Glazing is an ancient process that was used with pots for thousands of years to make them shiny and also to improve their ability to hold food and water. Glazing is durable and often chemically inert. It made cookware better, and now glazed bricks can make a building better. There are reasons for and against their use, but they might be the perfect solution for your business.

Glazed bricks go through an additional process that fuses lime or silica onto the surface in order to make the outer surface shiny and less permeable. Regular brick is solid as a rock but might be slightly permeable to water the same way that an earthenware pot might slowly leech water through the invisible pores in its structure. If the brick has to be completely watertight, then glazing could be the solution.

A smooth surface lets nothing inside. This means that it also does not bind well to paint and other particles. If a glazed brick surface is defaced, it can be much easier to scrub and clean. It is also much less likely to absorb chemicals and cause noxious fumes or corrosion. Kitchen floor tiles are often made of glazed ceramic for the same reason.

Glazed brick can also stand out. Regular bricks are beautiful in their own right, but shiny bricks are something of a scarcity. They do not blind people with the difference, but it does create an impact. These types of bricks might work well with long stretches of glass or a building that is surrounded by water or a lawn. For inside decorations, it might work well for a restaurant since brightly colored ceramics are routinely used to encourage appetite.

There are some downsides to glazed bricks, mainly their extra cost and obviousness. It takes extra firing to produce a glaze on a brick, and the temperature of the fire has to be just right. Because of the extra material and processing required, they are more costly and are generally used as a facade. Because of their similarity to floor tiles, often they are used to make walking surfaces.

Another consideration is its structural integrity. A ceramic polish is like glass, and mortar might not bind to it as well as to a regular brick, which has a rough surface texture. Either a different mortar has to be used, or the owner has to accept that the strength of the mortar is somewhat weaker. This is one more reason why glazed bricks are primarily used as facades.