From: "dlavoie" 
Newsgroups: misc.consumers.house
Subject: Matching new brick to old brick
Date: 31 May 2005 21:10:15 -0700
   posting-account=iFBhQwwAAABOVT4dy26oHZAIcIct0v8I

I have a challenge:

I have 4 brick steps, appear to be made from true clay brick.  I'm
adding 2 more steps to the bottom (lowered the walkway), and picked up
new red concrete bricks.  Real clay bricks are hard to get, the only
brickyards around here cater to large builders and charge almost $1
each for us peon consumers.  Anyway I'm pretty confident that the
concrete will be fine for me, but looking for suggestions on how to
darken/age them to match the existing bricks (close enough is fine with
me).  I wouldn't mind treating both old and new bricks, as I'll be
repointing the old bricks too so now is a good time to stain them if
necessary, just not sure what the best course of action would be to
minimize the difference....

Any thoughts much appreciated.  The concrete bricks are a tad shorter
than the real bricks (they aren't perfect 2:1 ratio) but I can make
that up with a bit extra mortar in the joints.

Thanks
-Dave