LBC Tudor Brick Rant ~ Why Is Sam So Angry?
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
- Sam is unhappy with his LBC Tudor bricks, time for a rant!
The London Brick Company (LBC) is known for its vast range of bricks; the term "Fletton" is significant in its history. The Fletton brick is named after a district in Peterborough, UK, where a specific type of clay was discovered that was particularly suitable for brick-making. This clay, known as Lower Oxford Clay, has unique properties that distinguish the Fletton brick.
Here's a breakdown of the LBC Tudor Fletton Brick:
Material: The Fletton brick is made from the Lower Oxford Clay. This clay contains a certain amount of carbonaceous matter. When heated, this matter acts as an internal fuel, reducing the amount of external coal or fuel needed to fire the brick.
Colour and Texture: Although variations exist, Fletton bricks tend to have a pink or light reddish hue. Depending on the manufacturing process, the surface might be smooth or slightly textured.
Economic and Environmental Benefits: Due to the internal fuel property of the clay, Fletton bricks were historically more economical to produce. This also had environmental benefits because the bricks required less external fuel to be fired.
Use: Fletton bricks have been widely used across the UK, especially in the 20th century, for residential and commercial buildings. They've been utilized for both structural and decorative purposes.
Tudor Aspect: If the Fletton brick is labelled as "Tudor," it's possible that it has certain aesthetic properties or finishes that make it suitable for Tudor-style architecture or restoration work related to buildings from the Tudor period.
Durability: Fletton bricks are generally durable, making them suitable for various construction projects. Their properties, including resistance to frost and overall strength, made them famous choices in the UK's building industry.
However, it's essential to note that for specific details about the "LBC Tudor Fletton Brick," such as exact colour shades, dimensions, or other technical specifications, one should consult product literature from the London Brick Company or a distributor.
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I feel another video coming on where Roger goes down to visit the manufacturer and have it out with them. Let's do it!
Go on Roger!
take all the different sizes of bricks and put different sizes of holes through their windows
They need to be Rogered 😂
Rogers Rants!!!! I love it !!! He needs to do whilst sat behind the wheel of a black cab
I have now retired from construction. Apprenticed bricklayer from 1974 to 1977, contractor bricklayer for 20 years, and then 30 years in site management (from tea boy to construction director), and in all those years, LBC bricks have been known as cheap, low-end bricks. Golden Buff is the worst, Heathers come a close 2nd, and Tudors were reserved for "the better end of the market". The LBC brick was mostly used by self-builders as they were the budget brick and mostly used to match the face-brickwork of ex-council or commission houses built circa 1955 to 1970 (mostly New Towns being built at that time). After 1974 councils and spec builders used mostly stocks and semi-engineering for house building. Everything Sam says is what we all said 40-50 years ago. Nothing has changed, and LBC has always pumped these bricks out of the same quality and sizing differences. We just laid the bricks, eased or tightened up and put the worse ones to one side for the next footing. As an aside, My Uncle Les was West Sussex CoW and would take 10 random bricks from a delivery, put them end to end, and if they didn't match his gauge, the whole delivery was returned to the supplier. A most popular bloke was Les and I denied ever knowing him.
@@markmaddison5312 Uncle Les also had a 3 3/4" wooden ball that he rolled down drain runs. Imagine that on collered vitreous pipes. If it got stuck you weren't rodding it out.
@@markmaddison5312 I was once asked if I would like to join the Guild of Clerk of Works as I had " a keen eye for detail and correctness". I declined on the grounds that I wasn't a c...
You and myself same time line thanks for reminding me of the bricks names golden buff heather etc thanks but yuc for remembering
Love the last line, Les was the Man!
@@markmaddison5312Nearest thing is that shocking Welshman that come in at the end and pulls out all the fake weep vents
The usual formula applies.. establish good reputation, a good price and product, then slowly erode the product while increasing the price bit by bit. A bottle of beer is now 620ml not 660ml and for more money!!
That's the process for every product and service now. Ever since the accountants and shareholders took over businesses, goods have been built to offer maximum profit Vs reliability + quality.
I judge everything around the world not only England on the price of beer 😊
..... inflation is theft ...everyone just trying to do something to survive
But that doesn't solve the problem, your just passing the cost to the customer if every business did that you'd just end up with a pile of shit and no quality. Surely that attention to detail is what sets you apart
@@jimgeelan5949 Hi Jim. I totally agree with you on the beer issue! Have breweries/ independent craft beers increased their prices because of a possible shortage of the grain from Ukraine? As an aside, I noticed that the brewers of Hobgoblin ruby beer ‘pulled a fast one…actually three fast ones’ by 1) stopping the 5.2% bottled beer from sale. 2) Selling it in cans at 4.5%. 3) Reducing the can size. 4) Increasing the price. That’s actually four ‘fast ones’….but they’ve definitely lost a valuable customer…..and I hope this beer example plus, undoubtedly, many other ‘fast ones’ will lose them millions of previously dedicated customers!
I've stacked them back onto a pallet and taken them back to Travis Perkins on several occasions and either got a refund or they exchanged them. It's a pain in the arse but at least you're not out of pocket!
It costs you time and money in transport costs.
@@TomNook. a fraction of the cost of a pallet of bricks!
Not if they delivered them. You are entitled to ask them to come and collect the damaged bricks/items.
Sam, you genuinely show care and attention for your clients. However, I doubt the big house builders would do the same.I suspect what comes out of the pack gets laid, regardless of size, quality or chips. These brick companies know they have shift their stock to them and be damned with quality control.
Terrible quality control at LBC appears to be the problem
I just picked up some LBC heathers from Travis Perkins for a door step. They are the closest that match the house, but I had to search through a pallet to find some which were decent enough to be on show. Couldn't believe how many were damaged.
i'm using heathers too, put aside more than i took because of the damage. granted some looked like they'd possibly been kicked about in the yard a bit but the new pack i had to get opened was almost as bad
clearly not strong enough for any step
@@ToraKwai the guy working at Travis Perkins said they are damaged before opening the packs. Maybe they are chucked about before being loaded on the pallets.
They might be good enough for throwing at ULEZ cameras.
I'd buy that for £1.20 inc vat
That'll teach the woke for **checks notes** wanting cleaner air.
@@LawrieAndCo So naive. ULEZ is not about cleaner air, if it were, nobody would be allowed to drive in a ULEZ zone. ULEZ is about taxing poor people off the road whilst those better off simply pay to pollute.
Funny 😂
Just stop oil protesters too
Huge respect to people like him who genuinely care for there trade and show love and care for there work and ultimately the end product wanting to give best outcome to his customers sadly so many cowboys out there dont care and especially majority if new builds nowdays there chucked up so quickly and for ultimate profit they dont care good to see someone who really does care he has right to be angry whoever makes these bricks sort it out not right 👍
Bad ones are used to bulkup and make up the numbers... manufacturing rejects passed onto the customers
I have been roofing 40 plus years .and we have the same problem with roof tiles .Some are terrible when they arrive to site . But complaints go on deaf ears
And they make the frogs so deep, to save money, the bricks distort in the kiln.
Had the same problem with the bricks for my extension so I sent them back to the supplier and got them from another merchant in Wales. The cost was less, free delivery for the pack and they were great and a perfect match. There were a few broken ones but I could accept that, but as with yours sheets between the layers when the pack arrived.
There is something seriously wrong with the QA in the manufacturing industry IMO and the way these bricks are packed, mine were LBC too.
I'm glad someone is standing up and complaining about this sort of thing! we don't do enough of it in this country, unless it's about the weather..
Hey! Leave the weather alone! If British people didn't have the weather to complain about, some of us wouldn't talk for weeks 😅
In the 80's they were rubbish but were really cheap so that hundreds of thousands of houses were built with them. I know as I built a lot of them. Now the quality is even worse as they know that you need them if you are building an extension on a house built in that era but the price of them now is un believable.
I have had the rep out on multiple occasions and the answer is always the the same "they are within tolerance" but they won't sat say what the tolerance is.
They'll clean the mixer out pretty well though .
Best bricks iv ever used were reclaimed Accrington NORI bricks up here in NW England, all true to size, beautiful finish, a lot heavier than any modern brick too, clean sharp corners too.
I've got Nori clay pavers on my drive and patio. They've been down since 1992 and I had the drive re laid last year with the original blocks. It looks like new. Accrington nori's were used for the foundations of Blackpool tower and the empire state building.
Best brick in Wales was a star from the Star brickworks just outside Newport. My dad is 89 and was a brickie from 16 years old. Only bought the house he has lived in for last 46 years because it was a star brick. Face is as good today as I was when laid. Houses around the corner are LBC and crumbling so it has always been an inferior product in his eyes.
@@paul756uk2they do come up well, whenever iv pointed a wall built with them I use red mastic, the gentley rub boiled linseed oil over wall. Gives a beautiful soft sheen, that and the dark red pointing and dark red brick, just makes the wall look incredible compared to any of the newer facing bricks.
Only part about Accrington’s is how hard they are to drill, even a modern SDS drill takes time.
Us northern lads would have just laid em it's not a block of flats get over the problem
@@paul756uk2 got it wrong . In brick foundry shud have been iron
A couple of bricks through the manufacturers window with a note telling them to stop making crap product . These are seconds and should be priced accordingly. Is there no chance of returning .
You pay a good money you expect a quality product . Quality recognizes quality ,mediocrity recognizes nothing better than itself .all the best mate 👍
I used to be a blocker for London brick Bletchley in the 70s. We always used to use straw between the layers to protect the bricks. Those were the days 26 thousand a day but my hands were sore lol
I refuse to buy LBC's, but if I have to match up to the existing I always go with the Tradesman copies, they're cheaper and a superior product.
But as for sizing, I've had that problem with none LBC's.
On one job, the merchant only had a couple of pallets of the bricks I needed and were waiting for a delivery, so I took what they had so I could crack on with the job, but when they delivered the new bricks, they were around 4-5mm longer than the ones I'd set the job out with.
So the merchant got in touch with rep only to be told that anything that's within 5mm meets with 'British Standards'
So no case to be made, I just had to make it up by breaking the bond up, a real pain but nothing else I could do
I can relate. Here in central Mississippi, variations in the size of the bricks is common. We are used to varying sizes for bed joints, as well as head joints. Almost always using queen size bricks, there is very little breakage on new bricks. Old Chicago bricks, on the other hand, are selling for $1.40 per brick. Out of a pallet of 530, 200 are not suitable to lay. We calculate all of these factors into our price when we furnish the materials.
DIYer here. I can totally relate to this. I've been trying to repair a 50+ year old garden wall and for this I needed LBC Brindles. When I went to Travis Perkins, many of their LBC brindles were chipped or cracked. Had to pick through quite a few of them to get some decent ones. Then I had to wrap them in towels or bubble wrap to prevent any damage on the way home. When I went back to TP for more (few weeks later), I was told they don't stock them now because they're crap. I ended up going to MKM and getting "reclaimed" brindles (I think that's the word they use for secondhand bricks) for 80p each. Yes, they are shocking bricks.
Dump them on the porch of whatever company is responsible and demand partial refund.
@@markmaddison5312 well a full refund per brick but a partial refund of the stack they came in.
Only bricks that are 'F' rated can reliably be passed as frost resistant, otherwise a fletton needs to have a coping or other protective feature to prevent sturation and subsequent freezing that will pop the surface and then crumble.
I would only use these for the extension. I wouldn't use them for walls due to the F1 rating. Ibstock Tradesman and Carlton are both F2 rated.
I'm afraid this is nothing new with LBC Fletton bricks. They had a virtual monopoly on cheap bricks from the 1950s to the 1980s and as a result there is a vast stock of properties reliant on them for any extensions, including my own house. Back in the late 80s a farmer I knew was building a new farmhouse. At the time, the choice was LBC flettons or more expensive stock bricks. He chose LBC Tudors as they were considerably cheaper than the better quality stock bricks. I tried to dissuade him, but he was watching the pennies. When the bricks were delivered he noticed that many of the facings were damaged, so he contacted London Brick who told him he should expect 20% wastage. He then contacted the Brick & Stone Co and asked them what wastage to expect with their Old Cheshire Reds. They replied that their bricks were shrink wrapped and there should be little or no wastage. He did his sums and worked out that on this basis it would be cheaper to use the more expensive brick without wastage, so this is what he did and the house looked all the better for it and still does.
I've just bought some From TP, they said that 10% waste is acceptable, not at nearly £1.90/brick it bloody isn't.
we did a major house build in the 80,s had two artics full of heathers or tudors we had to sort through the whole lot and only found enough to do the front and a side wall so my boss at the time sent one and a half artics back with the crap ones
An interesting video for me as I had an extension done last year brick matched with LBC Tudor and i was shocked as the client at how many of the bricks in the packs were chipped, cracked, banana shaped or just crumbled. Some packs seemed to have sat for a while too with a lot of green growth in the plastic.
I still have quite a large pile of them to do a retaining wall and some of the garage demolition ones from the 60s are better quality than the new ones.
how does a brick sit for too long?
I had the same problem on my four bed self-build, measured out at 9,000mm x 9,000mm ÷ 225mm = 40 stretchers?
Wickes Class B engineering bricks to DPC level, were all spot on then Parrs supplied red rustic facing bricks were an average of 222mm - 223mm?
So I had over a full half a brick out of gauge on the first course?
Contacted Parrs over the size's and was sent out the manufacturers rep, who stated they were within the 3mm tolerance?
Totally agree. Dozens of chippers to help fill the skip. Plus they let them get soaking wet too. Awful
Take the brick back to the place you bought them from. Ask for a refund and state they are not fit for purpose. They will soon learn when it costs them money.
Absolutely. As long as they know people will just moan about poor quality but not do anything, they have no reason to improve.
It's unfortunate, but I know from a supplier point, they insist on a 10% allowance for scrap.
The retailer you purchased the bricks from is responsible for any no fit for purpose and its then up to them to get their money back from the wholesaler.
I left some LBC bricks in my garden frog up to hold some tarp down. They didn't last a year
Have you written to the manufacturer and voiced your complaint?
You're lucky that they come wrapped in plastic now with Hanson (I think it's Hanson) owning LBC. When they were just banded, by the time they had travelled on the lorry's in transit I'd say 20% had the faces chipped .Any chips smaller than a 20p piece went in, that was the rule on site.
If I remember, Chris Longhurst (check his RUclips channel) had the same problem with brick dimensions with LBC on a recent build. From what I remember, it was a nightmare for him.
not suitable below DPC?
Even crap bricks if laid and jointed nicely can look good. Part of the problem with LBC bricks is bricklayers who will insist on laying them frog down.
One of the biggest problems facing brickwork today is the poor quality of the building sand that is being sold. BBA states that aggregate for the making of mortar and concrete should have no more than 6% fines (fine being dirt).
I regularly do tests on bulk bag deliveries and the fines in most of these deliveries is way above 30%. This means that any mortar or concrete made with such materials will not attain the required strength and will also break down and is also more likely to show in the brickwork as effervescence on the brick surface.
Use Ibstock's Tradesman Tudor Regent or Carlton's Brodsworth. Both superior in quality. Cheaper and much less wastage! The factory that produces the LBC's is an old factory and it still uses traditional methods to produce the brick. The clay is brittle and it doesn't like being moved much. Sadly, sometimes the packs can be moved several times. It might help if you have to use the LBC's, to ask the merchant to get them delivered direct from the manufacturer. You may pay slightly more due to delivery charges but you should get less issues. That way you know they've only been moved once. Large national merchants can sometimes move the bricks within their depot network multiple times and it can exacerbate the chips and cracks etc.
Contract law covers this ‘supply of goods not fit for purpose’ you can return to the supplier.
Do all your blocks have gray bands on them as the yellow ones are second
I worked for Hanson for 13 years at Calvert,stewartby and made all types bricks I would have sent them back
Funton old Chelsea yellows. Some of them are 205mm x 60mm 🤯
It's strange how we just accept this. Same with tiles. As you say, something needs to be done. The size thing, that's manufacture. I would say that handling and the lack of care taken, is the chief culprit. Believe me and I've worked in the Builders Merchant industry for 50 years!
Try being a chippy with the state of timber today.unless your building a boat hull you got no chance.
No quality control with anything nowadays. Companies think WE'RE quality control and wait for us to complain. Cheaper for them.
Worst bricks I’ve ever laid! Built an extension on my old house and had to use LBC dappled lights I think they were called, shocking the amount of wastage! Later build a garden wall and found some Ibstock tradesman lights which were a perfect match and cheaper! Just wish I’d of found them earlier! Seems Ibstock do a few matches for LBC and they are not only cheaper but far superior!
Opportunity for a competitor?
Mate try being a tiler and dealing with Laura Ashley tiles 🤦
That’s why I use the tradesman bricks , because pricing an extension, can’t afford the waste you get off LBC even though their a good match 9 times out of 10 . 100% agree
Bang on the button, and i don't think there is such a thing as a square brick anymore.
Could not agree more with him.
You even get yards that wont let you pick bricks, some as far as to not allowing timber picking. Their argument is, We get them as is so should you. MY argument is, if you know you are getting them in that state then why don't you call them out. stop forcing the shite products onto tradesmen. Yards can return them to the manufacturers. the tradesmen can't.
The Dapple Lights are just the same, out of two packs I had 88 that were totally useless, either cracked, bananas, or badly chipped. I sorted out the rest and used the best ones for the front projection, the ones that were passable got used on the gable cuts and sides where the meter cabinets were going. All takes a lot of messing about and time. The merchant rep gave me a refund for the bricks, not my time though! They've got you by the balls if you got to match.
Used these bricks in Norfolk, 35 years ago, at London brick expense , we had over ten thousand delivered to site. Sorted through to get the just under four thousand we needed. Never used them since ,
Had this argument many a time when on price work. My point was that I was a bricklayer not a brickselector. You need to be taking off the stack and laying them, not inspecting each one prior to laying. You don’t even see the face really until it’s on the bed, bloody frustrating when it’s chipped and damaged.
LBC bricks come in three standards, Rough, Very Rough, and Oh-ya Bastard!
Totally agree, we knew to treat “London “ bricks with kid gloves when unpacking. 🙁
The Carlton Brodsworth is a worthy copy, quality made brick
They're terrible mate ! It's one thing pricing them into the job at 15% waste but if you haven't got a patio to lose them under or a footing to go onto you'll end up throwing into a skip that you also paid good money for😭
I don't doubt that the bricks are poor but your video doesn't explain why. I'm not sure about the size variance, that's par for the course with pressed bricks - depending on the colour (clay type) or at least it is here in Australia.
Some of the bricks were shaped like a boomerang!
My merchant replaced a load of bricks that were smashed straight out of the packs. Presumably they get a credit from the manufacturer.
45 years in the game, we call any LBC product “stacked and banded hardcore” crap, we dread using them!
I can't remember if it was James or someone I know personally but I remember someone saying they asked the merchant if they could pick through them before buying and they said no. So whoever the builder was said I'll come back with all the duds and dump them in the merchants yard and they can sort it out if they don't. Fair play with the state of them.
You are right, it was James and I was there with him in the Travis Perkins yard when the manager came storming over, mouth full of sandwich yelling at us to stop picking through the pile. We didn't ask if we could pick the good ones out because we assumed that anybody who was paying over a pound a brick would do the same. He was a horrible ignorant man. He told him we had to take the broken ones because that is how he had to buy them.
@@SkillBuilder I thought it was! The story just gets more entertaining with detail 😂 There's no need to be a dick to customers like that. At end of the day if the merchant ends up with a stack of knackered bricks they should be kicking off to the manufacturer especially someone with the buying power of TP.
Best place for a London brick is in a skip, utter shite.
Pretty much everything in the 60s and 70s were built with London’s so you need to match them.
They are also shite underground as they are very soft and porous 🧽 and you can’t use them inside because regs say you can’t mix materials in internal walls .
That cost £2.50 plus up here in the north west . Our local brick specialist merchant won’t stock them because of the issues that come with them .
Ibstock do a “tradesman” range of London copies … a lot cheaper and far superior quality .
Avoid London’s if you can , overpriced shite 💩😡🧱🤙🏽
We are going to an Ibstock brickworks soon
Used lbc tudors a couple of years back. Neighbours wanted matching bricks. 50% of each pack was duff and the remaining 50% were still poor. I got involved with LBC reps.
Different sizes, damaged, massive colour variation and some like bananas. Ibstock did a matching tudor that was much cheaper. Wish I'd gone with them.
Things obviously haven't changed.
I couldn't agree more with this. Just had a single pack of LBC. A total of 54 damaged bricks. Some like bananas and c5mm size difference. For a premium brick this is shocking. Back to TP they went!
I can tell ya its automation so many factories and suppliers have been updated recently and have higher capacity but struggling with the new tech no running quite right hence the poor qaulity
Had to buy a few to go into an existing wall when doing repairs about 10 years ago. Absolutely shocking quality and consistency. Thought I just got unlucky, but appears they are just a bit duff.
Same problem when trying to buy quality wood. They say it’s a “natural product” “Expect it”. To which I reply, “So is gristle in your steak, but if that’s all you got, you’d send it back. No one cares about quality any more in building.
I'm 76. They have always been crap. We call ancient turds by the fancy name copralite. In years to come they will still call London bricks shit.
There's no point moaning to us or the cameraman,you have to ring the company up or the supplier and ask the rep to come down,its that easy, done it a few times myself,I agree with everything you are saying,was on a wall all the bricks were different sizes,
Always were pure shite I’m a retired bricklayer 67 years old and when I seen these things on site I’d leave immediately the lbc company couldn’t make a decent brick it’s a disgrace they are still in business 😮😅😅😅😅
LBC have such a reputation for this. i'm doing a job with LBC heathers at the moment and have to toss aside at least 40% of the bricks because of chips or cracks in the faces
On a backyard wall, there is nowhere to hide those faulty bricks. Then what happens to the faulty bricks, do they go into landfill? Not very environmentally friendly and expensive
Good call out on this. Not a brick layer but nice to see a good craftsman at work well done Sam top man 👊👊👊👍👍👍
LBC Cotswold are the same, I scrapped hundreds, chipped, bananas and different lengths. my supplier said all LBC bricks are the same
This place was built cheaply in '82 by Martin Grant using LBC Windsors and part of the front was rebuilt using another three packs after a car hit it 20 years ago.
Prompted by this I've had a look with a critical eye and there do seem rather a lot of chipped bricks, ones with surface blemishes and the odd banana in both lots. So it looks like this could be how they've always been.
[Edit] I've just realised it was 20 years ago to the day (12/9/03) that the neighbour's car hit the house. Caused £20k worth of damage to the house, the Nissan Primera needed a new headlight, some hammer work on the wing and was road legal.
Good luck with the dimensions 🤬 I built an Aldi store in Kettering 25 ish years ago. Not LBCs but it's indicative of the industry.
Raked out face work, we had horrendous problems with brick size, tight joints, massive joints, keeping the joints plumb because as its raked out it, perps drifting stuck out like a sore thumb.
We got the brick rep out because we weren't happy. I kid you not, he strung bricks across the car park for about 100 yards, taped it and said that's within their tolerance. Complete joke, when industry standard is 6-8m then expansion joints, then the tolerance should be over 10m maximum. 100 yards, and we never knew what the tolerance was.
I thought these were F1, so can't even use them below the dpc to use up the duffers.
Maybe LBC will get in touch...?🤔
It's not just the building industry short changing the trade and consumers...☹
Not just bricks. Roof tiles are just as bad. Seems like nothing is made right these days but your still charged top dollar for shite quality
Stop saying “something should be done`” and do something instead. Every bricklayer must feel the same so get together and take action. Return your duds to the supplier and demand a refund. They will initially do everything they can to wriggle out of their responsibility but be persistent and take them to court for your money back, things will soon start to change. When you threaten legal action their own lawyers will tell them they don’t stand a chance. DO IT!! 🙂
He is doing something. The video will name and shame and rob them of sales.
Lbc would've gone bust if it wasn't for the fact that people only buy them to match in older properties and council houses because thats what everyone used back in the day. They've cornered the market so can charge what they want. They used to be cheap because they didn't use a lot of energy to fire them. Well, thats what i thought anyway.
Paul
You are right. LBC was bought out and the bricks are only made now for refurb, extensions etc. That deep frog was how they managed to fire them at low temperatures. They are also porous and prone to frost damage,
@@SkillBuilder I didn't realise that about the deep frog but makes perfect sense.
I used to work for Hanson Brick.
LBC bricks were the worse. As a business 10% wastage was in the guidelines, whereas all other brick types were 5%.
They are also only F1 rated. Not F2, so the faces blow in the frost and cold weather.
It’s money for old rope. They’ve kept the same manufacturing process at Whittlesey for years, and nothings changed. They don’t transport as well as other bricks either.
You can get a much better look alike. Which will be cheaper and F2 rated from Carlton brick.
Thank you for that information, it explains a lot and we will check out Carlton Brick
I had a discussion with a London Brick Co rep many moons ago about the bad state of their bricks, the reps response was alarming! Well he said we dont make a good face brick anymore they are all just commons with a different face ! What an attitude! The thing is their shoddy standards are passed down to the bricklayers when the clients say the work is rough! Well you can make a silk purse from a pigs ear , brick laying is an art its not alchemy ! The allowed plus / minus standards in size and colours in bricks are rubbish ,when i asked the rep about different size and colour of their squints to that of their ordinary his response was a dismissive, its a problem we have in manufacture! Well bricks have been made for thousands of years its time it was done properly!
According to the consumer rights act 2015, you can demand a refund on the poor quality bricks.
I bought 2400 cladding the other month, most of it was 2390mm which actually messed it up quite a bit, wickes offered me 10 percent of my money back, but to be honest i should have asked for a full refund i did not recieve what i paid for
Had same problem with lbc golden buffs very pore 20%of packs useless
Tell me one thing which isn't a rip off nowadays.
Put them back on the van and return them, once the suppliers start ending up with yards full of rejected bricks they'll put pressure on the manufacturers.
Poor quality control. Surely they can be returned as not fit for purpose.
They are the most expensive brick out and the worst, they fall apart in the frost, I’ve built garden walls that have fallen to bits in the frost. I’ll never touch them.
Having had family who worked at LBC for over 60years and i have worked at Travis Perkins for 10years the quality of the bricks have got worse year after year and there is less care in manufacturing and people who can't drive a counter balance truck without hitting something. That is why i left the construction industry all standards are dropping
I'm not a professional builder but I know to stay away from LBC. Buy the Carlton look-a-likes for half the price and double the quality. They are tough AF but cut nice with a ceramic angle grinder.
Marley Roofing Tiles are exactly the same I got 340+ nogo' out of 9 packs, cracks, firing issues, bending, warping & to top it off the whole load was shunted, so loads of face and end issues. The company was not interested, told me to speak to Marley. I am 1 person in probably 1,000's are they gonna listen, I do not think so. Trades need to get on to the companies, prices have hiked, quality has dropped. Not a good time to be in the trades. Do not get me started in the price of 115mm discs up from £5-6 to a whopping -£14.50-18.99 for the same blade. I have 3 Milwaukee tools that have died due to Redlink, another manufactures Multi tool died yesterday OTJ...£170 to replace that. Like I said not a good time
You are so right and I have a huge stack of dead Red Link batteries in my shed. One cost me £220 and lasted no time.
And what is wrong with them?
LBC never were any good! I'm about to do an extension I'll just change bricks completely extension will look better and be more durable!
Lbc heathers are equally dreadful had a garage rebuild in them and it looks awful. LBC didn’t want to know !
All bricks have tolerances in size, when the moulds are brand new they are deliberately made undersized because as they get used they get worn, they are not replaced until they are worn oversize. This occurs with ALL brick manufacturers, go and check with their reps and they will supply you with a set of the tolerance information. Like many of the older LBC brick types the Tudor brick type has long since fallen out of favour and are rarely used on modern housing sites, this means they are a low production item, being mainly produced for people like yourselves who are matching an extension to an existing building. Unfortunately because they are a low volume item the price goes up. The quality of LBC facing bricks has always been an issue, back in the early eighties when I was still a hod carrier they were atrocious then, it was decided in meetings between construction big wigs and LBC representatives that we were all being too fussy and we were told to use all but the worst of the bricks, literally unless the brick was broken in half use it or we will get someone else who will.
It's not just Tudors. All LBC bricks are chipped and crappy, Heathers, Dapple Lights, Cotswolds tend to be the worst out the lot.
LBC still pack their bricks by hand unlike other manufacturers. I've been told by a Forterra lorry driver that because they're still stacked and packaged by hand they're just thrown together and banded up. The lads working there don't care because as the saying goes once they're on, [the lorry] they're gone. It'll be even worse soon as brick manufacturers won't even be wrapping them in plastic to be more eco friendly, unless they've already stopped.
If you can find another alternative other manufacturers do their versions of London bricks. Carlton, for example, make a Brodsworth Mixture which is their version of an LBC Tudor. It's a better quality brick and cheaper, they just have holes rather than frogs in them. They're also a more consistent colour which is good in one respect but could be an issue if you need a few lighter colours. Still a better brick and damn close to a Tudor. Carlton make a few 'copies' of LBC bricks.