Go-Brick Brick Veneer Archives - Native Custom Stone

How to Build a Brick Wall With No Bricklaying Skills

Bricklaying is hard work that takes muscle, learned skills, and practice. It is also messy because you’re working with bricks and mortar, which has to be mixed from cement, sand, and water.

Additionally, you need a good, solid foundation for a brick wall, which is even heavier work, because it entails mixing structural concrete. The foundation must also be constructed to the correct dimensions for the width and height of the wall it is going to support.

Bricklaying skills are also essential when building brick walls. All brick structures should be straight, level, and square, and a number of specialized tools are required including a spirit level and square, various trowels, mallets, hammers, chisels, bolsters, and lines and pegs. While the skills can be learned, bricklaying doesn’t fit into the realm of most do-it-yourselfers.

But all this changes if you are building a brick wall with Native Custom Stone Go-Brick.

Brick Walls Built With Revolutionary Go-Brick

Go-Brick is a lightweight brick veneer that will make any vertical surface look just like a solid brick wall. Many professional bricklayers and masons work with the product, but it is also ideal for do-it-yourselfers wanting to transform internal or external walls.

The beauty of this product is that it doesn’t require any type of foundation or structural support and installation is quick and easy. While the lightweight brick units must be installed so that they are flat, level, and plumb, all you need is a chalk line to mark the position of each row.

Go-Brick tumbled brick units are 2¼ inches high and 7⁵/₈ long, and they are about a ½ inch in thickness. A gap of ³/₈ inch should be left to form a mortar joint between each brick.

Packs of brick flats contain 58 pieces that are enough to cover 8½ square feet. Corner pieces are packed per linear foot with 10 linear feet in each box. Window sills pieces are also available. These measure 18 x 2 x 3³/₈ inches.

Molded to look just like clay bricks, tumbled brick Go-Bricks are available in seven standard colors:

Antique Red
Old Dixie Grey
Orchard Blend
Savannah Beach
Schoolhouse Red
Sunset Rust
Vintage Atlanta

There are also a variety of grout joint colors.

Installing Go-Brick Walls

Start by marking a chalk line on the wall where the bricks are to be installed. Remember to include the joint width.

Instead of using mortar, Go-Bricks are installed using tile adhesive and an ordinary notched trowel. Regular mortar can be used for grouting between the units, but it is even easier to use tile grout and a grout applicator.

The mortar/grout joint may be deep-raked, full-brushed, or full-tooled, in which case you will need a jointing tool. Alternatively, you can just scrape out the excess grout and wipe clean carefully with a cloth.

There is no need to seal the brick veneer unless the surface is going to be in a particularly wet environment or exposed to excessive run-off water. Native Custom Stone does have a product, Natural Shield Sealer, that is made for purpose, and doesn’t alter the appearance of the Go-Brick surface.

Go-Brick and Go-Stone for DIY Projects

A Georgia-based company, Native Custom Stone has developed brick and stone veneer products for the DIY market. Both Go-Brick and Go-Stone products are easy to install and both are available online from BuildDirect.com, and from select Home Depot stores in a number of US states.

As their names suggest, Go-Brick looks like brick, and Go-Stone looks like stone. Both simulated ranges have a number of different finishes and colors, and both are installed using with minimal tools and tile adhesive rather than mortar. Both the brick and manufactured stone veneer products are lightweight, and both will transform walls from drab to fab in just a few hours!

Go-Brick

A thin, tumbled brick veneer that can be installed on most vertical surfaces, both interior and exterior, Go-Brick is available in a wide range of standard colors, and can be custom-colored to order. Several grout colors are also available to match the color of mortar that is normally used to lay full sized clay bricks or concrete blocks.

On average, the molded bricks are half an inch thick, and 7⅝ x 2¼ inches in size. Each box contains 58 Go-Bricks that will cover 8½ square feet with ⅜ inch joints. One box weighs about 24 lbs; and each square foot weights between 4-6 lbs. Accessories include corner pieces, 18 x 2 x 3⅜ inch window sills, and boxes that are designed to accommodate light switches and electric plug points.

When laying Go-Brick veneer it is best to mix units from different boxes to maximize variation.

Essential tools required to install Go-Brick include a measuring tape and a notched trowel to apply the tile adhesive. If tile grout is used, you will need a grout applicator; if regular mortar is used for grouting, you will need a small pointed trowel or pointing tool.

No form of foundation is required for Go-Brick veneer, but it is vital that the first (and all subsequent courses) are level. It is recommended that a chalk line is used to ensure that each course of Go-Brick is laid straight and level. But to do this you will need to start with two points that are level, so you will also need a spirit level to mark these points. Don’t ever rely on an existing floor level when tiling, laying bricks, or installing any form of veneer. Floors are not always completely level!

Sealing of the brick veneer isn’t necessary unless the surface is going to be exposed to a lot of water. Native Custom Stone has a Natural Shield Sealer that repels water and oil. It is effective for three to five years, and won’t change the natural appearance of the brick veneer.

Go-Stone

An innovative stone veneer made using recycled materials in the form of crumb rubber from discarded tires, Go-Stone is intended primarily for use on interior vertical surfaces. There are three ranges that give the appearance of different stone types, all of which are supplied in panel form.

Go-Stone is supplied in boxes of 15 panels that will cover five square feet. There are 40 vertical inches of flat edges in each box, and five each of three different panel sizes: 16 x 4 inches; 12 x 4 inches; and 8 x 4 inches. Corner pieces are packaged separately. Like Go-Brick, accessories designed to accommodate light switches and electric plug points are also available.

The essential tools needed to install Go-Stone include a measuring tape, spirit or torpedo level, and a notched trowel, as well as a wet-cut or drywall saw to cut ends to size as necessary.

Like Go-Brick, Go-Stone panels don’t require and form of foundation, and panel courses must be kept level for authenticity. The different sized panels should be alternated to prevent identical panels being installed next to or above one another. Since the panels are different sizes, this will also prevent the appearance of seams.

If Go-Stone manufactured stone veneer is going to be used on an exterior wall (perhaps on a covered patio wall), it’s advisable to use an exterior tile adhesive and the panels should be sealed.

For more information about Go-Stone and Go-Brick and suitable DIY projects, contact Native Custom Stone or an authorized distributor.

Easy DIY Renovations to Your Home’s Interior with Go-Brick

Are you looking for your next DIY adventure? How would you like to work with a product that will add elegance and beauty to your home while still cutting down on waste materials and improving the environment? It may seem too good to be true but Go-Brick is real and it is changing the way people approach home improvement.

Let’s say that you want to add some classy brick accent walls to your kitchen or maybe a brick backsplash for the sink. You would need:

The bricks and materials which are extremely heavy and cost quite a bit.
Specialized tools for measuring the bricks, cutting them to fit and applying the mortar.
The skills and training needed to create a beautiful addition instead of an embarrassing eyesore
A couple of friends that don’t mind helping you cart around the materials and taking some of the weight to avoid injuring yourself.

If you are thinking that it doesn’t sound like a DIY job then you are absolutely right. Building with brick is labor intensive and hard to do but not anymore.

Go-Brick was created with the DIY enthusiast in mind.

It looks exactly like regular brick but instead of full blocks, it is only a thin veneer created from the casting of hand selected bricks. Go-brick is extremely easy to work with because:

It is half the weight of standard brick. That means the brick veneer can be held to the wall with basic tile adhesive without the need for special tools or compounds.
It is environmentally friendly .
You don’t need any specific training, tools or years of knowledge in bricklaying to do a top notch job with Go-Brick. There aren’t any joints or mortar to worry about so you can get professional looking results on your own.

If you would like more information about Go-Brick or you would like to know where to buy it, contact one of the manufactured stone specialists at Native Custom Stone to help.

Learn More about Native Custom Stone’s New Go-Brick® Brick Veneer

Brick has been a building material for years and years. It has been used for everything from castles in the middle ages to trendy nightclubs in the millennium. Today brick is considered a high end building material so it tends to give a project an air of sophistication and permanence.

Though working with real brick has quite a few drawbacks:

You really need to know what you’re doing if you plan on building with brick. There is a lot of weight involved and if you don’t have everything fitting together just right, it will all come tumbling down.
It is not a one man job. Consider all the things you have heard are”heavy as a load of bricks” and then consider having to literally cart bricks around all day while you build a wall. You’ll need a few people to help out if you want to avoid muscle strains, injuries and exhaustion.
It takes a lot of different tools to do it right. If you are going to measure and cut the bricks to fit together correctly, you need an impressive array of specialized tools.
Bricks are expensive. Just like anything else, perception is part of the value. Since brick is durable, long lasting and it is seen as being a high end material, it costs a lot of money.

Why choose Go-Brick® Brick Veneer?

Go-Brick Schoolhouse Red

For these reasons and many more, Native Custom Stone has developed a revolutionary new product called Go-Brick®. Each brick is hand selected for its unique appearance and style. Then the brick is cut into the desired dimensions before a mold is made of it. This process results in a detailed, lightweight brick veneer that will look fantastic in any project.

Go-Brick® was not designed with a professional brick layer in mind. It was designed for the DIY minded people who want to improve their home with their own two hands. Find a Native Custom Stone distributor near you today to order Go-Brick®!