The Belden Brick Company, a long-standing pillar in the brick industry, is the largest family-owned brick company in the United States. It is built on the principles of integrity, honesty, community and service. Our Ohio-based company has grown since its founding in 1885, and upholds the traditions set forth by early leaders Henry S. Belden and C.J. Diebold.
In 1914, the company expanded into Tuscarawas County when the Belden Face Brick Co., a personal venture of Belden and later owned by The Belden Brick Company, was started. In 1946, Belden Brick expanded into Sugarcreek with the purchase of the Finzer Brothers Clay Co., now known as Plant 4. Over time, other existing operations were purchased in Sugarcreek and some new ones built from the ground up.
Today, The Belden Brick Company owns and operates five plants in Tuscarawas County, employs approximately 500 people and has an annual production capacity of nearly 250 million standard brick equivalent. We continue to provide leadership in the industry, as we have done since our earliest days. We now are led by the fourth and fifth generations. Family involvement and commitment are our backbone.
The Belden Brick Company continues to meet the changing needs of the construction market with new colors, sizes, textures and special shapes. Belden Brick manufactures more than 20 sizes of face brick and clay pavers, and offers more than 500 colors, 13 textures and unlimited special shapes. We believe that reinvesting continuously in our physical plants and keeping up with technological advances makes our employees more productive and committed to maintaining our values and traditions.
The Art of Making Brick.
Brickmaking is as much an art form as it is a manufacturing process. Our raw materials include Ohio clays and shales that are carefully blended. Extruding this mixture through a die and cutting it to the proper width produces most-special shape bricks. Some shapes are made by hand to exact customer specifications. An impressive inventory of dies, templates, mold boxes and other tools used to create special shapes provide options for both large-scale production runs and one-of-a-kind specialty items.
Once formed into shape, the clay is hand-set onto kiln cars and taken to dry. Both standard and special shapes go through a critical, slow drying process and then are fired in high-temperature kilns at the same time as the field brick to ensure structural integrity and the desired appearance.
We use state-of-the-art tunnel kilns, as well as the old-style beehive kilns. Tunnel kilns provide more control for achieving uniform color continuity. Smoke or extra heat can be added to create flashing, which enhances the brick color. Beehive kilns produce colors not achievable in tunnel kilns and are used when extended flashing is required.
When the firing and cooling process is completed, the bricks are inspected and sorted by hand to provide the desired color blend needed. This saves valuable construction time and ensures a balanced appearance. Shapes are then packaged, numbered and often coded to correlate with specific assembly instructions at the job site.
700 West Tuscarawas Street
PO Box 20910
Canton, Ohio 44701
330.456.0031
www.beldenbrick.com
