Facing Bricks 🧱

Handmade or Reclaimed — Which Do You Need?

We stock two types of facing brick, and the right one usually comes down to what your project has to satisfy rather than personal taste.

Handmade bricks are newly made, thrown by hand into sanded moulds from soft clay. That gives genuine texture and colour variation without the constraints of salvaged stock — you can order the quantity you need, in the colour you need, and get more of the same later. Close to 400 in stock across every major colour family.

Reclaimed bricks are genuinely salvaged from demolished buildings, cleaned and graded. Every mark is decades or centuries old. This matters where planning conditions specifically require reclaimed material, which is common in conservation areas and on listed buildings.

At a Glance

Full detail on each is on our handmade bricks and reclaimed bricks pages.

Brick Sizes & Coursing

Bricks come in two standard depths and this catches people out more than colour does. 65mm is the modern standard used on most new build and extension work. 73mm is the imperial-era depth, needed when matching older properties.

If you are extending an existing house, measure a course of the existing brickwork including the mortar joint before ordering. Get this wrong and the new brickwork will not line through with the old — an expensive mistake to discover once the bricklayer is on site.

Free Samples & UK Delivery

Brick colour shifts noticeably between full sun and an overcast day, so a photograph is not enough when you are matching existing brickwork. Free samples are available across both ranges — hold them against the actual wall, outdoors, at different times of day.

Delivery is free to any UK mainland address, including London, Essex and the South East where a large part of our brick trade sits. If you are unsure which blend is closest to your existing brickwork, send us a photo — we do this regularly and it costs you nothing. Call 01772 287622.