How do I find matching bricks?

[Justwondering36]

Hello, looking at having a 3m x 4m extension and it needs planning permission. I’ve been told that planning are likely to want the bricks on the front elevation to be the same as the rest of the building. How can I identify the types of bricks and find something similar please? 1970s bungalow in SE.

[Photo removed by MNHQ due to privacy concerns]

Is that stone cladding on a different sort of structural wall? I feel like they looks unlikely as a structural wall but I am no engineer so I could be wrong.

I thought it was cladding but several builders have said it is brick.

You tell your builder to source them and make sure they can before you sign a cobtract!

Builders are from previous jobs so can’t help now. I don’t want to put in a planning application that the bricks will be the same if they can’t be sourced.

@Justwondering36 They are “bricks”. Front of DMs bungalow like this. Often used instead of limestone where red brick would stand out and not be in keeping.

You won't need a builder for the extension?

@waterbottle1234 Yes but they aren’t involved at this stage

Brickability might be a good resource. However these might be difficult to find! Personally I’d go for something complimentary. Are you in a conservation area or AONB? If not try going for a modern rendered extension. I would also use an architect to design this for you.

Just thought! Reuse your own stone bricks. I’m assuming you will knock an external wall down releasing bricks? Clean and reuse? Won’t do that much but might do a panel within rendering.

Is it Bradstone? https://www.aggregate.com/products-and-services/building-products/walling

Possibly reclamation yards? Ring around brick yards. Freecycle or add a wanted advert on freecycle/market place?

There are people called 'Brick Doctors'. We used one recently to match part of an old extension. He used a dye to change the existing bricks to match the others. I don't know if they could change an entire wall to give the illusion of different shaped bricks though. I wonder if a cladding would come in that pattern?

When we had our extension built, our builder said that he'd arranged for a "brick rep" to call round. A guy turned up with a car boot containing a selection of bricks (builder had presumably told him roughly what type/colour) and he proceeded to find the best match to our current bricks out of his selection.
I never knew that brick reps were a thing until then! No idea where he came from though.

Just looked online and see that you can start the process online by sending photos of your existing bricks.

Unfortunately this won’t work as only the front has those bricks, the side where we’ll knock through has red bricks.

When we had an extension our builder showed us a massive catalogue of bricks and he identified what we needed for matching and was in charge of ordering them etc

That’s the closest I’ve seen but I’m not sure. I’m finding it hard to compare as the different layouts if you see what I mean.

Your builder will be able to. Are the planning people actually asking you to source the bricks at this point before planning even granted? We just said ‘yeah we’ll match them’ and then the builder did.

@Justwondering36 Thsts why I might go to a stone brick specialist. However are you totally sure you aren’t allowed another finish? Are you conservation area? AONB is easier but who says it must match? Is it a requirement of PP? Shame about reuse idea! I think it’s better to render rather than have mismatching “bricks” in terms of shape and colour.

Have a look at shearstone stone walling, it might be that

We don’t definitely need to match but the architect says planning permission are likely to want it to match because we are in a very prominent position. I don’t want to get in the situation where we have said on the planning application that we’ll match when we may not be able to because they are slightly unusual.

Two builders we have asked when they’ve been doing other jobs for us said it was doubtful whether we’ll get a match but none ever looked into it properly (because it wasn’t relevant to the job). We have never tried a brick rep / doctor / specialist so I’ll do that.

@TizerorFizz if we can’t match I’ll look at rendering like you suggest. We actually have rendering on another wall. It’s a strange mis-matches of finishes! Thanks for your help.

I would go along the line of great design over mismatched stone bricks. Nothing worse than that! If planning doesn’t require matching stone bricks, I’d just go for pp and worry about finishes later. I know some areas are hot on finishes (eg North Cornwall) but yours is not a heritage finish! Or one that’s particular to a certain locality. It’s just a decorative finish used all over. I’d really try and get a design that doesn’t require matching and get an architect that actually fights your corner.

These looks promising! Thank you ☺️

yes but when you choose them, part of the process is checking that they can match the bricks.

Take a photo to your local builders merchant, either a larger independent or someone like Travis Perkins/Jewsons etc they will help and should be able to obtain samples for you to double check/compare