The Common House Brick!
At ET Clay Products Ltd, we never refer to the house brick as the common house brick. In our opinion, there is no such thing. We will admit that not all bricks are created equal, some are without doubt more common than others but there are so many variations that it would be difficult to narrow the selection down to one common house brick.
Choose from a Wide Range of House Bricks
We buy our house brick selection direct from the manufacturers and pass the savings on to our customer. Why not check out our current offers page for some of our very special deals on the house brick selection we hold in stock.
Choosing your house bricks
ET Clay Products Ltd have many years of experience working with architects, builders and developers, we know how important it is to find the right house brick for a project. With this in mind we will help you in choosing the house brick you require to complete your building project.
Types of house bricks available
ET Clay Products Ltd, or ET Bricks as we are often referred to stock a massive range of House Bricks from all the major suppliers. Our Head Office in Stifford Road, South Ockendon, Essex and our Minworth Depot brick yard on the Maybrook Business Park in Minworth, West Midlands have a bewildering selection of house bricks, pavers and special shaped house bricks. We have literally hundreds of different types of house bricks in Stock and below you can see just some of the types of house bricks we stock.
Our Range of Clay House Bricks
Engineering House Brick
An engineering house brick generally has a high compressive strength and a pretty low water absorption. The engineering house brick is rated as either class A or B: A is the strongest being designed for use below ground level for applications like a damp proof course. ET Bricks keeps stocks of red and blue engineers house bricks.
‘Common’ House Brick
Although we hate the term ‘common’ when referring to bricks, we have to accept that many use it as a general search term on the internet when looking for a house brick. These house bricks have a rather low compressive strength and are of a lower quality than engineering or facing house bricks. These particular house bricks should not be used below ground in a damp proof course and rarely, if ever used externally either. The so called common house brick is generally used for internal brickwork only.
One will sometimes see the term ‘frogged common house brick’. This is sometimes used as a general term for flettons vhouse bricks or LBC (London Brick Company) faced common house bricks. These are bricks that have a common coloured base and then have different face colours added afterwards.
Facing House Brick
Facing house bricks will give a building its unique appearance and are designed to be used as an outer brick skin against internal blocks or less attractive brickwork to provide a more appealing finish to the property. Facing house bricks are by far the most popular type of house brick and come in a wide variety of colours and sizes. The most common types of these bricks can be seen below.
Types of Clay Facing House Brick
Wirecut House Brick
The majority of house bricks in the United Kingdom are made using this manufacturing process. The clay is extruded through a house brick shaped die, the final appearance of the house brick can then be determined by the addition of sand or texturing the face of the unfired house brick. The house brick sized clay column is then cut into individual house bricks and fired in the kiln. This house brick manufacturing process produces neat crisp lines and a sharper looking finished house brick.
Stock House Brick
Stock house bricks are machine moulded house bricks that usually have a frog indent in the top, formed by pressing wet clay into sanded moulds. The use of sand to release the bricks from the mould contributes to their soft texture and slightly irregular shape. Stock house bricks produce a much softer appearance than the wirecut house brick.
Waterstruck House Brick
The waterstruck house brick is a moulded house brick that has been released from its mould by water. The waterstruck house brick is a good solid house brick, containing no holes or frogs. The use of water together with the wetness of the clay produces a pleasing smooth and lipped edge to the house brick.
Reclaimed House Brick
Reclaimed house bricks are simply house bricks that have been reclaimed from the demolition of existing properties. The reclaimed house brick could be a handmade house brick, a facing house brick or an engineers house brick. The reclaimed house brick is likely to have a rather worn and irregular appearance and some may have pieces of mortar on them left over from their original use. Because of the labour cost of cleaning the reclaimed house brick, they can be quite costly for a large building project. Many people wrongly think that they will be a cheaper house bric, simply because they are secong hand.
Imperial House Brick
As well as the reclaimed house brick, ET Bricks stock a wide range of new house bricks in Imperial size, this is normally normally 73mm or 75mm. Other imperial sized house bricks are obtainable to order from us.
Special Shaped House Brick
A wide variety of house bricks are available in special shapes or sizes to compliment or contrast with the facing house brick of your choice. ET Bricks hold a wide range of special shaped house bricks in different colours and can obtain any special shape to order.
Handmade House Brick
The manufacturing process of this house brick is without doubt the oldest. The handmade brick is made by a person throwing clay into a mould by hand. This produces the distinctive creases or ‘smiles’ as they have been come to be known, that set the handmade house brick apart from the rest. Once all house bricks were made in this way and although some handmade brickworks still exist, the cost of producing bricks by this method is very expensive, so now this process is more commonly performed by a machine.