Choosing the right brick for your project: The complete guide
April 2025

Why should you consider matching bricks?

New brickwork will stand out if the new bricks don’t match the existing ones and it can ruin the kerb appeal of a property and potentially make the property less appealing when it comes to selling further down the line. On projects such as extensions, you may find it’s requested that materials of similar quality and appearance are used which could include the use of matching facing bricks.

When it comes to repair, maintenance and improvement projects, it pays to ensure that the work carried out by a professional tradesperson will appear as seamless as possible – this is a sign of quality and consideration to the preservation of the original building design. With this in mind, matching bricks to your project is of paramount importance.
Step 1:
Identifying bricks: what’s the challenge?

Clay bricks, like any building material that is mass made product manufactured from natural raw material in a factory have a specific characteristics that help identify them as unique and individual. These characteristics can be split into 5 key areas that need to be evaluated and reviewed in order to match a brick with a high level of accuracy.
London Brick Manufacturing

These 5 areas are:

Size:
The standard London Brick size for example is 215mm x 102.5mm x 65mm, however some styles are also available in 215mm x 102.5mm x 73mm.

This is a common brick size found across the UK, so it’s always worth checking if your existing bricks match this or are smaller. Some concrete bricks that have added colours and pigments can be slightly smaller than this, a clue that the brick you are trying to match may be a concrete brick rather than a clay brick.

Colour:
This sounds obvious, but there are many variations of colours. There are common colour groups that are used in brick making including reds, yellows or buffs, browns, and greys, so the palette of brick colours is naturally limited. This means one red brick can be slightly different to the next brick, this makes colour matching an area where a high level of knowledge and skill is required. It is best practise to consult a brick matching expert who has this knowledge to help assist you with brick matching.

Pattern:
Bricks can have distinct patterns applied at the factory, these add variety to courses and walls to break up uniformity, giving a more visually interesting look.

Bricks such as the Claydon Red Multi have a distinct patch and fleck style pattern which creates a more appealing look which is best seen across the face of several bricks to show the full effect. It’s important to try and understand if your existing brick project has a pattern within the bricks, this can be matched to a manufacturer, and improve the accuracy of a complete match.

Texture:
The texture of a brick can also be matched, some common texture styes include; drag-faced, rolled texture, sand faced and rumbled. The manufacturing process can play a part in the texture of the brick soft mud bricks as an example are easier to identify as being soft mud as they generally have a more rustic appearance than extruded or pressed bricks. Texture can be a particularly difficult area to match a brick from as there can be slight differences in texture, which can mean a different brick. Best practise here is to consult a brick matching expert who can advise the right brick to match.

Markings:
Last but not least, markings on the brick will give an indication of manufacturer, and sometimes more details such as the quarry or kiln the brick was fired in, although it is becoming more and more common for manufacturers to no longer mark bricks, if your existing bricks have markings this can make matching much easier!

Weathering – or simply the effects of the weather and outdoor elements to facing bricks – is a process which changes the visual appearance of bricks over time. Weathering can result in a change in colour, as well as cracking, chipping, and patina. Understanding how this has affected the original brick and what needs to be considered for matching bricks is critical to getting a correct match.
Pro tip:
Consider weathering

Step 2:
Consult an expert; such as bricklayers, architects, and specifiers

Without extensive knowledge around bricks, and the experience of handling bricks and understanding production processes it can be easy to mismatch bricks. It is always advisable to seek a professional’s experience, this gives you peace of mind the right bricks will be sourced and selected to match your existing brickwork.

Need help? reach out to one our brick matching experts by calling us on 0330 123 108 or visiting our contact us page

Step 3:
Request samples

This part is the most important step in making a decision.

While images on websites and in brochures may provide a visual indication, the real version of the brick in the form of a sample will give the genuine means to compare to an existing brick.

Best practice is to always order samples, and try to match from these rather than online images.

Step 4:
Plan and prepare

So you’ve got a brick that matches what you’re current project is made from – that’s it right?

Well, not quite, take a step back, literally! It’s great having one brick compared to another, but no property is one brick high! It’s many, many courses, and these can be in different types of course bonds such as ‘Stretcher’ ‘Header’ ‘English’ and ‘Flemish’, this means there needs to be consistency of colour, texture, and appearance throughout the courses and walls

One way to achieve this consistency is to make sure you don’t pick bricks from the same packs for the same courses, as this can result in banding or patches through the brickwork as packs contain bricks from the same manufacturing batch, which may all look too similar.

The easiest option to make sure you don’t lay bricks from the same production run or batch is to take the approach of blending bricks; brick blending is an important consideration when laying bricks, this process is best advised to ensure the even distribution of colours and textures from new brick packs, and it’s especially important when matching bricks.

Bricks should be loaded-out from a minimum of 3 packs and it is advisable to draw from the packs in vertical rather than horizontal slices. Doing this helps avoid colour patchiness or banding in the brickwork. It’s best practice to order more bricks than required to allow for the blending of packs and variety when laying them
London Brick can help you with your next project.
Our experts can help you find the right matching brick, whatever stage you are at or project you are about to embark on we can support with our technical experts.
Call us on 0330 123 1018 or visit our contact us page to enquire.