Welcome to the first Monday Masonry with the #ChickWithBricks.

I've created this series to share practical tips, product insights and real-world advice from my 20+ years in the brick industry. Whether you're an architect, contractor or developer, my aim is to help make specifying masonry products a little easier and highlight things that can save time, money and headaches further down the line.

This week's topic: Matching bricks on older properties

In this video, I'm looking at brick samples for an extension to an existing house in Mansfield Woodhouse, where I'm helping to match bricks for a property that's nearly 90 years old.

One of the first things to establish is the brick size. Houses built during the early part of the 20th century often used imperial-sized bricks (73mm), whereas most modern construction uses metric bricks (65mm).

Whilst an 8mm difference might not sound like much, it has a significant impact on the finished appearance.

If the brick size isn't correct:

• The mortar joints won't line up.
• The brick bond can look out of place.
• The extension can look noticeably different from the original house.

We've all seen extensions where something just doesn't look quite right, and often the brick size is one of the reasons why.