Searches for new heavy vector-like quarks are among the hot topics of the exotica groups at the LHC. Depending on their mixing patterns with the SM quarks, the new quarks can decay into different channels, so that different experimental strategies are adopted to optimize their detection. Regardless of their decay patterns, the assumptions usually made in experimental searches are that the width of these new states is narrow and that the contribution of interference effects with the SM background is small. I will explore the possibility that these assumptions are relaxed and discuss the relevance of large width effects and of interference with the SM background for processes of pair production of heavy vector-like quarks at the LHC. The results of this analysis will be implemented in XQCAT, a tool we have developed to recast of experimental data for the analysis of scenarios with multiple vector-like quarks with general mixing patterns with the SM.