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Culinary

What are the Different Types of Veneer Supplies?

By J.S. Metzker Erdemir
Updated May 17, 2024
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Veneer has a tremendous variety of uses in home siding, flooring, and decoration. It is also used for furniture, cabinets, and countertops. A veneer is any thin material that is adhered to an inner core or base to give the appearance of a solid material. Veneer supplies include natural and artificial brick, wood, and stone as well as the materials needed for installation.

Veneer supplies are commonly used in artificial siding. Veneers can be made of molded plastic, concrete, or laminate, or from thinly sliced natural materials. Natural and artificial brick, wood, and stone veneer used for siding is generally no thicker than a 2 inches (5cm). Veneers are quite versatile for walls, cabinets, and countertops because their reduced weight usually does not require much additional reinforcement of the base. Veneer can be sold in sheets that are directly attached to an exterior surface with a polymer adhesive or mortar. Individual pieces may also be attached to a wire lath.

When an artificial siding is attached to a home exterior, there usually is a gap between the original wall and the veneer. It is possible for moisture to accumulate in this gap. Water-resistant sheets, felt builders' paper, or other veneer supplies are needed to repel moisture from the home's walls and foundations. Some builders opt to fill the gap between the wall and veneer with fiberglass insulation, which reduces the homeowner's utility bills.

Other types of veneer supplies are the tools needed to install veneer. Rock and brick veneers are often installed by a mason, so a level is needed to ensure an even surface and trowels are usually used to apply and smooth mortar and grout. When the grout is nearly cured, a mason often uses a wire brush to remove any spilled or excess grout from the stones. When installing a thin adhesive laminate veneer on floors and cabinets, a razor knife and sandpaper are required to trim and smooth the edges, and a Plexiglas&reg scraper should be used to smooth air bubbles from the surface.

Sealants are veneer supplies often used to protect brick and stone veneers from staining and moisture damage. A silicone sealant is generally used to increase the life of the veneer and make it easier to clean. Silicone sealants can darken the color of the veneer, or they can make it harder for moisture to evaporate, but they also prevent stains from rust and mildew.

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Discussion Comments

By stl156 — On Jan 14, 2012

@cardsfan27 - Actually, veneer wood floors are getting to be a lot more common now. Obviously, the veneer itself isn't attached to the floor, but they can take a sheet of something like walnut or cherry and attach it to a less expensive wood like maple or oak and put that down. Doing that gives the look of that wood with the strength and less expensive cost of the wood below it.

One of the best examples I have seen of using wood veneer is on yachts. The people that buy and use yachts often want to best designs they can get, and having wood trim and things like that is always in high demand. The problem is that having solid wood furniture and things on a yacht adds too much weight, so often they just use a light wood like pine and then use some veneer glue to attach the sheets of the more expensive woods on top to give the desired look.

By cardsfan27 — On Jan 13, 2012

I know when we ordered new cabinets for our kitchen remodel, the carpenter was explaining how wood veneer panels were used to give the look of a solid wood type. Basically, the frame of the cabinets was made from a less expensive wood and then they took veneer sheets and glued them onto the faces to make all the cabinets look like they were made of cherry in our case. The cost of getting the veneered cabinets was much different than if you got cabinets that were completely made of cherry, since it is an expensive wood.

I wasn't aware of veneer until then, but I would guess that wood veneers get used in a lot of other situations, although I'm not sure exactly what they would be. I wouldn't guess they could be used for hardwood floors, though, since the wood is so thin.

By TreeMan — On Jan 12, 2012

@kentuckycat - I think you are right either way. I have seen instances where people have put full bricks around a cinder block building and called that a brick veneer. Like you mentioned, that is a pretty common practice. At the same time, there are a lot of building materials that truly are more like what you're thinking of as a brick veneer.

I was helping a friend build a new shed on his property, and he wanted it to be faced in brick to match the house, but didn't really want to spend the money on real brick so he went with a type of brick and rock veneer. It was basically sheets of thin bricks that you could fasten to the exterior wall. After it was all finished, you could see the seams if you really got close and knew where to look, but for the most part, it was impossible to tell it wasn't really brick with mortar and everything else. It saved a lot of money, too.

By kentuckycat — On Jan 12, 2012

Interesting. I was familiar with wood and laminate veneer, but I never knew things like brick and stone veneer existed. I'm curious how exactly they would work.

Does it mean that there are bricks and stones that are a lot thinner than normal bricks that they lay over some type of a facing, or does it mean they just take regular bricks and put them over something like cinder blocks? If the second option is the case, then I knew they did that a lot of times.

Where are these brick veneers usually found? Is it mostly an interior purpose like around a fireplace, or can you use the veneers outside as well? I suppose a lot of that would depend on what the bricks were made of and what was used to attach them.

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