Most homeowners have never heard of brick tinting until they need it. A builder finishes an extension and the new bricks are three shades too bright. A doorway gets bricked up and leaves a patch that everyone notices. A crack gets repaired and the replacement bricks stand out like a plaster on a wall. Or the house has simply looked tired and orange for decades and you’re fed up with it.

Brick tinting fixes all of these without knocking anything down. This guide covers what it is, how it works, where it makes sense, what it costs, how long it lasts and how to pick someone to do it. If you’re weighing it up for your own home, you should have everything you need by the end.

What Is Brick Tinting?

Brick tinting is a way of permanently changing the colour of bricks and mortar without replacing them. A specialist mixes a tint to match the colour you want, then applies it brick by brick so it soaks into the surface of the brick.

The important word there is into. Brick tint isn’t paint. Paint forms a film on top of the brick, and that film eventually cracks, peels and traps moisture. A good tint is absorbed into the pores of the brick and bonds with it, so the brick keeps its texture, its natural variation and its ability to breathe.

Done properly, you shouldn’t be able to tell a tinted brick has been touched. It should look as though it came out of the kiln that colour.

How Brick Tinting Works

The tints used by professionals are generally made from three things:

• Water, which carries the colour into the brick
• Mineral pigments, usually iron oxides, which give the colour and hold up well to sunlight
• A fixing agent, which binds the pigment into the brick so it doesn’t wash out

At Brick Makeover we use custom-mixed, breathable, mineral-based tints. Every job is mixed to suit the bricks in front of us, because no two walls are the same. Even bricks from the same batch vary in tone, and a wall that has faced south for forty years will be a different colour from one that has faced north.

A good tinter will usually test the colour first using a sample mixed without the fixing agent. That sample can be washed off if it isn’t right. Once you’re happy with the match, the fixing agent goes in and the real work starts.

The tint is applied with brushes, often a single brick at a time, so the natural variation across the wall is kept. That’s the difference between brickwork that looks real and brickwork that looks like it’s been sprayed one flat colour.

Brick Tinting vs Painting, Staining and Replacing

Homeowners usually compare tinting with a handful of other options. Here’s how they stack up.

Option	What it does	Main drawbacks
Brick tinting	Changes colour by soaking into the brick	Needs skill to get the match right; weather-dependent
Masonry paint	Covers brick with a coloured film	Hides texture, can trap moisture, needs repainting every few years
DIY brick stain kits	Adds colour from a pot	Hard to match, often patchy, may not be breathable
Rendering	Covers brickwork entirely	Loses the brick look, higher cost, can crack
Replacing bricks	Swaps bricks for a closer match	Expensive, disruptive, and finding an exact match is rare

Tinting sits in a useful spot. It keeps everything people like about brick, costs far less than rebuilding and lasts far longer than paint.

When Do Homeowners Use Brick Tinting?

Most of the jobs we see fall into a few groups.

Extensions that don’t match

This is the big one. Builders order the closest brick they can find, but “closest” can still be miles off. New bricks are also cleaner and brighter than bricks that have weathered for decades. Tinting blends the extension into the main house so it looks like it was always there.

Repairs and patches

Crack stitching, lintel replacements, new window openings, removed chimney breasts and underpinning all leave patches of new brickwork. Tinting blends those patches so the repair disappears.

Bricked-up doors and windows

A blocked-up opening almost always leaves a visible “ghost” of where it used to be. Tinting is one of the most effective ways to make it vanish.

Patchy or faded brickwork

Brick weathers unevenly. One wall gets the sun, another gets the rain, and the result can look blotchy. Tinting can even the colour out across the house.

Changing the colour of the whole house

Plenty of homeowners just don’t like their brick. A bright orange 1970s house can be softened to a warmer red or a more muted tone. It’s one of the quickest ways to change how a house looks from the street without rendering it.

New builds and developments

Developers use tinting to deal with mismatched batches, snagging complaints and repairs before handover.

Mortar that stands out

Sometimes the bricks are fine and it’s the mortar that looks wrong, usually too bright or too grey after repointing. That’s a job for mortar tinting, which works on the same principle.

Can Every Brick Be Tinted?

Most bricks can, but a few need more thought.

• Standard clay facing bricks take tint well. This covers the majority of UK houses.
• Dense engineering bricks are less porous, so the tint has less to soak into. They can often still be tinted, but the product and method need adjusting.
• Glazed bricks don’t absorb tint and aren’t usually suitable.
• Painted bricks need the paint removing first. Tint can’t soak through a layer of paint.
• Heritage and handmade bricks can be tinted, but it needs care, the right breathable products and sometimes permission. See our heritage restoration page for more on this.

Colour direction matters too. Making a brick darker or warmer is usually straightforward. Making a dark brick dramatically lighter is much harder and isn’t always possible without the result looking unnatural. A good tinter will tell you honestly what’s achievable before you commit.

What Brick Tinting Can’t Fix

It’s worth being clear about the limits. Tinting changes colour. It doesn’t repair damage.

If bricks are crumbling, spalling (where the face flakes away) or badly cracked, they need repairing or replacing first. If a wall is damp because of a leaking gutter or failed pointing, that problem needs sorting before any tint goes on, or the damp will keep pushing salts to the surface. Tinting over a problem only hides it for a while. A good specialist will point these issues out at the quote stage rather than tinting over them.

The Brick Tinting Process, Step by Step

Every job is slightly different, but a professional tinting job generally follows this pattern.

1. Photos and initial assessment

At Brick Makeover, the first step is simple. You send us several clear photos of the area, ideally a mix of close-ups and wider shots in daylight. From those we can usually tell you whether tinting is the right fix.

2. A plan and a quote

We’ll put together a plan for how we’d tackle it and give you a transparent quote with no hidden extras. Larger or more complex jobs may need a site visit.

3. Cleaning and preparation

Tint needs to go onto clean brick. Dirt, algae, efflorescence (the white salty bloom you sometimes see on brickwork) and old residue all affect how the tint takes. Where needed, we’ll clean the brickwork or treat efflorescence first.

4. Colour matching and samples

The tint is mixed on site and tested on a small area. Because brick looks different wet and dry, the sample needs to dry before it’s judged. This is where experience counts.

5. Application

Once the colour is agreed, the tint is applied by hand. Bricks are often tinted in several slightly different shades so the finished wall has the natural variation real brickwork has.

6. Final check

The work is checked from close up and from a distance, because a match that looks right at arm’s length can look different from across the road.

When Can Brick Tinting Be Done?

Brick tinting is weather-dependent. The tint needs to soak in and fix, so heavy rain soon after application or very cold conditions can affect the result. Most specialists avoid tinting below around 4–5°C and in driving rain.

In practice, spring to autumn is the busiest time, but plenty of work happens in winter on dry, mild days. If your job is booked for the colder months, expect a little flexibility on dates.

How Long Does Brick Tinting Last?

A professional mineral-based tint should last for decades. Because the pigment sits inside the brick rather than on top, there’s no film to peel or flake. The tinted brick then weathers along with the rest of the wall.

How long yours lasts depends on the product, the preparation, the type of brick and how exposed the wall is. We cover this in much more detail in How Long Does Brick Tinting Last?.

How Much Does Brick Tinting Cost?

Costs vary a lot with the size of the job, access and how complex the colour match is. As a rough guide, typical professional jobs range from around £300 for small patches to £1,500 or more for larger areas. Whole-house colour changes cost more, particularly if scaffolding is needed.

The best way to get an accurate figure is to send photos for a quote. We’ll be covering prices in much more detail in our upcoming cost guide.

Do You Need Planning Permission?

For most houses, tinting brickwork to match existing brick doesn’t need planning permission, as it’s treated as a repair or maintenance job. There are exceptions worth checking:

• Listed buildings: Changing the appearance of a listed building usually needs listed building consent, and carrying out work without it can be a criminal offence.
• Conservation areas: Some conservation areas have extra controls (called Article 4 directions) that restrict changes to the outside of a house.
• Planning conditions: If your extension was approved on the condition that the bricks match, tinting can actually help you meet that condition.

If you’re unsure, a quick call to your local council’s planning department will settle it. We’re happy to help with heritage projects where conservation officers are involved.

Can You Do Brick Tinting Yourself?

DIY tint kits exist and cost around £30–£60. For a small garden wall that nobody looks at closely, they can be worth a try.

For anything on the front of a house, we’d urge caution. The hard part of brick tinting isn’t putting colour on a brick. It’s getting the colour exactly right across hundreds of bricks, each slightly different, and knowing how it will look once it dries. Most DIY attempts end up too uniform, too dark or patchy, and correcting a bad tint is harder than tinting from scratch. Our post on brick tinting myths goes into more of this.

How to Choose a Brick Tinting Company

Brick tinting is a specialist job, and quality varies a lot. Before you book anyone, it’s worth checking:

• Experience: How long have they been tinting? Can they show you finished jobs similar to yours?
• Products: Are their tints breathable and mineral-based?
• Samples: Will they test the colour before starting the full job?
• Guarantee: What does it cover, and for how long? Our guide to brick tinting guarantees explains what to look for.
• The quote: Is it itemised, and does it include cleaning, access and mortar work if needed?

We’ve also written about the questions to ask before paying a deposit and why the cheapest quote can cost more.

Looking After Tinted Brickwork

Tinted brick needs very little looking after. Keep gutters and downpipes clear so water doesn’t pour down the wall. Avoid harsh chemicals and high-pressure jet washing close to the surface. Deal with any leaks or damp problems quickly. For the full picture, see our aftercare guide for tinted brickwork.

If your walls take a battering from the weather, a breathable weather protection treatment can help, but it isn’t always needed. We explain when it’s worth it in Do Tinted Bricks Need Sealing?.

Brick Tinting FAQs

Is brick tinting permanent?

Professional brick tint is designed to be permanent. Once the fixing agent has bonded the pigment into the brick, it won’t wash out in the rain.

Will tinted bricks look painted?

Not if the job is done well. Because the tint soaks in rather than sitting on top, the brick keeps its texture and character. Bricks looking flat or painted is usually a sign of the wrong product or a rushed job.

Does brick tinting damage bricks?

No. A breathable mineral tint lets moisture escape from the brick as normal. This is one of the main reasons tinting is preferred over paint for brickwork.

How long does a brick tinting job take?

Small patches can be done in a few hours. Matching an extension usually takes one to three days. A whole-house colour change may take a week or more, depending on size and weather.

Can brick tinting be removed?

It’s designed not to come off. That’s why the sample stage matters so much. Make sure you’re happy with the colour before the full job starts.

Can you tint mortar as well as bricks?

Yes. Mortar can be tinted separately to darken, lighten or warm up joints that stand out. See our mortar tinting page.

Do you cover my area?

We work across the UK. You can check the areas we cover or just get in touch.

Get a Free Brick Tinting Quote

If your brickwork doesn’t look the way it should, we can usually tell you within a day whether tinting will fix it. With over 20 years’ experience in brick tinting and restoration, we’ve matched everything from brand new extensions to Victorian heritage brick.

Send us a few clear photos of the area, and we’ll come back with a plan and a transparent quote. Call 0808 3040260, email info@brickmakeover.co.uk or contact us online for a free, same-day quote.