Handmade vs. Machine-Pressed Brick

You've probably walked past hundreds of buildings without giving the brick a second thought. Unless you’re in masonry or construction, that’s normal. But if you’re building a house, making repairs, or just want to learn something new, read on.

TL;DR: Handmade brick walls often feature irregular sizes, varied colors, and a slightly rustic texture, giving each wall a bit more character. Modern machine-made bricks, by contrast, are far more uniform in size, shape, and color. Once you start looking out for it, you’ll notice the difference.

What's the Difference Between Handmade and Machine-Pressed Brick?

Handmade bricks are exactly what they sound like. Craftsmen (like the ones I trained alongside at Langs of London) would press soft clay into wooden molds by hand, turn it out, and fire it in a kiln. Each brick came out slightly different: colors, subtle warps, and texture. Those color variations often came from uneven firing in old kilns. While cooking, some bricks got hotter and turned darker or even developed a bit of natural glaze. It’s one reason handmade bricks are ideal for restoration projects where authenticity and a rustic appearance are desired.

Machine-pressed bricks are manufactured under tons of pressure in steel molds. Uniform size. Consistent color. Perfectly straight edges. This high-pressure process produces very dense, hard bricks with smooth faces. They started mass-producing these in the late 1800s, and it revolutionized construction. You could suddenly make bricks faster, cheaper, and often sturdier. In fact, once brickmaking machinery came on the scene (around 1885), production capacity exploded: handmade output was about 36,000 bricks per week, but by the 1920s a machine could turn out 12,000 bricks per day. As brick buildings could be erected much quicker and at lower cost, brick began to replace more expensive materials like stone for many structures. The result? During the 19th-century building boom, over 10 billion bricks were being produced annually, with cities like Boston and New York favoring locally made brick for new construction.

In summary, handmade bricks are an artisan product. They’re irregular and they each have their own character, whereas machine-made bricks are all about efficiency and consistency. One isn’t categorically “better” than the other; they simply have different strengths.

Why Does Type of Brick Matter for Your Boston Property?

If you own a historic building in Quincy, Dorchester, or anywhere around Boston, chances are good you’re looking at handmade brick from the 18th, 19th, or early 20th century. Local yards like the Bay State Brick Company in Medford were producing between 15 and 20 million bricks per year by the 1890s to feed the construction boom. That means many of our older commercial buildings, rowhouses, and brownstones were built with the locally made, hand-molded bricks of that era.

Slapping a modern machine-pressed brick into a 1920s façade and expecting it to blend in never looks right. The uniform color and precise edges of new bricks stick out like a sore thumb against the subtle variations of old brickwork. And it’s not just about looks, either: using the wrong type of brick can cause technical issues. Studies show that if a replacement brick has a very different porosity or density than the surrounding originals, it can upset the wall’s moisture balance – causing the new brick or the old ones around it to deteriorate faster.

How Can You Tell Which Type You Have?

Walk up close to your building. Really look at the bricks and feel them. Here are some hallmarks of each:

Handmade bricks usually show:

• Size variations

• Irregular edges or warped faces

• Color shifts from brick to brick

• A “frog” or imprint that’s hand-formed: A frog is the term for the indentation on one face of a brick (often where mortar goes). Handmade bricks may have a shallow, imperfect depression or none at all, whereas machine-made bricks often have a clean, uniform frog.

• Texture that feels more organic

Machine-pressed bricks typically have:

• Perfect uniformity in size

• Sharp, clean edges and flat faces

• Consistent color throughout

• Smooth or mechanically textured surfaces

• Precise frogs or holes

One trick: look at the wall from an angle on a sunny day. If the brick surfaces are a bit wavy and the edges aren’t in a laser-straight line, you might have an older handmade wall. If it looks like graph paper (perfect rows and columns) those bricks were likely made by machine.

Are Handmade Bricks More Expensive?

Yes, they usually cost significantly more than machine-made bricks. You’re paying for craftsmanship and relative rarity. Think about it: hand-making bricks is slow, labor-intensive, and nowadays a bit of a specialty craft. There are only a handful of companies in the U.S. that still produce true handmade clay bricks at scale. Because of that, the price per brick can be many times higher than a standard brick.

How much more? To put it in perspective, a typical mass-produced modern brick might cost on the order of $0.50 or less. But a single authentic handmade brick can cost a few dollars by itself. One supplier of reclaimed historic bricks in the U.S. is selling old handmade bricks for $4! High-end “antique” bricks or specially ordered artisanal bricks can run even more; in some cases up to $5–$10 each for rare colors or sizes, and extremely rare historical bricks have fetched $30 each in salvage markets. So yes, there’s a real premium for that old-world touch.

From a project standpoint, this cost difference adds up fast. Using bricks that are, say, $2 each vs. $0.50 each quadruples the material cost for the brick itself. If your wall needs 10,000 bricks, that’s the difference between paying $5,000 and $20,000 for just the bricks. Now, labor is also a big part of masonry cost, and that will be roughly the same whether the brick is cheap or pricey, but you can see why developers and owners only opt for handmade bricks when it truly matters for aesthetics or historical accuracy.

Here’s my take: if you’re restoring a beautiful historic property, cutting corners on materials is penny-wise and pound-foolish. (That’s a British saying I picked up from my father; it means being cheap in the wrong places.) Using a cheaper modern brick that doesn’t match can devalue the property and require redoing the work later. That said, a good masonry team will understand your budget and help you be smart. Sometimes we get creative, using a mix of new handmade and reclaimed bricks, or using cheaper machine-made bricks on hidden sides of a structure and saving the handmade ones for the front façade, to keep costs reasonable. The key is to be upfront about priorities: if exact match and authenticity are non-negotiable, be prepared to pay more for materials, and plan for it. If you need to control costs, we’ll work with you to find a close match that honors the spirit of the original without breaking the bank.

Does One Type of Brick Last Longer Than the Other?

In general, machine-pressed bricks are more durable on average (at least in terms of withstanding the elements). The high-pressure manufacturing process makes them denser and less porous. Lower absorption means better resistance to water damage and freeze-thaw cycles. In Boston’s climate, that’s critical. 

But here’s the interesting part: plenty of handmade brick buildings from the 1800s are still standing strong. When those bricks were made right and, importantly, maintained properly, they can last for centuries. 

I’ve been in the masonry business my whole life, and I still get excited when I see quality brickwork (whether it be handmade or machine-pressed). Each has its place. Understanding your brick type matters whether you’re planning restoration work, additions, or just trying to maintain your property’s value and appearance. Choose the right brick for the job, and it’ll reward you by looking good and holding up strong for generations.

If you’re dealing with brick issues on your commercial property or historic building in the Greater Boston area, contact JMS Masonry & Restoration. We’ll take a look, tell you exactly what you’re working with, and help you make the right decisions for your property.