Key Criteria for Selecting a Brick Supplier: What to Pay Attention to Before Purchasing
Before proceeding to the list of specific companies, you need to arm yourself with knowledge. Understanding the basic criteria for evaluating a supplier will transform you from a simple buyer into an informed customer, capable of asking the right questions and avoiding common mistakes. This section is your foundation for making the right decision.
Quality and Certification: The Foundation of Your Home
The most important aspect of any building material is its compliance with quality standards. In the case of ceramic bricks, the main document regulating its properties in Ukraine is DSTU B V.2.7-61:2008 “Common and Facing Ceramic Bricks and Stones”. A reliable supplier is always ready to provide a certificate of conformity for their products, which confirms that the material has undergone laboratory testing and meets the stated specifications.
Two key parameters to pay attention to in the certificate and technical documentation are compressive strength grade and frost resistance.
- Compressive Strength Grade: This indicator is marked with the letter “M” and a number indicating the load in kilograms per square centimeter that the brick can withstand. For private construction, the following are most commonly used:
- The most common option for erecting load-bearing walls in houses up to 3 floors, interior partitions, garages, and utility structures.
- Used for constructing multi-story buildings, basement floors, and elements bearing increased loads.
- And higher: High-strength bricks used in high-rise construction and for special structures.
- Frost Resistance: This parameter is marked with the letter “F” and a number indicating the number of freeze-thaw cycles in a water-saturated state that the brick can withstand without visible signs of destruction. For the climate of Kyiv Region, the following indicators are recommended:
- The minimum acceptable indicator for facing bricks that will be in contact with the external environment.
- The optimal choice for facades, guaranteeing durability and preservation of appearance for decades.
The presence of a certificate is not just a formality. It’s your main insurance against poor-quality goods that can lead to cracks in walls, efflorescence (white salt stains on the facade), or even threaten the structural integrity of the building. The company’s attitude toward certification is a powerful indicator of its reliability. If certificates are openly published on the website or provided upon first request – this is a sign of transparency and confidence in their product. If the manager evades answering, promises to “send later,” or provides expired documents, this is a serious cause for concern. This may indicate that the supplier purchases bricks from unverified manufacturers to increase their own margin, transferring all risks to the end consumer. Thus, the ease of obtaining and verifying certificates transforms from a technical detail into a key tool for assessing supplier reliability.
Assortment and Specialization: Not All Bricks Are Equally Useful
The market offers a wide selection of bricks, and each type has its purpose. Understanding the supplier’s assortment will help determine whether they meet your project’s needs. The main types of bricks that companies in Kyiv offer:
- Common (Building) Bricks: This is the “workhorse” of construction. It’s used for erecting load-bearing walls and interior partitions that will later be insulated and finished. The main requirements are strength and correct geometry. The most popular grades are M100 and M125 solid.
- Facing (Cladding) Bricks: Its main task is creating an aesthetic and durable facade. It has perfect geometry, uniform color, and can have various surface textures. It’s more expensive than common brick and requires more qualified masonry work.
- Clinker Bricks: This is the premium segment of cladding materials. Made from special clay grades at ultra-high temperatures, which gives it exceptional strength, ultra-low water absorption (less than 6%), and frost resistance. Clinker facades are virtually eternal and require no maintenance.
- Silicate and Hyper-pressed Bricks: These are alternative types manufactured not by firing clay but by other technologies. Silicate (white) brick has high strength but is afraid of moisture and high temperatures. Hyper-pressed brick has a decorative “rough stone” appearance, but its durability strongly depends on manufacturing quality.
The supplier’s assortment directly indicates their specialization and target audience. A large building hypermarket may offer a little of everything, but its main goal is mass sales of standard items. In contrast, a company that specializes exclusively in clinker and facing bricks from leading European and Ukrainian brands (for example, Kerameya, Roben, SBK) is oriented toward customers with high aesthetic requirements.
This leads to an important conclusion: the company’s specialization determines the expertise level of its consultants. A manager at a large store most likely has only basic product information. But a consultant at a specialized firm can provide in-depth technical consultation: help select a brick color that perfectly matches your roof, advise on the correct type of mortar for laying clinker to avoid efflorescence, and help calculate the need for expansion joints in a long wall. Therefore, the choice of supplier should be coordinated with the complexity of your project. For building a simple garage, any reliable supplier of common bricks will do. For creating a complex architectural facade, turning to a narrow-profile specialist is mandatory to avoid expensive mistakes.
Pricing and Hidden Costs: How Not to Overpay for Nothing
Price is one of the decisive factors in selection. However, when comparing offers from different companies, it’s easy to fall into a trap by focusing only on the cost of one brick. The advertised “per piece” price is just the tip of the iceberg. To adequately assess the budget, you need to calculate the full order cost with delivery and unloading at the site.
What to pay attention to:
- Price per Piece vs. Price per Pallet: Always clarify how many bricks are in a pallet and recalculate the cost per piece for correct comparison.
- Cost of Pallets: Many companies include the cost of wooden pallets in the invoice. Some offer a pallet return service at residual value, which can save some money. Others sell them irreversibly.
- Packaging: Quality packaging in heat-shrink film protects bricks from moisture and damage but may add to the cost.
- Delivery Cost: It can be calculated by mileage, be fixed by zones (for example, Kyiv, up to 30 km from Kyiv, over 30 km), or be included in the cost when ordering large volumes.
- Unloading Cost: The most important hidden charge. If delivery is carried out by a truck with a crane-manipulator, the cost of its operation (usually hourly) is added to the invoice. The alternative is manual unloading by your crew, which is labor-intensive and increases the risk of brick breakage.
The pricing structure can tell you a lot about the supplier’s business model. Companies that offer a single, clear “turnkey” price with delivery are often oriented toward private developers who value simplicity and budget predictability. This is a service-oriented approach. On the other hand, suppliers who detail each cost component (brick, pallet, delivery per km, manipulator per hour) usually work with large contractors. Such clients may have their own logistics and need only part of the services, for example, picking up goods themselves. Understanding these models allows you to choose a supplier whose approach best matches your capabilities and needs, avoiding misunderstandings and unexpected expenses.
Logistics and Delivery: The Last But Most Important Mile
Timely and quality brick delivery is a critically important element of the construction process. A truck delay of one day can lead to the idle time of an entire crew of masons, and the financial losses from this significantly exceed any savings on the cost of the bricks themselves.
Key aspects of logistics:
- Own Fleet vs. Hired Transport: A company having its own fleet of trucks, especially equipped with crane-manipulators, is a very positive signal. This indicates business scale, financial stability, and a serious attitude toward customer service. Own transport gives the company full control over delivery schedules, driver professionalism, and the ability to quickly resolve problems. A supplier that relies exclusively on third-party carriers depends on their reliability and has fewer levers of influence on the process.
- Availability of Manipulator: For unloading heavy pallets of bricks (the weight of one pallet can reach 1.5 tons), a crane-manipulator is not a luxury but a necessity. It allows accurate and quick placement of pallets directly at the construction site, minimizing manual labor and the risk of material damage.
- Self-Pickup: The ability to independently pick up bricks from the warehouse is an excellent option for saving if you have appropriate transport. Large warehouses are usually located in industrial zones around Kyiv, such as Vyshneve, Brovary, or along the Ring Road.
It’s worth considering that having your own fleet is not just customer convenience. It’s a significant capital investment for the company. Maintenance, servicing, and depreciation of specialized trucks require serious financial investments. A company that goes to such expenses demonstrates long-term market intentions and a high volume of operations that allows these investments to pay off. Thus, by choosing a supplier with its own branded transport, you indirectly choose a more stable and reliable partner who controls one of the most important stages of the transaction – the transfer of goods into your hands.
Reputation and Reviews: Reading Between the Lines
In the digital age, a company’s reputation is an open book for anyone who knows how to search for information. Analysis of reviews on various platforms can provide invaluable insight into the real experience of working with a supplier.
Sources for analysis:
- Google Maps: Reviews on maps are often left by real customers. Pay attention not only to the rating but also to the content of comments and the company’s responses to negativity.
- Specialized Forums: Resources like forum.stroimdom.com.ua are a treasure trove of real experience. Here builders share both positive stories and warnings.
- Social Networks (Facebook, Instagram): Comments under company posts can tell a lot about customer satisfaction levels and response speed to inquiries.
When analyzing reviews, it’s important to look not for individual emotional statements but for systemic patterns. One negative review may be an accident or the result of a personal conflict. But if several different people complain about the same problem – for example, constant delivery delays, discrepancies between ordered and actually delivered goods, or rudeness of managers – this indicates the presence of a systemic problem in the company’s work.
Particularly revealing is the content of positive reviews. A generic phrase “everything is good, 5 stars” doesn’t carry much information. Much more valuable is a detailed review that describes a specific situation: “Consultant Valeriy at the showroom spent an hour with us, showed 10 different brick options, helped select the perfect shade to match the roof color, and made an accurate calculation.” Such a review provides specific, verifiable evidence of high-quality service. It tells a story that allows understanding what exactly the company does well. Similarly, a detailed negative review that describes the problem and how the company resolved it (or didn’t resolve it) is much more useful than a simple “bad company.” Thus, your task is to look for reviews that reveal the specifics of interaction with the client, as they give the most accurate idea of the future cooperation experience.