Charleston Brothers
Construction Inc.
Case Study · Modern Building & Craft

Brick, Copper & Herringbone, new residence.

Charleston, SC · Every project, told the same way: problem, method, outcome. The sequence is the proof of the work.

Brick, Copper & Herringbone · New Residence
Existing brick garden wall beneath mature oaks, before new masonry
01 — The condition
Problem

What the site asked

An existing brick garden wall to preserve, mature oaks overhead, and new masonry that had to sit comfortably beside old Charleston brick.

Brick being laid in a herringbone pattern on a fresh mortar bed
02 — The judgment
Method

What we chose

Hand-laid brick finished with a mortar wash for depth and age. Copper gutters and downspouts. Herringbone paths set to the period pattern.

Finished herringbone brick path beside the preserved garden wall
03 — The result
Outcome

What it became

A new residence that reads as settled rather than new. Masonry, copper, and brick paths that look as though they came from the same hand.

Scope New-residence masonry & finishes Materials Charleston brick · mortar wash · copper · herringbone and basketweave brick floors · bluestone Status Completed
Beginning to end

New brick, made to belong.

Every new course was tied into the old wall, washed to match it, and carried out into floors, walls and copper that read as one hand.

  1. Old brick wall opened at a course, a pocket cut to receive new brick
    01

    Tied into the old wall

    Where new masonry met old, the existing brick was opened course by course so the new work could be toothed in rather than butted against it.

  2. Reclaimed brick coursed into an existing wall, joints struck to match
    02

    Coursed to match

    Reclaimed brick laid to the old bond and joint, so the line between existing and new disappears at arm's length.

  3. Close view of brick with a hand-worked mortar wash, struck joints showing through
    03

    Washed for age

    A mortar wash worked into the face and pulled back by hand, leaving the brick showing through the way time leaves it.

  4. Brick being laid in a herringbone pattern on a fresh mortar bed
    04

    Herringbone, set by hand

    Brick floors laid in herringbone on a mortar bed, each unit set and tapped to the line.

  5. Porch with a copper downspout, brick floor and bluestone terrace in progress
    05

    Copper and bluestone

    Copper gutters and downspouts at the eaves, bluestone at the terrace, the brick floor carried under the porch.

  6. Finished washed brick floor in a basketweave pattern beneath a porch, bluestone terrace in front
    06

    Settled, not new

    The finished porch floor in washed brick laid in basketweave, edged to the bluestone, against walls that look as though they were always there.

A new residence asked to sit comfortably beside old Charleston brick. The work was in the joins: new brick toothed into the old rather than set against it, a wash worked in by hand, and herringbone floors, bluestone and copper carried through so nothing reads as an addition.

The sequence above tells it in order, from the first course opened in the old wall to the finished porch floor.

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