Old bricks are much stronger than new modern bricks. Old bricks are made from 100% natural clay, whereas new bricks contain cement, ash, sand and other additives to reduce their cost (and quality). Old bricks also have no perforations or core holes running through the bed of the bricks, unlike new bricks. For comparison, the average weight of an old brick is 4kg and the average weight of a new brick is 1kg.
Reclaimed bricks have also been naturally weathered and therefore are ideal for matching originally buildings.
Building with reclaimed materials is an environmentally-friendly option. It reduces demand for new materials and saves discarded materials from landfills.
Most houses in the UK were built pre-war and these houses were built with an ‘’Imperial’’ Sized Brick. Post war, with a surge of demand for new housing, brick manufacturers invested heavily in new manufacturing methods to meet the demands. To capitalize on this demand, they changed over to a ‘’Metric’’ brick size system which reduced the size of the brick by 15%. Still to this day, bricks in the UK are manufactured to the metric size system. If you are attempting to match a building built pre-war, you’ll require an ‘Imperial’ Sized brick which you will struggle to find from a traditional builder’s merchant.