Finding the best conservatory brick to match house?

Spender£

I have a selection of bricks to choose for a conservatory but does pattern matter, i have found a yellow/red mixed color match but it is a smoother brick but the one with the nearest pattern is red in color, i can't decide!

Slinky

Colour was more important than texture when we built our extension. The original bricks had a striped pattern at 45 degrees, the newer ones have a dotted texture. From a distance you can't see the difference in texture, you would be able to notice a colour difference. Even fairly close up you don't notice the difference, it's only if you're looking for it.

Spender£

Slinky wrote: »

Colour was more important than texture when we built our extension. The original bricks had a striped pattern at 45 degrees, the newer ones have a dotted texture. From a distance you can't see the difference in texture, you would be able to notice a colour difference. Even fairly close up you don't notice the difference, it's only if you're looking for it.

Many thanks that's great to hear, i opted for colour as most important so i do feel better about that now.

Slinky

Forgot to mention, several other neighbours had also extended and had previously used the same bricks we used so we could see how theirs turned out. Is there somebody else local to you who has extended where you can see the bricks when they've actually been used.

Spender£

Slinky wrote: »

Forgot to mention, several other neighbours had also extended and had previously used the same bricks we used so we could see how theirs turned out. Is there somebody else local to you who has extended where you can see the bricks when they've actually been used.

Most of the others seemed to have gone more for the red type brick but the difference in colour is plain to see, although the pattern is different this brick definitely looks the same for colour.

Doozergirl

Who gave you those options?

There is always a good match for both colour and texture. Even on new builds where I've found bricks discontinued due to blatant quality issues, there are great alternatives. I have never failed to extend a house with a good match. It just takes more than a trip to the back of the van or the nearest builders merchant. It's usually only a case of taking photos and measurements and presenting it to a brick supplier.

Another sign of the lack of care paid by conservatory builders, IMO, if they can't give you either an exact match or at least a choice of colour and texture that is a good match.

Spender£

Doozergirl wrote: »

Who gave you those options?

There is always a good match for both colour and texture. Even on new builds where I've found bricks discontinued due to blatant quality issues, there are great alternatives. I have never failed to extend a house with a good match. It just takes more than a trip to the back of the van or the nearest builders merchant. It's usually only a case of taking photos and measurements and presenting it to a brick supplier.

Another sign of the lack of care paid by conservatory builders, IMO, if they can't give you either an exact match or at least a choice of colour and texture that is a good match.

They gave me six to choose from but i'm terrible at choosing to be honest, there are 2 that jumped out really, one red the other a sort of mixture of yellow and red. The brick on the house seems to have started life red and gone reddish yellow over the years, strangely the front of the house looks red and the back more of a yellow tinged red.
Wish there was a way of uploading some pics!

Johnhowell

When we had some work done here, I looked at the major brick manufacturer websites and looked for the colours and pattern and texture for a match. On one website I e-mailed them and sent a close photograph of the two types of bricks we have.
A representative replied very quickly and even visited the house and replied that one was theirs and the other was another manufacturer and gave suggested brick names! One of which was correct.

I contacted the local large builders merchants and they had both in stock.
The builder ordered them, but then investigated the mortar colour and texture as well. If we had used sand from Wickes the mortar would have been too orange! He found a lump of mortar and we visited a local aggregate supplier and one of the sand bins had the correct sand. We then did some sample mortar mixes to different ratios to see what had been used.

The match is amazing and some repair work can not be seen unless looking for it specifically!

I would spend more time on this as you will live with it forevermore.

Good luck
John

Spender£

Johnhowell wrote: »

When we had some work done here, I looked at the major brick manufacturer websites and looked for the colours and pattern and texture for a match. On one website I e-mailed them and sent a close photograph of the two types of bricks we have.
A representative replied very quickly and even visited the house and replied that one was theirs and the other was another manufacturer and gave suggested brick names! One of which was correct.

I contacted the local large builders merchants and they had both in stock.
The builder ordered them, but then investigated the mortar colour and texture as well. If we had used sand from Wickes the mortar would have been too orange! He found a lump of mortar and we visited a local aggregate supplier and one of the sand bins had the correct sand. We then did some sample mortar mixes to different ratios to see what had been used.

The match is amazing and some repair work can not be seen unless looking for it specifically!

I would spend more time on this as you will live with it forevermore.

Good luck
John

Great advice, i have left a message and told them to cancel the order until I've had time to look at this in more detail, your right that i will be left with this forever so i might as well get exactly what i want.

Waterlily24

I think our extension looks awful, we couldn't get a good match as try as we might. We did ask if we could do it with blocks and render it but this wasn't allowed although the council did say there was nothing they could do to stop us rendering it after it had been passed.

Lorian

Johnhowell wrote: »

When we had some work done here, I looked at the major brick manufacturer websites and looked for the colours and pattern and texture for a match. On one website I e-mailed them and sent a close photograph of the two types of bricks we have.
A representative replied very quickly and even visited the house and replied that one was theirs and the other was another manufacturer and gave suggested brick names! One of which was correct.

I did this too, and my brick was identified as being discontinued 20 odd years ago, but two of the big manufacturers sent me (lots f) samples and the bricks finally chosen are very close match. I spent ages on this, but its time well spent in my opinion.