Most brick houses in the Fraser Valley aren't solid brick. Here's how to tell the difference, why it matters for repairs, and what goes wrong when veneer is installed without a drainage cavity.
If you live in a "brick house" in Chilliwack, Abbotsford, or Sardis, there's a good chance it isn't solid brick. It's brick veneer: a single layer of brick tied to a wood-frame wall, with a gap behind it that's supposed to drain. That gap is the whole system. When it's missing, clogged, or flashing was never installed, the brick can still look fine from the street while the sheathing behind it stays wet all winter.
This mix-up comes up on almost every repair call we take. Homeowners describe a solid brick wall. Inspectors write "brick veneer" on the report. Builders talk about wythes. Here's the plain version.
Full brick vs brick veneer
Full brick (sometimes called solid masonry) is a wall made of brick. Two or three layers (wythes) of brick, or brick plus block, carrying the load of the building. You see it on older commercial buildings and on some pre-war houses. It's thick. The window openings show more than one brick of depth. The interior might be plaster on masonry, not drywall on studs.
Brick veneer is a cladding. One layer of brick, about 90 mm thick, standing on a ledge or a footing, tied back to wood or steel studs with metal ties. Behind it there should be about 25 mm of air space, a water-resistive barrier on the sheathing, flashing at the bottom, and weep holes so water can leave. The wood frame carries the house. The brick carries itself and the rain.
Almost every brick house built in the Fraser Valley after the 1950s is veneer. Ranchers in Sardis. Subdivisions in Promontory. Infill in downtown Chilliwack. If you can see wood studs in the basement or garage behind the brick line, it's veneer.
How to tell which one you have
Stand at a window. On veneer you'll usually see a single brick thickness and a steel lintel (a metal angle) over the opening. On solid brick the jamb is deeper and you may see the brick turning the corner into the opening.
Look at the bottom of the wall. Veneer should have weepholes: open head joints or small round vents every 600 mm or so, just above the foundation or the flashing line. If those weeps are buried in bark mulch, they're not working, even if they exist.
Knock on an interior wall on an outside elevation. A hollow, drywall sound is veneer over frame. A dead, massive sound is more likely solid masonry. Not perfect, but it's a start.
Why the difference matters for repairs
On solid brick, a failed joint is mostly about keeping water out of the masonry itself. Repointing, replacing a spalled face, checking the parapet. The wall is the structure.
On veneer, a failed joint is also about the cavity. Water that gets through the brick is supposed to hit the flashing and leave through the weeps. If the cavity is packed with mortar droppings, if the flashing was never turned up the backup wall, or if the weeps are gone, that water sits against the housewrap and the plywood. That's when you get staining on interior drywall, musty smells in the closet on that wall, and a brick face that still "looks pretty good."
Rusted lintels are a veneer problem we see constantly. The steel angle over a window rusts, expands, and cracks the brick above the opening in a stair-step. Replacing the cracked brick and leaving the lintel means the same crack comes back. The lintel has to come out.
The drainage details that actually matter in this climate
Chilliwack gets around 1,600 mm of rain a year. Brick is not waterproof. Wind drives rain through the faces and the joints. That's expected. The cavity is the plan.
- A 25 mm air space, kept as clear of mortar droppings as you can reasonably keep it
- Through-wall flashing at the base, above windows and doors, and at roof-to-wall intersections, kicked out to the face of the brick
- Weeps at those flashing lines, open, and above grade so landscaping doesn't bury them
- Ties that are still sound, not rusted through, at the spacing the wall needs
If your inspector noted missing weeps, staining, or "no visible flashing," that's the list. It isn't picky. It's how veneer is supposed to work.
Thin brick and "brick veneer" that isn't a cavity wall
There's a second product people also call brick veneer: thin brick, adhered to a wall like a tile. No 25 mm cavity unless you add a rainscreen mat. In a wet climate that rainscreen isn't optional. Without it, adhered brick and adhered stone fail the same way. Water gets in, can't get out, freeze-thaw pops pieces off, and the sheathing stays wet.
If someone offers to "brick" your fireplace or your entry by buttering thin brick onto painted drywall or existing siding, that's not a cavity veneer. Ask what happens to water. If the answer is a shrug, don't do it on an exterior wall.
What this means if you're building or renovating
Want the look of brick on a new addition? Anchored brick veneer with a real cavity is still one of the best claddings you can put on a Fraser Valley house. It lasts. It ages well. It has to be detailed like a rainscreen, not like a solid wall that "doesn't need flashing because it's brick."
Want to repair existing brick? First question we ask is veneer or solid. That changes the diagnosis, the flashing, and whether we're talking about a few faces or a wet backup wall.
We install and repair brick veneer across Chilliwack and the Fraser Valley. If the look you actually want is stone, we do stone veneer the same way: as a drained cladding, not as decoration stuck to a wall. If you're not sure what you're looking at, send a photo or have us come out. It's usually obvious once you're standing in front of the wall.