17 Quay Street was an office building in the very centre of Manchester, just off Deansgate. As part of its 2024 development into The Quoin Building - a mixed-use office and leisure building - the new owner wanted to transform the external appearance of the property.

A key element to this was the brickwork, the red wire-cut brick and cast stone, really dating the building. We worked with the developer, architect, and council to create a bespoke colour tint to help transform the brickwork elevations into a much more contemporary finish - a blue/anthracite multi blend.

We created a subtle multi-colour as opposed to a single flat colour, anthracite/blue, helping to create a more natural finish. We also tinted the mortar to a slightly different shade of slate blue.

The same theme continued to the spraying of the window frames, and together with the installation of new aluminium cladding, the overall finish of the building is a total transformation, making a real impact once the scaffolding was removed and the tinting work finished.

Unlike a paint that sits on the face of the brickwork and requires maintenance and looks natural our Ralbrick brick tints are guaranteed for the life of the brick and will only ever age and /weather just as 'normal' brickwork would do. The brickwork will require no maintenance.

The technical and performance specification of the brickwork also remains unchanged. Unlike a painted facade, which can affect how the brickwork behaves and deals with moisture, our brick tint dyes down into the brickwork and allows the brickwork to still behave as it should, as the outer leaf of the face, ie, absorb and release moisture.