New or reclaimed bricks & tiles for my extension?

[Valkary999]

Hi - I'm having an extension built in the next 3 months (planning etc all agreed and builders selected). The extension will increase the house size by c 50% and will affect 2/3 of the existing frontage. The house is a 1950s build and I want to ensure the extension looks as natural as possible.

The builder has said we can use either closely matched new bricks/tiles, or go for reclaimed items.

I have 2 questions I hope someone can help with:

a) Is it sensible to use reclaimed materials that are 60 odd years old - I have heard of bricks & tiles becoming porous etc - would using reclaimed materials be fitting materials that are coming to the ends of their lives and I will have problems in 10, 20 years etc, or will they last another 60 years with no problems?

b) We have agreed a price for the extension - would reclaimed materials push up the price up/down or be in line with using new materials?

Any advice gratefully received!

 

[Richard C]

Reclaimed bricks/tiles will be far & away more expensive than new but they should be just as serviceable if in good condition. Unless the originals are something special, you can probably get a pretty good match by using either new or (more expensive) a colour matched order brick. I’ve used reclaimed & new on my 1960’s property renovation; where I had to brick up some old windows, I felt I had no choice but to demolish an original car port wall to ensure I had enough bricks for a perfect match & it was.

On a new extension & conservatory, however, I used nearest match new stocks & I must admit I was surprised at how well they blended in. As long as you have a natural break line, a slight colour difference won’t look out of place, especially once they weather in.

With roof tiles, a good trick is to move all the original tiles to one side of the roof & use new on the other side so you cant see the join. Again once they all weather in, it's not really noticeable.

 

[Valkary999]

Thanks Richard - the idea about swapping tiles sounds a cute move which I'll discuss with my builder.

 

[jono_h]

I used reused bricks from the side of my house on the front extension, and then used new on the side elevation.

In actual fact the new bricks turned out to be a far better match, the reclaimed bricks seem to be a lot lighter, partly because they have been turned in places so they haven't retained the weathering.

(I'd still have used the originals because they were imperial and so the bonding matched)