Cover Story/Side Story

Pick a New 'Old Brick'

When the job is an addition or renovation, matching the original brick can be a challenge. For example, how can a mason contractor pick a brick to match brick from 100 years ago?

Lynda Evans, owner of StoneArt in Church Hill, Tenn., gives some guidelines: "The first question is to find out if there's anything on the market that is acceptably close because that's going to be by far the most economic solution. If they have satisfied themselves that the brick simply does not exist, then we can custom make a brick to match samples. We have to have a brick to go by, as we have no inventory to pick from. They would have to send me five bricks out of the wall and a photograph, and I will do a free match on those."

The photo allows a look at the overall wall, the pattern of light and dark, the "feel" of the building, as it were. "We don't use the photograph for color," Evans says. "We use the actual brick to match the color. The photograph just gives us the distribution of color."

Once the overall concept is defined, the making of the brick takes place. "A lot of the time, it's made the same way the originals were crafted. If we know the manufacturer of the brick, then I can usually contact the company — if they are still in existence — and they will give me the content and firing schedule from their archives."

Why not have them make the bricks if you know the company that made the originals? In most cases, economy of scale. Large brick makers aren't interested in replicating a process they may have discarded ages ago. Not for the small size orders that a renovation or addition might incorporate.

StoneArt, on the other hand, can take the original specifications of the brick and reproduce it in modern processes. In some cases, they will improve the material content while maintaining the "look and feel" of the original. As Evans notes, "Some of the chemicals that were used in old brick, such as chromium, are not friendly materials to be around and I tend to stay away from those. Instead, I will find something else that gives me a similar look. We have to get pretty creative because we might not know how a brick was made, or exactly what was in it, or even where the clay came from. I can get clay bodies from most of the major manufacturers, sometimes in the form of large plugs so I can cut out whatever size is necessary. Then we add whatever slurries, metal and iron spots are needed."

The kiln work is also creative. "We can overfire, underfire and fire rapidly to cause a bloat. We actually had a job where all the bricks were bellied out. They looked like little loaves of bread in the wall. This was a manufacturing mistake, so somebody got a real deal on bricks that, at the time, were seconds. These were intended to be laid flat but the mason turned them up on the edges so that the bellies stuck out. In the end, it became a historic building, outlasting all its neighbors and they needed some more of these bricks that were basically mistakes. The clay had high carbon content and if you fire a brick with a high carbon content quickly, then it will bloat or swell because the carbon cannot burn off fast enough. So we also duplicate mistake brick."

StoneArt is supplying bricks for the new ticket gate at Carnegie Hall in New York City — obviously, an historic building that requires careful matching. "It was a buff colored body in a roman size, which is a long skinny brick, like 1.5 inches tall and 11 inches long," recalls Evans. "It was an iron spot that had a lot of metal in it that had blistered through the surface as it was fired. It was interesting to duplicate the texture and finish as well as the color, and in a size that isn't available any more. We provided 5,000 bricks for that project."

Sample replica bricks aren't always enough to get the job. "We have to satisfy a lot of architects, councils, bureaus, and committees," claims Evans. "Usually the samples do that. Occasionally they request a larger sampling to put up a 50-100 brick panel, and we do it but for a charge."

Because old bricks have been exposed to many weather and ecological effects that can't be cataloged, making a replica or replacement brick to match requires more than just a sample to work from, it requires knowledge of what has been done, or will be done now and in the future, to the rest of the building. Evans comments, "I may sandblast the brick to duplicate a typhoon with the sand and debris that has pummeled that building for 150 years. I have added stains and darkening. If a building is dirty and they are not planning on cleaning it, then they have to send me brick representative of the finished state of the project. If they send me dirty brick and then they clean the building — and I have matched the dirty brick — you're going to have old grimy brick up against freshly cleaned brick and it's not going to match at all."

That works both ways. She continues, "If they send me clean bricks that were not used in the building — perhaps they were sheltered from weathering in a basement — and I match those, then they're not going to match the old weathered brick at all. That needs to be mentioned from the start. Be sure the brick you send are representative of what you want the finished project to look like. People have to be a bit far-sighted about cleaning; maybe 10 years from now the wall will be cleaned and the differences will show up."

Matching the brick on the jobsite can be another problem. "I have had a company order a clean brick to match a dirty building and then ask me how to make it dirty in the wall," Evans recalls. "If they have some that looks a little too new, then I ask them to pick up some of the dirt by the wall of the building and throw it at it. Usually that makes it blend in age-wise."

Masonry's scourge, efflorescence, can be a brick maker's problem, too.

"Most definitely efflorescence is a problem to match," admits Evans. "There are others, though, that are harder to deal with. I received some samples for a job that had mortar smears all over them, so I smeared mortar all over the replicas."

Since replica bricks are a small-order market, StoneArt and its competitors are constrained by the size of those orders. "There's no way to mass produce," Evans acknowledges. "You can't set up a process that you can fine tune and repeat over and over because by the time you figure out the process, the job is finished. Every step is done by hand."

While obviously precluding mass production, handwork can accomplish a lot. Take texture, for example. "We test and make the tools to duplicate textures," claims Evans. "We measure the number of vertical scratches per inch so we get a duplicate texture that's not too coarse or too fine. We change the fineness of the body and the face — it might be a coarse grind or a fine grind — to get a smooth chamois-rubbed type finish, baby-bottom smooth, or something that's very rough. Every job is totally different."

Mass production companies produce enough of a batch for a skyscraper; StoneArt doesn't even try. Their largest order, so far, was for 18,000 brick for a lighthouse in Key Biscayne, Fla. On the other side, they made three brick for one contract because that's all they needed. Ask your local supplier for that small a custom order some day.

Earlier, we wrote, "...StoneArt and its competitors...." However, Evans indicates that might not be accurate. "I haven't met any competitors yet," she says. "I would enjoy meeting them so if you hear of any, let me know."

Although that sounds a bit egotistical, she counters that there are some manufacturers that might consider themselves her competitors. "There are some brick manufacturers that, if the order is in sufficient quantity, will revive some old formulas that they have. Some will tweak something — for example, if they're already doing a run of a certain brick and you need one that has more clinkers in it, they'll do custom mixes, or not throw away the mistakes, or turn the heat up a little. Basically they are adjusting a process they are already doing. As far as actually hand-making 1,000 brick, as far as I know, I'm the only company doing that."