SHOP TOUR:
Drive down the nondescript lane named Majolica Road and eventually you will arrive at a compact yet modern facility where bricks are still made by hand, without holes. At Old Carolina Brick, production is modest by modern standards: The factory produces about 150,000 bricks per week. “Machine-made brick companies make that amount in a couple of hours,” says Art Burkhart, vice president of sales and marketing and a 35-year employee of the company. “We’re the last maker of handmade brick in the country.”
Old Carolina quarries its own clay in nearby Gold Hill, N.C., then sifts and screens it to the perfect texture for the formation of bricks. Clay and water are mixed together in a 1929 pug mill, then sent to a conveyor, where a dozen or so workers roll clay “slugs” into trays of sand, then throw them into wood moulds. Blink, and even a camera shutter will miss it. The finished bricks are placed in gas-fired kilns that slowly heat to a temperature of 1950 degrees F, then fired.
In addition to the handmade brick made on the line, workers hand-make special shapes in a process that looks a lot like making bread. A skilled mud thrower shapes a lump of clay into a wedge shape, rolls it in sand, then raises it up and throws it with some force into a mould. He or she then trims the brick with a wire cutter and turns the brick out of the mould. This hands-on approach imparts distinctive folds, fingerprints, and other surface irregularities that give each brick individual character.
Many of the special orders
Old Carolina receives are architecturally driven. Restoration brick is slated for projects from the turn of the 20th century or earlier. Newer bricks were not handmade, says David Frame, owner of this family-run business. Before taking on a job, “we look to see if it’s in our bag of tricks, and doable,” he says.
To get the different colors to match historic bricks, the team starts by blending colors from a handful of the 18 standard brick colorations the company produces. Then they experiment by firing the brick at different temperatures and placing certain bricks in different parts of the kiln, where the temperature is hotter or cooler.
Fully 15% of all Old Carolina brick sales go to restoration work. “We have two jobs going at Colonial Williamsburg right now,” Burkhart says.
if one of the set-screws on the grinder’s locking collar is removed.
Prepping and Filling
Brick and mortar are thirsty creatures. If you put wet mortar on dry brick, the brick will prematurely steal the moisture from the mix. This can cause the new mortar to cure too quickly, ultimately causing cracks and failure. Before repointing, thoroughly wet the joint using a spray bottle or the spray attachment on a garden hose, backed down to a fine mist. The joint should be damp, but not drenched.
The masons preferred to use a mortar bag to squeeze the mortar into the joint, and then strike the joint using a tool to give it a classic concave profile. A more traditional method is to use a pointing trowel. The trowel should be slightly smaller than the joint being filled. If the joint is less than 1" deep, fill the joint completely and pack the mortar tightly all the way to the back. For deeper joints, fill using successive layers about ¼ "deep. Pack the mortar well into the back corners. Once the layer reaches “thumbprint” hardness, add another ¼ " layer. When the last layer is applied, overfill the joint slightly. When it too is thumb print-hard, tool the joint to match the historic joint pattern evident in the wall. Avoid dripping mortar on the bricks; the lime in the mix can stain them.
I kept the mortar wet, especially on the party wall, over a two-day period after pointing. I sprayed each wall down every hour or so with a garden sprayer, watching as the mortar slowly took on the light grey color we were expecting. The end result is pretty spectacular. It may still be a basement, but I’d say it’s a basement with walls of great character.