What is a Stretcher Reveal Brick Slip?
A stretcher reveal is the face of the brick (the standard slip) and the bottom of the brick. This gives a long corner edge, most often used for the wall and an underside.
The face of the brick is the same as the standard slips, the reveal keeps the bottom of the full brick with it.
What Are Stretcher Reveals Used For?
Most often people want to use the stretcher reveals above doors and windows, reflecting the continuation of the brick pattern- the face of the brick will face outwards as with the rest of the slips, and the underside will cover the return part.
A consideration in using this way though, is the difference in size, and the depth of your reveal. with the depth being 102.5mm it will look odd if you have to use 65mm slips next to them, along with the difference in looks between a face and bed. With the thickness of the reveal and also some adhesive, your return would need to be 75mm or shorter (for you to cut the bed side down to fit) or you'll be left with a gap that would need slips to fill.
If your return is greater than 75mm we recommend using corner tiles to use as either a header course or soldier course, as you prefer.
Why the Bottom of the Brick?
Most often the top of bricks are either perforated (holes all the way through) or 'frogged' (a cut out of the top of the brick). These are for multiple reasons such as reducing weight, keeping costs down and helping the firing process in production. This means that the top of the brick isn't possible to use as part of any brick slip, so the bottom has to be used instead.
This is something to think about when considering using a reveal, as that impacts the look. The bottom, or 'bed' of a brick is not thought of as an aesthetic part of the brick in the same way the faces are.
Firstly, they aren't designed or made in a way that can be creased for example, or any colourings applied in the manufacturing process via additives either before or after firing, aren't usually applied to the bed, so it will have a slightly different look.
Secondly, throughout the manufacturing process, the brick is moved around and being upright, the bed is always underneath. This means there can be dimples on there from the manufacturing process, but also scuff marks from conveyors and other little marks that happen as part of moving the clay around into the kiln, and out into the packs.
Why Don't You Sell Them Online?
We want to do as much as possible to make sure our customers' projects turn out as well as possible. This means giving out as much information as we can to help, but we also know that the intracacies of bricks are not something that is common knowledge. Therefore we've opted to keep the reveal shape away without consultation as the recommended usage is reasonably rare.
Can I Buy A Brick Slip Reveal?
Absolutely, if you feel it's right for your project, just contact us, and we can send you a quote over including the reveals, and can even help you calculate how many you need.
