Everyday, Matching Brickwork Technicians work on new build sites up and down the UK to resolve issues with new brickwork. 

These issues can can range from brick batch variations from the manufacturer or poor mixing of brick batches own site to as accidental damage to brickwork during the construction process.

The most common brickwork colour issue that we resolve is brickwork banding. 

Brickwork banding is most evident on the gable end of newly build properties when the scaffolding has been removed.  A  brickwork band is a clear change in appearance of the brick and/or mortar across the full elevation of brickwork.

This can be due to brick layers not mixing from 3 packs of bricks when laying.

All UK Brick manufacturers recommend that bricks are mixed from three packs and this is the British standard. When this is not done the blend of the brick type may not appear as it should and brick banding will occur.

Sometimes, packs of bricks have been mixed correctly but banding can still occur and this is often due to a change in the colour of the brick or mortar from the brick factory of the mortar supplier, not a fault of site.

Banding is often not noticeable until scaffolding has been removed and a full expanse of brickwork can be viewed from the British standard distance of at least three meters. 

When brick banding has been has been deemed to be due to an issue with the brick or mortar and not due to brick pack blending on site it is important to firstly look at whether it is the brick or the mortar is the issue.

Often people assume it is the brick because that is the largest part of a brickwork facade, however, that is not always the case as if the mortar colour has changed then it has a huge affect on the look of brickwork.

​The image below is a mortar issue, the brick is correct.

Mortar is often at fault as so many things can go wrong with mortar colour and consistency is hard to achieve on site, even when silos are being used.

Mortar needs to be left to fully dry out before a true assessment can be made. 

Fortunately we can colour tint both bricks and mortar to resolve any brickwork banding issues. 

Another common issue that we are often asked to resolve urgently is accidental damage to brickwork during the construction process. 

This is where something (or someone) has damaged the brick or mortar in some way. Most often this will be where adhesive or paints have been accidentally spilt or sprayed onto brickwork and where traditional brick cleaning has not been successful.

In most causes we can colour repair and colour tint any stains on brick and mortar and return it to the correct brickwork finish.  

Many national house builders use Matching Brickwork to resolve cosmetic issues with brickwork that they may have caused through any required remedial works following handover of a property. 

Most often this is mortar tinting to areas of poached in brickwork, but we have also resolved other issues such as incorrect brickwork bonding and damaged brickwork. 

Brick Tinting can also be used to clean brickwork when it has been cleaned incorrectly or not cleaned at all, or at least not very well or not quick enough after construction.

We are often asked to resolve issues with unclean brickwork that has only come to light at the handover stage.  If concrete and mortar splatter has been left to sit on brickwork of so long then cleaning with traditional methods such as brick acid may not work.

In such circumstances we will clean and tint the brickwork to resolve the issue and present a nice clean brickwork facade. 

Sometimes incorrect brick cleaning can damage brickwork and 'burn' it. In such circumstances tinting can be used put the colour back into brickwork and restore it back to the desired finish. 

If you are struggling to find a brick match nowadays, the chances are you are probably struggling. You will be very lucky if the brick type that you are trying to match too is still manufactured as so many brick types have now been discontinued.

This has happened over the last thirty years as the brick industry has consolidated and as brick factories and companies have been taken over their brick ranges have been reduced.

The financial crisis of 2008 also so many brick factories close, removing many more brick types from production.

In fact even if the brick that you are trying to match to is still manufactured the chances are it will have changed so much over the years that it will no longer match. 

That creates a brick matching problem if you want your new brickwork to match seamlessly with the adjoining original brickwork. 

However, Brick Tinting provides the solution.

Well, brick tinting solution in the hands of trained and experienced Matching Brickwork Technicians does. 

It's a two date process to the PERFECT Brick Match.

Firstly, match the brick to a brick of the same or similar size and texture.  You don't need to worry about colour as we will tint them when you have built.

As soon as you can remove the need to match the brick colour/s matching a brick in size and texture becomes much, much easier.  We can even help you do this.  

As soon as you have build then a MatchinG brickwork Technician will visit your site and match your built brickwork to match the original adjoining bricowkr perfectly. 

Its that simple, and the brickwork that we match is guaranteed for the life of the brick, it will never fade or change, it will just 'weather' as normal alongside any untainted brickwork. 
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All Brick and Mortar Tinting work carried out be MatchingBrickwork Technicians is fully guaranteed for the life of the brick.

It will never fade or change, it will remain matched to whatever original brickwork it has been matched to. 

That is our guarantee to you so you can have complete peace of mind.

​Brick Tinting is the process of changing the colour appearance of brickwork, mostly in situ once it has been built.

Brick Tinting has been used throughout the UK for more than 30yrs, the process has primarily been used to correct manufacturing or construction mistakes that only become apparent once brickwork has been erected, i.e, non standard brick batch colour variations, brick banding, etc.

Not all bricks are a single colour, many bricks are multi coloured from production, including various colour flashes and mixtures that make up the brick type.  

Brick tinting matching all these colour variations, not just single colours.  ​Brickwork weathers and ages naturally relatively quickly and brick tinting will also colour match even the most weathered brickwork.

The overall affect is that the new brickwork is indistinguishable from the original adjoining brickwork.

Pretty much all bricks can be tinted.  

​The only issues come with very hard bricks such as smooth facing bricks or engineers.  These bricks have a low absorption rate and are very dense, therefore a slightly different binding agent (acrylic based) needs to be used and in some cases these can leave a gentle shine to some facing bricks.  

​​However, this can be clearly identified before any tinting takes place and advised.  They can still be treated.

All Brick Tinting carried out by Matching Brickwork is fully guaranteed for the life of the brick and will weather as normal and in sync with the adjoining original brickwork. (Brickwork below DPC can be tinted but does not come with a guarantee). ​

The first thing carried out on site on the day of starting work on a new brick tinting project is sample area.  A small area, typically 1/2- 1 sqm in size will be tinted alongside the brickwork to match to.  

​This enables the Remedial Repair technician to develop the precise colour mixture required and refine the tints to be used and in what proportion/s.  

This sample area will be dried with a hand held blow torch to enable a finished, dried, sample to be created.  Brick tinting work is left to dry naturally over the 24hrs following work being carried out, we artificially dry the sample area so that we can match a fully dried brick tint to the original brickwork.

The sample panel can then also be approved by the customer before the technician then proceeds to colour match and tint the entire area.

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​An extension to a school in Preston required 20,000 bricks to complete.  The brick that the main school was built out of was still manufactured by Forterra (formerly Hanson brick) but was on 22wks availability.

This availability was unacceptable to the timescale that the contractor and client had to work to, an alternative solution had to be found that would enable brickwork to get started on site straight away and the brick had to match!

Extension Match provided the solution.  

If you are looking for a brick match at the moment the chances are that you are probably struggling to find a good brick match, as many of the bricks that were manufactured simply are no longer made.

There are two main reasons for this.