interviewing cut the straps off of them during the process of quoting my job.

The first 2 straps of brick was $97, so not a big deal.

The second time back, I still had to get 2 straps, but because the bricks are bigger it was $114. Bricks are cheap it turns out. Its the labor that makes them expensive.

The worst part of the bricks process was picking them up. The forklift driver, when delivering the bricks, made two mistakes. The first time, the driver used the right forklift (a standard one), but lowered down with the forks on my tail gate. This bent the hinges on my tailgate and made it difficult to close. I went into the office to complain, and they were like “whatever, not my problem”.

The second time around, the driver used a HUGE forklift designed to put many cubes of brick onto a flatbed trailer. Putting my 2 straps into a truck, this meant the tines of his forks were extremely close to my tail lights and bed sides. After the first time, I was not happy about this.

I hired a mason by calling around to names I found on Nextdoor. I found Jesus, who works on the weekend with his father doing small masonry jobs. They charged me $700 in labor, and were able to complete the work in 1 day.

I provided the Mortar ($56) and Sand ($25). Since my big truck was full of bricks, I used my mini-truck to get the sand. Half a yard of sand was WAY too much for this thing, but it made it home. It was unhappy going more than 15-20mph, but the sand yard is only 1 mile away.

I also provided brick ties and tapcon screws, which were a nominal cost, say $25. Brick ties come in a pack of 100, and I have tons left over.

The last thing for me to do was seal the concrete behind the bricks. I ran out of time to do this, so I ended up doing it at night using a headlamp. I used a Sika product called Drylok, and painted the top, front, and sides of the stem walls. I used less than 1 gallon, which was $35

Once I had everything ready, I called Jesus and let him know that he could start whenever. He ended up coming out on 31Aug2024, my sisters birthday, so we were out of the house during the time they were working. I was able to get a mid-progress photo from my security camera though.

They did a great job, and I think the bricks match about as well as I could have expected. They are still working in this photo, as the top row is not yet filled with mortar, and their string line is still hanging.

The true test is to look at the corner where the old and new bricks directly touch. I think this is a great result!

Finished, and ready for framing to start!