Why Reclaimed Bricks?

We are all beginning to realise that we need to tread a little more lightly on the Earth. We are all learning the importance of recycling, reusing and repurposing things rather than throwing them away. When we do this we not only reduce the amount of waste that goes to landfill, we are saving the energy, resources and pollution that would be involved in making new things.

That is why so many of us recycle our glass, our metal cans, our waste paper and our plastic. It is all part of reducing the footprint we leave behind. So can we bring this "tread lightly" philosophy to our construction projects. After all, the processes involved in making bricks are very energy intensive, as is the process of quarrying natural stone. Are there ways in which we can reduce the impact our building work has on the environment without compromising on quality?

We are pleased to say that the answer is "yes" – at least up to a point. Obviously there will always be a need for new bricks and newly quarried stone. That has been the case for as long as people have been building things and will remain the case for as people need to build things. But people have always reused materials too.

By way of example travel to the border land between Scotland and England and take a look at Hadrian’s Wall. What remains is only a fraction of the structure that the Roman legions constructed. What happened to the stone blocks that are no longer a part of the wall? Take a look at some of the older local buildings – the stone that built a lot of boarder farmhouses used to be part of the wall. Truly there are very few new ideas and recycling building materials is certainly not one of them. People have using old buildings to make new buildings for millennia.

So the answer to the question "why reclaimed bricks?" must surely be "why not?" There is no reason not to re-use limestone paving, for example. If you lift the slabs carefully to avoid breaking them it is a simple matter to build a new patio out of an old one. That is one of the selling points of limestone slabs – the rock they are made of is already billions of years old, so you can expected them to have an effectively infinite useful lifespan.

The same logic applies to bricks. Reclaimed engineering bricks in particular are ideal for salvage and re-use because they are so robust. Some effort is required to remove the mortar that will most likely be clinging to them, and some judgement is needed to ensure that bricks that are reclaimed are sound and undamaged, but that is work you do not need to worry about when you buy reclaimed engineering bricks from us.

Because the do require some processing and cleaning up reclaimed engineering bricks are not free. But they are less expensive than new engineering bricks which means that they can dramatically reduce the cost of your construction project. And of course every time you re-use a brick you are saving an awful lot of water and energy that does not need to be used to create a new brick, which can significantly reduce the environmental impact of your build.

So when you plan your next project why not think about whether you can use reclaimed materials for some or all of your build? Not only could you save some money you might just be playing a part in saving the world!