Traditional Brick is a beautiful material for our built environment - it's very easy on the eye and it blends in with other natural colours and textures. Where there are problems with the built appearance of brickwork it's almost always caused by poor building techniques or bad site practice. Correct storage and building techniques will help avoid the vast majority of brickwork problems.

Dry Storage
Just as bricks in a foundation wall will absorb ground water (leading to rising damp if a DPC is not used) bricks in storage will pick up moisture from the surface they rest on. Good practice dictates that bricks are stored out of contact with any surface water either by raising them slightly on pallets or by ensuring that they rest on DPC material. Bricks stored close to muddy site roads will be subject to continual wetting by passing traffic - best to store them well back from access roads. Any packs that have the protective polythene broken should be covered so that rain cannot saturate them from the top.

Most problems with brickwork are cause by water when the bricks are soaked, either during construction or by poor storage. Good practice dictates that bricks are stored out of contact with any surface water.

Although Caradale Traditional Bricks are polythene wrapped it's good practice to cover the brick store with tarpaulin or another waterproof material. This is particularly important with broken packs. Brick packs should be stored on a level base, if not then the pack will twist and the bricks inside will be rubbing against each other causing chipping. Care should be taken when lifting packs
with fork lift trucks- "gently does it" prevents chipping and flaking.