How can I tell (or estimate) the age of a brick?

Question

It sounds utterly stupid. BUT I went to this really old site from around the 1830's. I'm such a lover if history so I pcked up a piece of brick to take home. I want to know if my brick is actually 200 years old or if it might be a chunk that fell from a renovated section.
The brick has holes in it and it's three different Colors. It goes from orangeish to gray to a faded red.
I know how Dumb this question is, but I'm so excited about my little souvenir. If it isn't legit I'll br heart broken.

Answer 1

Dumb? That is a major question for archtectural historians and for craftsmen working on reconstructing old buildings.

Reclaiming and cleaning up old bricks for re-use on conservation and reconstruction projects is a million-pound business in UK alone. It's an important part of the building materials business.

Copying old bricks to make new ones like old ones were made is also big business and includes making modern copies of Roman bricks from two thousand years ago.

Be broken hearted not..look at buildings and compare your brick with other bricks.

Some bricks can be easily identified.

Only a few brickworks were in existence many years ago, close to the raw materials the bricks were made from, so identifying bricks isn't always very difficult because materials methods and designs were different in different brickyards.

The economics of scale meant that small brickyards couldn't compete with the big ones unless they were making unique styles of bricks or had a local transport or some other advantage.

Red or brown, grey or yellow bricks, bricks of specific sizes and with holes or depressions of a particular character can be traced to particular brickyards and dates.

Here's the good news...err, the bad news...no, the good news

10 100 000 sites. Shows how important it is.

Add UK to the search terms and you get 3.600 000 sites, including brick identification charts and descriptions.

Cut's it down a bit eh?

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=identifying+house+bricks+history

Have fun

Answer 2

If they are sheltered from water bricks can last for longer than 200 years, the 1830 house could have been built of salvaged bricks from an even older building. There is an office building here in Florida that is built from some old building in Chicago which is going to confuse someone in the future :). When you say holes are they 3 equally spaced in a row through the length of it? There are some suggestions at the link.

Answer 3

Search for the history of names of buildings and companies in that zone. Or better yet, type in "brickworks" or "brickmaking plants" for your state, province, or county.



Actually, you can probably find this information at your local library; that's the way we did it in "the old days". Or if you have any local historical societies, those might be good places to start.

Answer 4

I don't think that stucco will adhere to the painted brick either. If you used mesh/wire, it would have to be fastened to the masonry wall...I am skeptical about this as well. Call a stucco contractor and ask them. Good luck.

Answer 5

if it has a brand on it you could research that and find out how old it is. if the brick has holes in it the oldest it could be is the late 1930s

Answer 6

very confusing stuff. lookup from google or bing. this could actually help!