Brick matching. Any ideas?

[pilsbury]

Contacted everything in the West Midlands that google has thrown up.... at a bit of a loss as the responses I have had are not similar at all. My bricks are 3" (75mm) imperials. Not sure what they're called. Only need about 300

 

[footprints]

Depends if you are laying them your self or planning to hire a bricklayer, I be a local brickie would be able to ID them straight away.

 

[pilsbury]

Laying myself. A name for the bricks might narrow my search down, but it's the sourcing that seems to be the issue. I've emailed photos to all local reclaim yards. No luck.

 

[noseall]

You either go for a reclaim (expensive and limited numbers) or you go for a modern equivelant .

 

[^woody^]

Have you tried Darlaston builders merchants or EH Smith?

 

[pilsbury]

That dark smooth forterra isn't too bad - 73mm though which seems to be the norm in new bricks opposed to my 75mm. Whats the done thing to keep these slightly smaller bricks matching the original wall? a 12mm mortar joint? Or will this look daft?

Have tried both EH Smith and Darlaston - none are as good as those Forterras. Reclaim are no where near a match from what I have seen on offer

edit: just seen these forterra dark smooth multi at DBM £1.16 a brick though - but the best match I've seen so far.

 

[noseall]

Do NOT under any circumstances try and muck-up to huge bed joints. Have a definitive break betwixt differing bricks. If they are a hard brick then the smaller the bed joint the better. Not so bad in the summer but an absolute pig in the winter.

When I built the building below, there were only a small number of bricks on each corner. These were Acrington re-claims. Hard as bell iron. We had to lay one course on one corner, then another corner, then another. Then we would level the first corner, then another then another. Then we would plumb the first corner and so on. Even though the mix was fairly stiff water still wept out and down the wall.

Nightmare brick.

Scaffgone2

• noseall
• 15 Jun 2015

Scaffgone1

• noseall
• 15 Jun 2015

 

[stuart45]

Do NOT under any circumstances try and muck-up to huge bed joints. Have a definitive break betwixt differing bricks. If they are a hard brick then the smaller the bed joint the better. Not so bad in the summer but an absolute pig in the winter.

That's top advice.
I filled in where on old window was a few years ago with similar bricks, but the joints were mainly less than 5mm. Because of this I used NHL 3.5 and silver sand and because of the tight joints I had less trouble taking the brickwork up.
That's why in Victorian times they used tight joints with bricks like Accringtons.

 

[^woody^]

Do NOT under any circumstances try and muck-up to huge bed joints. Have a definitive break betwixt differing bricks

Then what's the point of using imperial bricks if the courses won't line through? May as well use metric.

Bigger joints can look ok, as long as the perp joints are widened slightly too. And weather striking the joints will help minimise the wideness.

 

[noseall]

Then what's the point of using imperial bricks if the courses won't line through? May as well use metric.

Not all imperial bricks are 73mm. Some are much bigger.

Bigger joints can look ok, as long as the perp joints are widened slightly too.

As long as you're not chasing all the time. Problems start when or if you begin struggling to keep up. Big joints become huge joints. Not pretty. Once you have gone down that road there is no turning back.

The sensible approach is to determine whether it is feasible to muck-up or just take the easy route. Nothing looks worse than brickwork that is trying to look like the existing but failing miserably.

A lot of inexperienced builders and DIY'ers alike, often neglect mortar colour. They spend a lot of effort matching the bricks only to end up turning out red sand mortar when a yellow or buff should have been used.

 

[pilsbury]

Thanks for all your replies. I'll ask my builders merchant tomorrow, but when I think of building sand I immediately think of the orange stuff. My current mortar is a faint yellow/buff colour. Do regular merchants stick different coloured builders sand?

 

[pilsbury]

Also, as an update, I've had a eureka moment. The kitchen wall is coming down which gives me half the bricks I need. Also I'm putting French doors in. I'll open this up now which gives me another 25%. I'll use other bricks for the first 2 courses that will be below ground which leaves enough original bricks on show....