Building a new house and closing next week. Had the inspection walk yesterday. Pointed out to our builder that the bricks had what we thought was paint on them in several places.

Builder texts me to today that those spots are "baked" into the brick and there's nothing he can do. Did a little research and looks like its iron sulphide and that the bricks are not harmful but are "unsuitable for exposed masonry work".

The brick is Acme Silvercreek. https://brick.com/764228

There must be hundreds of bricks with the spots on them around the house. Is this normal?

Very normal. I used to work for Acme Brick.

Thanks for the response. Is this something I should let go or press on? None of the samples we were shown or pictures had these marks. I realize it happens, but should these bricks have been used?

Killin Me Smalls said:

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Roll with it. Brick will naturally have subtle character like this. It will probably look worse if you try to replace. They will not get a perfect match on the mortar, and it will be a PITA.

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I second this. They could have culled them during install but I wouldn't expect them to. I think it looks fine but it's your house not mine. I think if you accept that it's a natural result of the brick firing process that you'll come to appreciate that it adds character. I think your brick looks great!

Tell your builder to get ACME to get their salesman out to do an inspection. If you push hard enough you might be able to get ACME to send a tech out to touch up the brick color. They'll only do as much add you make them do.

Thanks for the offer. I actually did get in touch with our local salesperson. He went out to our house and others with the same brick and determined it was "normal".

This is the sample we were shown when we picked the brick.



I'm good with little specs of black. But there are so many places around the house where it looks like paint dropped on the brick in a nickel to quarter sized blob. It just looks sloppy in random places.

jg07 said:

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Thanks for the offer. I actually did get in touch with our local salesperson. He went out to our house and others with the same brick and determined it was "normal".

This is the sample we were shown when we picked the brick.



I'm good with little specs of black. But there are so many places around the house where it looks like paint dropped on the brick in a nickel to quarter sized blob. It just looks sloppy in random places.

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ACME has techs that go out to job sites and touch up bad brick runs. If there are not that many bricks, I'm sure your builder had enough pull with ACME to get them to send out a tech.

We chose the exact same brick

Is this a buff mortar or white?

They call it a white mortar.