Everything You Need to Know About Glazed Bricks

As brick suppliers, Modular Clay Products are familiar with supplying a wide range of high-quality facing bricks.

We’d be the first to tell you how diverse the brick manufacturing market and supply chain is, starting with the products themselves.

One of the most widely sought-after, versatile and robust brick types currently is glazed brick. This guide explains the specific clay brick variation and what you can achieve by using this product in commercial construction.

What are Glazed Bricks?

Glazed brick products are extruded pieces of brick masonry featuring a glossy, ceramic finish on their exterior surface.

Many architects recognise how durable and physically resilient glazed bricks are; if anything, they retain the same crucial properties as clay facing bricks. One of the reasons why people choose glazed brick over standard brick is its added aesthetic appeal, colour variations and design possibilities.

It’s common to find glazed thin bricks used in applications like partition walls, veneers or structural walls, meaning they have load-bearing capabilities or can be used purely for decorative purposes, similarly to brick slips or brick tiles.

Features of Glazed Bricks

Below is a summary of this product’s key features:

The ceramic glazed brick coating provided comes in many different colour variations, including custom blends from existing brick textures.
This surface layer itself is impact and abrasion-resistant.
Compared to regular facing bricks, which tend only to be fired once, glazed bricks are fired twice in tunnel kilns, which helps to fuse the surface with the ceramic layer.
The ceramic texture is fused to the brick surface at exceptionally high temperatures to make them inseparable.
They are highly impervious to graffiti, staining, frost and water damage, ensuring they retain long-term aesthetic value and durability.
Glazed bricks are heavier than standard bricks due to the extra protective layer, offering excellent resilience against harsh weather conditions.
You can purchase load-bearing glazed bricks and non-load-bearing glazed brick slips, so the product is versatile for both structural and purely aesthetic purposes.

What to Consider When Using Glazed Bricks and Blocks

The consensus within the brick industry is that glazed bricks can be suitable for almost every construction application, in both load-bearing and non-load-bearing capacities.

However, facing brickwork’s durability is mainly dependent on water management; in other words, glazed bricks shouldn’t always be chosen if they’re prone to high water and moisture levels. This can significantly increase their chances of deterioration.

When constructing buildings using glazed bricks and blocks, it’s crucial to ensure that an efficient drainage system is installed to allow water entering the brick wall system to drain away seamlessly. Considering the additional mass of glazed bricks, the foundation design and structural markup should account for the weight of these materials.

Excessive water damage may not affect the brick texture and surface much, but rather the mortar joints. Depending on the type of brick mortar used, that could deteriorate if exposed to high water levels.

Advantages of Glazed Bricks

There are many benefits of using glazed bricks in construction, summarised below.

Their ceramic layer enhances their robustness and resilience.
Bricks are fire-resistant, with the fused glossy ceramic coating adding an extra layer of protection.
Like all clay bricks, glazed products are virtually maintenance-free, proving exceptionally easy to clean.
Glazed blocks and bricks are easy to find in standard brick sizes or more diverse and unique shapes if you require them. For example, Modular Clay Products can source long format bricks (otherwise known as Roman bricks), brick tiles, and special-shaped bricks, all with ceramic coatings.
Bricks are infinitely recyclable, with glazed products proving no different, so they are excellent solutions if you’re concerned about environmental impact.

Please refer to our previous detailed guide for a complete list of glazed brick advantages.

Considerations of Glazed Bricks

There are very few reasons not to consider using bricks over other building materials. But to provide complete clarity, some minor concerns some clients have had include their:

Higher price point;
Energy consumption during brick manufacturing;
Additional cost of glazing.

However, while the double-firing manufacturing process uses additional energy for glazed brick products, when considering its impact in hindsight and how bricks are all made from natural materials, its resource consumption is minimal compared to others. While that may pose a slightly higher upfront cost, you’re saving significantly on repairs, maintenance, and upkeep when you factor in bricks’ long-term benefits.