Identifying Different Brick Types
With such a wide variety of bricks on the market, it can be difficult to pick between them, let alone identify the name and type of a particular brick you like.
Below are some of the most popular styles of bricks, along with tips on how to spot and identify them in buildings and architecture.
Facing Bricks
Facing bricks are the most popular brick form and have been the brick of choice in the UK for hundreds of years. These are the classic orangey-red brick you’ll see on houses up and down the country. These bricks are the most easily recognised standard brick that works well in various uses.
Facing bricks are intended to be used as a facade material, having a huge impact on the external appearance of a building. Because of this, choosing the correct brick and mortar colour is essential and will significantly impact the outcome of your project.
The two main types of facing bricks to choose from are:
Extruded Bricks (Wirecut Bricks)
The extruded or wirecut method of brickmaking is one of the most popular due to the speed and efficiency at which these bricks can be mass-produced. Extruded bricks are pushed through an extrusion head to form a column of clay with the correct width and depth; this is then cut to the correct length using row wires.
Some distinctive features of these bricks that can help you to identify them include core holes and a rougher-facing texture than other bricks.
Soft Mud Bricks (Stock Bricks)
Soft mud bricks have a traditional look, with a much warmer and softer aesthetic than other facing bricks, whilst not compromising on strength and durability.
These bricks are often handmade, with a process of being hand-formed, covered in sand and using a throwing technique into the mould. Because of their manual, handmade production process, these bricks often come at a premium price, although for many, the rusting and traditional look and feel of soft mud bricks can be worth it.
Soft mud bricks can be easily identified by their softer, textured appearance and the “frog” indentation on top of the brick rather than perforations.
Engineering Bricks
Engineering bricks are specially crafted for their capabilities rather than appearance. With high compressive strength and low water absorption, these bricks are perfect for civil engineering, where strength and resistance to water and frost are crucial.
Some examples of uses for engineering may include ground-works and sewers, as well as retaining walls, bridges and other infrastructure.
These bricks are rated either Class A or Class B, with Class A being a stronger variant, whilst Class B is more common.
Common Bricks
These are lower-quality bricks, bulk manufactured to be as affordable as possible. Ironically, because of their lesser quality, these bricks are less common than other brick variants, such as facing bricks or engineering bricks.
Common bricks have much less attention to appearance or compressive strength. Because of this, common bricks are typically only used for internal brickwork.
Deciding On The Right Brick
Whilst there are only three primary types of bricks, a significant amount of customisation is available through the use of bespoke bricks or colour variants and styles. Modular Clay Products are able to offer one of the widest ranges available within the UK, with vast experience in sourcing and providing bricks for some of the UK’s key architectural projects, such as The Shard in London.