How To Make Your Own Thin Brick Tiles
Save thousands of dollars on brick flooring or brick backsplash by learning how to make your own thin brick tiles out of reclaimed brick.
Do you dream of installing brick tile backsplash or brick flooring but cringe at the price tag? Come sit by me. I have good news for you. It involves gorgeous, custom, farmhouse-style charm for a fraction of the price.
You are going to learn how to cut your own thin brick tile out of reclaimed bricks and potentially save THOUSANDS of dollars while making your dreams come true.
Castle Gate Thin Brick Singles
You can buy these pre-cut thin brick tiles for $78/box of 50 from Home Depot. That comes down to $1.56/brick tile.
I found 2 skids (approx 550 brick tiles per skid) for $200 each. I paid around $0.36 per BRICK. We cut 2 thin brick tiles off of each brick.
This means we paid approximately $0.18 per thin brick tile.
The average kitchen backsplash is 30 sqft.
Brick backsplash kitchen with pre-cut thin brick tiles – $546
Brick backsplash kitchen with DIY thin brick tiles – $63
Cha-Ching.
For more brick inspiration be sure to read the post below on how to design a mortar washed brick floor.
For more brick inspiration be sure to check out:
Let’s get started.
How To Make Thin Brick Tiles
1. Find reclaimed bricks.
The first step to making your own tiles is finding leftover bricks. Maybe you have some lying around. Otherwise, you can take a page out of my book and start with Facebook marketplace. Type “bricks” in the search tab and see what is near you.
We got ours from a local greenhouse. They dropped them off by dumping them into the yard.
Sweat equity at its finest here and we have barely even begun.
2 skids. Almost 1,100 bricks for only $400.
As I am sitting here typing I just searched locally on FB marketplace, and I found 1,500 antique bricks for only $500. Oh my word they are gorgeous. <sigh> Be patient, Ahna.
(For those of you new around here, we are currently renting a house, after renovating and reselling 3 fixer-upper houses, until we find our forever property where we will either build or renovate the house of our dreams.)
The reclaimed bricks are out there. If you want to save some $$ and get long-lasting value and durability, then DIYing your own thin brick is the way to go.
How To Make Thin Brick Tiles
2. Rent a large wet saw to cut the brick into tiles.
You can rent a wet saw at Home Depot or most local hardware stores. To cut bricks en masse you will want to invest in a large wet saw. I don’t recommend buying one of these (they cost around $500) as you will spend significantly more than is worth it.
Ask the service counter at the hardware store for a quick tutorial.
That being said, we did buy this portable wet saw to cut tiles. A small tile cutter like this one is great for cutting angles or trimming the brick tiles for the brick backsplash or brick flooring after they have been cut off of the brick.
You can cut two thin brick tiles off of the two long ends on each brick. The thin bricks that are cut off should be about 1/2″ thick.
This will leave you with a remaining brick that can be used for all sorts of delightful farmhouse-style accents around your house (keep reading).
How To Make Thin Brick Tiles
3. Carefully stack the thin brick in layers until ready to use.
This sounds silly but you want to treat these as you would any thin tile. With care. They are only 1/2″ thick, so you want to ensure they will not get dropped or rather, be dropped on, and crack.
See the full before and after kitchen renovation.
We used ours for the kitchen backsplash and this amazing accent wall as well as the antique fireplace surround below. Stay tuned for a DIY tutorial on how to install a thin brick backsplash.
See the before and after renovation of our antique fireplace.
Take a Christmas tour of the French Country Cottage.
How To Make Thin Brick Tiles
4. Repurpose the leftover small brick.
There are many ways to re-purpose that leftover brick. Here are a couple of ideas.
Use the reclaimed brick to edge your landscaping.
Build planters with reclaimed brick.
Build raised garden beds with reclaimed brick.
Cut the leftover reclaimed brick down the center and use the pieces to design a mortar-washed brick floor.
DIY a backyard fire pit.
The possibilities are endless and the potential savings are enormous.
For more DIY inspiration be sure to check out:
Now be sure to read How To Design A Mortar Washed Brick Floor with your “new” thin brick. Custom farmhouse-style charm on a budget. You can do it!
Pin any of the images below for later!
I never understood why the shows that show you that they rebuild, would get rid of bricks. I always scream at the TV that I wanted them. They would tear them down and get rid of them.
Yes!! It is so painful to see. Ha. I will take that brick!
What a great idea to cut bricks! I have just reused them outside, but THIS has my imagination hopping. Thank you.
Yay I’m so glad!
So, if they are being used for the wall, you cut them to 1/2″ but if using for the floor, just cut the brick in half long ways? Did I read that right?
Hi Karen! The thin brick can be used on the floor as well. We used the thin brick in our foyer and then we chose to repurpose the remaining brick for the office floor (the brick remaining AFTER we cut off the 1/2 inch thin brick tiles) because it was recessed lower than the house. Typically, the thin brick tiles would get used for the floor so as not to elevate it too much. I hope that helps.
Hi there how did the brick on the floor hold up? Is it harder to clean? I really like the look but I am skeptical of the porous nature of brick.
The brick held up beautifully. They are not hard to clean. You can hand scrub or use an electronic scrub brush that looks like a mop.
Can’t wait to work on my project. I am doing my kitchen floors. Do you also have to seal these, if using as a floor?
Yes, I would. I believe we used a satin/semi-gloss gloss finish on ours. Makes them much easier to clean too.
With a wet saw how long does it take to make 2 slices?
maybe a couple minutes. once the wet saw is set up you can rock and roll. it’s just really messy!
I know you were doing several projects that required different depth of the brick and why you ended up using the 2 faces of brick for wall and then the center (cut down in half for the floors). My questions to clarify are, if there was a reason only used only the faces of bricks for wall and not the internal layers that you ended up using for floors? And secondly, and maybe most improtant to me, if you were just doing a typical depth floor would you be able to get more veneers out of one brick, at a 1/2 inch cut than just 2? Any recs? I’ve been wanting forever to do my family room floor with brick, preferably reclaimed since I love the look. But buying veneers is so expensive to mimic the look and am used to reclaiming and using vintage, so really want to use FB marketplace and do it myself like you did. Plus really can’t afford the at least $6k price tag of new.
We are renovating an old 100+ year farmhouse. We hade to tear down our non functioning chimney. I’ve been wanting to repurpose the bricks. I’m so excited to try this. Here is my question . I’m wondering if cutting the brick horizontally, (so smaller brick slices)would work the same. Wondering if you have tried this.
The freshly cut sides are really sharp and do not give the same aesthetic. The worn sides of the brick are smoother and give a more authentic reclaimed brick look. Does that make sense? I hope that helps! Your project sounds amazing!