How to identify a brick complaint.

This post will deal with brick problems. Yes, brick manufactures do make mistakes. The range of problems stem from mining to packaging. Believe me there are a lot of steps in between. Most problems are ones that are visible after the brick are installed into the wall. When you look at the picture above you will see a brighter top half than the bottom half. This problem stems from the extrusion or milling department. This is where they add color agents to the face of the column during extrusion to give the brick color. The way they add color is to use engobes, sand blast, dry box, drag rags, mud box, and a whole arsenal of contraptions. More than likely this complaint had a little help by 2 runs of brick were used on this job. That is a no no. When purchasing your brick ask to have the whole job from the same run. More than likely they had 2 different people to run the color additive during the production of this brick. One person set the controller on #3 and the next person may have set the controller on #6. This is probably why the color is a lot heavier. With my professional trained eye, I can see that the brick is the problem. However, do not always assume the brick is the problem. I have seen brick walls as bad or worse and the brick was not the problem. The mortar was the problem. Of course you are saying in your head, "WHAT, HOW?" Keep in mind, when you look at a brick wall, about 18% of the color your brain is receiving is the color of the mortar. Mortar has a big influence on the appearance of the wall. If the mortar is not consistent in color, this will effect the brick. There is a simple way to determine what is the problem, if you don't have a trained professional eye, such as mine. Take take some 4" inch wide masking tape. Block off a square area that covers the good and bad area. Example, our taped box would include the bright area with darker area in the same box. Now take some 1/4" masking tape and cover all of the mortar joints inside the box. Stand back at least 20 feet. Do the brick inside the box match? If the brick match then the mortar is the problem. If you still see the color problem inside the box, them the brick is the problem. I could tell you some stories about how I had to convince some people what the true problem was with there home. There are steps that could be used to resolve these issue, but the best solution is if a problem is identified, get the supplier out on the job so the issue could be resolved before the brick get into the wall. If you are adding on to your home or building a new home, check the job everyday to make sure the brick meet your expectation.