Bricks:

If choosing bricks for your external cladding, go the extra mile and choose a quality brick that the manufacturer can guarantee will look the same in twenty years’ time. A high quality brick with a well manufactured face will look good in the future. A cheaper brick may well ‘shed’ its exterior sand colour, and end up unattractive. You will need more extruded bricks per square metre of wall area than ‘solids’ as they tend to damage more in transport. Cutting extruded bricks is also more difficult and often requires a brick saw. Unfortunately, solids are dearer and cost analysis is necessary.