Thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems have the potential to provide increased thermal efficiency and reliability in our nation’s aircraft propulsion and power plants. However, evidence indicates high temperature cycling in these environments and thermal property mismatch between the ceramic coating and metal substrate may cause coating delamination and TBC failure. To probe the effects of this, we sought to design a process to fabricate a model TBC system with a “prescribed” delamination and to experimentally determine the thermal contact resistance. To test this, a TBC system was created using glass as a model ceramic coating and a nickel superalloy as a metal substrate. One side of the glass was coated with an etchant and sanded to control the surface roughness. This surface texture introduced microgaps at the interface and a test fixture was developed to induce a pressure bond between the materials. To measure the thermal contact resistance, a CO2 laser pulse heated the glass side of the TBC system and a thermal imaging camera was used to measure the thermal response of the substrate. Subsequent data was fitted against a theoretical heat transfer model, based on specifications of the TBC system, to determine the unknown contact resistance and compared against theoretical results. By testing different samples with varying levels of roughness, we anticipate the thermal contact resistance to be greater in rougher surfaces and hope that the understanding of thermal contact resistance of thermal barrier coatings will lead to greater efficiencies and advancements in electronics, biomedicine, and aircraft propulsion.