There are several different brick colors for homeowners to choose from on the market today, and they typically fall into one of four basic categories. The four categories for brick colors are red, pink, brown, and gray. The wide array of colors come from the firing process when the bricks are formed. The raw materials found inside the clay fired to create the bricks react to the heat and give each brick its unique color.
The material for bricks is first dug from the earth and then mixed with water to create a doughy substance. Clay is the most common raw material used in brick making. After the mixture is created, the bricks are fired until hard. The longer they are heated, the darker the color becomes.
The standard color for bricks is red because most bricks typically take on a reddish hue when finished. The red hue darkens when they are heated over a longer period of time. Red bricks can have warmer or darker tones mixed in with the overall red coloring.
Different minerals and chemicals found in the raw materials for the bricks can create other colors besides red, however. Pink bricks are created from clay high in iron. When the clay is fired, the reaction from the heat with the iron gives the hardened clay a pink tint that is too light to be called red. Bricks with a light, whitish or yellow tint occur when the clay has a high lime content instead of being high in iron.
Certain homeowners may choose to use a combination of brick colors. While the exterior of the house may be done in red brick, the entrance archways may be done in a lighter pink or white. As technology advances, brick manufacturers are finding new ways to create even more brick colors for homeowners to choose from. Bricks are carefully manufactured to ensure they are high quality and have a rich color.
To ensure that a finished project has the same color tone overall, a process called blending is used. No two bricks will have the exact same color tint to them. As the builder is laying the brick, he makes sure to evenly distribute the darker and lighter colored bricks throughout the wall. By using this method, he keeps darker bricks from all ending up in the same area. If this happened, that spot of the wall would appear darker than the rest of the house and take away from the finished look.