Heads and Head Size

Heads play a crucial role in masonry, what makes Van Dillen Antieke Bouwmaterialen unique is that we save, preserve, and offer good, whole heads. This gives you the opportunity to create authentic masonry at a lower purchase price and also saves your mason time. In this way, you can seriously save money on your purchase/project of old building materials, contribute to a very sustainable environment by reusing as many materials as possible, and save your mason time. In short; a win-win-win situation! Heads are particularly useful in half-brick cross bonds and random bonds, also check out our blog on types of masonry!

Save Money with Heads in Your Masonry

By buying good heads from us, you can save a lot of money in your masonry; 2 heads are often equivalent to one full brick, and we offer this for 60-70% of the price. For example, if you buy 50% heads and 50% whole bricks, you can get up to 20% off the total price, and for larger amounts, this adds up quickly! However, it is not always possible to keep the good heads, and often these batches are sold quickly. The batches where we have heads available are listed under ‘offers’ because there is a lot of money to be saved here. NOTE; often the heads are partially beaten and sometimes need a little tap with a hammer, we can beat these for you at an additional cost if needed.

What Kind of Masonry Bricks are Heads?

Heads refer to the shortest side of the brick that is visible in the masonry. In a cross bond (a type of masonry), heads are clearly visible. But also in a standing masonry, the heads are clearly visible. Moreover, there is also a head bond where only the short side is used. As mentioned earlier, whole heads are almost impossible to find because other traders almost never keep them due to extra labor and storage costs. By demolishing historical old buildings and cleaning and checking the bricks for quality, we have heads in our stock because we keep them separate during sorting and separating. These heads are unique because they are real old heads.

What is the Head Size?

The head size is the width of a brick, plus the mortar joint (the vertical joint between the bricks). Simply put: it is the width of the short side plus the joint. It is important to understand the head size well because it is essential for properly aligning the vertical joints in your masonry. Adhering to the head size ensures that the joints remain tight and symmetrical in the masonry. If you do not do this, the masonry can look chaotic.

Calculating a Head Size

To calculate the head size, measure the width of 10 bricks plus the width of 10 mortar joints. This average will give you the correct head size. This size can be marked on a batten, the so-called head batten, with which you can easily maintain the correct distances during masonry. When you have calculated this correctly, you can build beautiful structured masonry.