Advice needed on Brick Matching, Urgent!

[jimbob1]

hi there i am having a a outbuilding built in my garden, been having a lot of trouble with the builder ordering bricks in batches and never quite getting same match. They are Heather London bricks. As you will see from the photos the top 2 rows might be same brick texture but they seem much darker and redder and lacking the yellow. Builder says its ordered from same place and person, but these bricks in top rows not wrapped in plastic like others so have weathered differently and might be wet (its not rained for 2 weeks). How do i go about getting Heather bricks which are exactly like the bulk of building (a bit more faded and yellow in the mix)? When they hosed down the lighter bricks it temporarily looked similar but when it dried its bad again.

 

I assume i am in my rights to ask them to take down the top few rows and get the right bricks in?

  

How can Heather bricks be so different?

 

This happened on a previous order to, but i made them change the bricks before starting after the bottom 4 rows were done.

 

would REALLY appreciate advice on this 

[recoveringbuilder]

Probably different batches, IMO they should have been all bought at the same time and should have been mixing them as they used them, I’ve seen it done they have a few pallets open at the same time and are using them from all the pallets getting a good mix, my daughter and her husband had this problem with the persimmon house they bought off plan and when it was finished it looked exactly like this on the gable wall, SIL who’s a QS kicked up a stink and got a few grand off

[nod]

They will vary He should really mix them up

 

pictured below is an extension I built at my mums a few years back

I bought all the bricks together But like you some where quite dark

[Jeremy Harris]

@jimbob1, I've just deleted the duplicate thread to keep everything in one place in this thread.

[Brickie]

Is that a standard lintol or a steel in the picture? 

Looks a fair span-I’d want to see it propped during construction to stop it bowing. 

Doesn’t appear to be a cavity tray in place neither. 

I bet they were cheap,this crowd. 

 

[Russell griffiths]

With your top two rows, will your facia board and soffit cover the top row or two, work out your roof style you may find you won’t see all of it. 

 

As for the bricks its its a bit late they should have all been brought at the start and mixed up. 

[jimbob1]

thanks all, i have manually gone thru the remaining bricks to try and choose ones that just about pass for the for visible section ready for the project managers arrival on site to inspect tomorrow morning. Is it a fairly quick job if i ask for them to cut out say 8 of the darkest red bricks individually and put a new brick back in?

 

I walked down Selco today and they told me probably a 80% chance if i buy a whole new pallet which is wrapped in plastic it will be similar to the yellowish washed out ones. Seems like a risk! I just want to guarantee getting some a bit yellow and washed out.

 

I will find out if fascias might cover it, and how many rows higher we are going (not far). And ill check the lintel and their safety plan for that.

 

really appreciate everyones help here.

Edited July 7, 2019 by jimbob1

[Temp]

If they will be visible I would get both courses redone. Try and find somewhere with the bricks in stock and go collect them taking some of yours to compare. 

 

They should never have ordered small batches. Even with them all ordered at once the should have mixed them up.

[epsilonGreedy]

18 hours ago, jimbob1 said:

Is it a fairly quick job if i ask for them to cut out say 8 of the darkest red bricks individually and put a new brick back in?

 

 

Mortar continues to strengthen noticeably over the first two weeks and as it does so the degree of adhesion between brick courses will increase. Sooner done the better.

 

I would be distressed by that amount of colour variation between courses. When ordering 14,000 bricks last week I was told by my man at the builders merchant then even if the bricks are delivered in batches, the manufacturing depot will ensure I am supplied from the same batch number.

[Temp]

The bricks used on my house and at least one other in the village are a mix of three different bricks, each of which can be purchased separately. If you just buy one of the three it looks too dark or to light or wrong colour.

[Ferdinand]

I don't think there is any easy solution to this.

 

Ultimately if you still end up with the issue, you could paint the rest to match the banded look of the house in the background.

 

It may be easier to bit the bullet and redo part of all of the courses.

 

Ferdinand

 

[PeterW]

1 hour ago, epsilonGreedy said:

When ordering 14,000 bricks last week I was told by my man at the builders merchant then even if the bricks are delivered in batches, the manufacturing depot will ensure I am supplied from the same batch number.

 

..... hope you have that in writing ..!! 14,000 is 32 packs, I would expect that to make sure you don’t have a problem they would need you to take them over a 2 week period at most. Anything more than that and you’ll have variations. 

[bassanclan]

Just a left field thought, have you tried turning the bricks round?

Sometimes there is only one face that is matching

[daiking]

Probably took me 2 years to realise that this happened on my new gable wall. But really, does it matter?

 

I think this is definitely one for “You live and learn”. Is there anything actually wrong with the construction? Is the worse affected part what you have photographed?

[Temp]

Even if they are from the same batch I would still mix them by taking bricks from several packs at once.

[jimbob1]

Just an update here, after discussion with the project manager we decided to take down those 3 courses, use some of the lighter ones for the non visible sides of the building then we bought a new wrapped palette of drier bricks, and i chose the bricks individually to complete the front which have a better mix of red/yellow/black. Maybe there is some truth that these bricks were very wet and would of eventually dried lighter, but that would be too risky I thought, also they were all deep reds, and no yellows in the mix.

 

Unrpedictable little things these Heather bricks!

Edited July 8, 2019 by jimbob1