Deciding on what brick slip product to choose can be a tough task. With over 50 different products available in our range alone, we understand that choosing can be difficult.
Taking colour completely out of the equation, this post is going to concentrate on the texture and aesthetics of the brick slip. Whilst the brick slip colour is to most people the crucial element, here we are going to show you how the texture plays a far more integral part of the decision making process.
Rumbled vs Non Rumbled
Most of our extensive product range can ultimately be sifted and sorted into two piles, rumbled and non rumbled.
Rumbled Brick slips and bricks
Either natural rumbling or manufactured rumbling, both result in the same worn and patina look. Characteristics of chipped and rounded edges to the bricks give a old world style look.
Natural rumbling occurs on our brick slips that are cut from reclaimed bricks, much like our Reclaimed Coachouse. When buildings are demolished these bricks can be chipped and worn already due to the age of the building they have been reclaimed from. They also develop patina during the demolition and sorting phase of them being reclaimed for further use. We would call this process natural rumbling, the process is what gives the bricks and later the brick slips the desired look and aesthetic.
Manufactured rumbling is when this natural process is created after the brick has been manufactured. Handmade and machine made bricks are rumbled in large rotating drums, this smooths off the edges of the bricks and mimics a worn and aged look.
Our Olde Bayswater Blend and Docklands Mixture are two of our more popular rumbled products. Both exhibit the desired characteristics required of an age old reclaimed style brick.
Our New Sandalwood is another great product with the same rumbled characteristic.
Non Rumbled Brick Slips and bricks
The remaining category could be extensively large. Essentially any brick that isn’t reclaimed or hasn’t gone through the rumbling process would be classed as non rumbled.
We often find that more contemporary projects tend to go for a more square and uniform brick slip. Non rumbled brick slips would give crisp edges and square mortar joints. This is a contrasting desire to the rumbled products and appeals to more modern designs and themes.
Our London Weathered Yellow, Lambeth Mixture and Manhattan White are three of our more popular non rumbled products. All exhibit good clean working edges and consistent texture and colourings.
The Choice is ultimately yours
Great designs don’t always come from following the rules, rumbled brick slips can work with modern designs and non rumbled brick slips do often work well with more traditional projects. There is no right of wrong.
If you have a project in mind and are unsure as to what product you might want then we would always advise ordering samples first. We offer sample boards of all of our products please see here.
Go on, be daring and start planning your brick slip project today.
