Building a Reverse Brick Veneer House

barker · Apr 23, 2010 11:32 am

Hi,

I am looking to start building a house at start of next year and have got the design all sorted (oriented for passive solar as well as meeting all the requirements for my area which is bushfire prone). I have been looking into construction systems and had been thinking of Timbercrete single skin walls but have yet to find any reviews of people using it outside their website (which may be trying to sell a product...).

I plan to owner build with a project manager who I know and trust. However, he is semi-retired and said would only build brick veneer as too old to be bothered learning new building materials. I am not a huge fan of brick veneer due to poor insultation, lack of thermal mass where I need it, etc.

So I have been looking at reverse brick veneer house as it puts the thermal mass inside the building envelope and is cheaper than double brick (and the builder should do this). Was planning on using sandstone cladding (a place called Unreal Stone in Sydney do it) and then pain the brickwork. But I have two questions.

1: How do the internal walls and framing attach to the brick walls or do they attach to the external framing and the brickwork then does not form a continuous wall?

2: If the internal framing attaches to the brickwork, how much does this increase build time and cost (would not just be able to frame up and then do the bricks like a conventional brick veneer)?

There is plenty of info on what a reverse brick veneer house is with diagrams of the external wall and cladding, but nothing showing how to build it with the internal walls.

My other option is conventional brick veneer with very good insulation and then replacing on of the internal walls with a 12m long brick feature wall (this would provide thermal mass in the centre of the house so could benefit living and sleeping areas and fireplace would form part of the wall).

Any advice, knowledge is appreciated.

kid81 · Apr 23, 2010 4:08 pm

have you heard of insulfoam? If you end up considering conventional brick veneer, it would be the solution i think you are looking for.
www.insulfoamsolutions.com.au

barker · Apr 23, 2010 4:48 pm

Thanks for the tip re: insulation, but it does not really address the thermal mass inside the building envelope issue, which is why I am hoping someone who has built a reverse brick veneer house can give me some feedback.

chippy · Apr 23, 2010 6:22 pm

I've just got plans going through council at the moment for our house that will have one very large wall of reverse brick veneer.
Because I live in Perth our houses are typically double brick so all the internal walls will be brick as well.
I've just chosen to build the whole western wall (double storey) in reverse brick veneer to allow for very good insulation to be installed. After a week of 35 degree days in summer you can put your hand on the internal face of a west facing D/B wall in the evening and feel the heat radiating of it. Not good when you're running an AC to try and cool it down.
I'm a carpenter so I'll have the brickies build all the internal walls and brick the windows in and then I'll stick build the frames to suit and clad it, it will be tied back to the bricks to brace it, though it wont be load bearing.
I'd imagine if you are building your internal walls out of frames you could just build all the brick walls first and then simply use Ramset mungo plugs to attach frames to the brick work. Then frame up the outside. Have the brickies leave straps hanging out of the bricks at noggin height to allow the frames to be fastened to to brick work.
The only issue with this is that single brick walls are quite weak if they don't have something abutting them, so until your internal frames are in and bracing the brickwalls you might need to keep the longer sections braced from the top.

I've tried to research reverse brick veneer but there really isn't much detail around. I'm just basically building it as I see best. I'll be running it past my engineer to see if there is anything from a structural point of view I have missed. There is another guy (I think it's Kristofw or something) over on the owner builder thread who has finished his reverse brick veneer house in Perth recently and I was thinking of having a chat with him.
It's an interesting topic and as far as I can see is really the best building principle out there from a thermal point of view. Let us know how you go.

barker · Apr 28, 2010 11:48 pm

Hi Chippy,

I agree, not much info on building a reverse brick veneer. Will check out the owner builder thread and also maybe chat with him.

As you kind of pointed out, if all the internal walls are brick, then it is not an issue as then it is just cladding on the outside. But bricks much more expensive than framed internal walls. Not even sure if I will be able to bring the design inside our budget without adding too much extra cost.

barker · Jun 20, 2010 11:14 am

As some of the info re: RBV says you may only do one wall in this style, it makes me think whether you would bother doing RBV in places such as bathrooms / garages / laundries etc.

If that was the case, wouldn't it just make the house a standard clad home but with some internal walls lined with bricks?

mumstheword · Jul 08, 2020 2:01 pm

barker

Thanks for the tip re: insulation, but it does not really address the thermal mass inside the building envelope issue, which is why I am hoping someone who has built a reverse brick veneer house can give me some feedback.

HI , just found your thread, did you eventually end up building RBV? we are close to starting our 2 storey in sydney, inclined towards RBV but barely any info..would really appreciate if you could give us some pointers, experiences with suitable builder etc, best regards