“How much will it cost?” is the first question almost everyone asks us, and it’s a fair one. The trouble is that the honest answer is “it depends”. A brick tinting job can be anything from a few bricks around a new window to every elevation of a detached house, and the price reflects that.
So rather than give you a single number that won’t apply to your home, this guide explains how brick tinting is priced, gives you realistic ranges for common jobs and shows you what pushes the cost up or down. By the end, you should be able to look at your own brickwork and have a good idea of where it sits.
Brick Tinting Costs at a Glance
As a rough guide, most professional brick tinting jobs fall somewhere between £300 and £1,500, with larger whole-house projects costing more. Here’s how that breaks down by job type.
| Type of job | Typical scale | Rough guide price |
|---|---|---|
| Small patch repair | A few bricks to a square metre or two | From around £300 |
| Bricked-up door or window | One opening | Around £300–£800 |
| Extension blend | One or two elevations of an extension | Around £800–£2,000+ |
| Single elevation colour change | Front of a typical semi or terrace | Around £1,000–£2,500+ |
| Whole-house colour change | All elevations | Several thousand pounds, plus any access costs |
| Mortar tinting | Varies by area | Often priced alongside brick tinting |
These figures are a guide, not a quote. Access, colour complexity, the condition of the brick and where you are in the country can all move the price, which is why we always quote from photos of the actual job.
How Brick Tinting Is Priced
Brick tinting companies tend to price in one of three ways.
By the day
Tinting is skilled, hands-on work, so many specialists charge a day rate. Industry guides such as Homebuilding & Renovating put typical day rates at around £450–£550 plus VAT. The total then depends on how many days the job takes, which depends on the area and the complexity.
By the square metre
Some tradespeople quote per square metre. Online price guides often show figures in the region of £14–£20 per m². Be careful with these. They usually reflect labour on straightforward jobs and often leave out cleaning, colour matching, mortar work and access. A low per-metre rate can look attractive on paper and end up costing more once everything is added.
By the job
Many specialists, including us, quote a fixed price for the whole job. This is usually the clearest option for homeowners, because you know exactly what you’re paying before work starts. A good fixed quote should list what’s included.
What Affects the Cost of Brick Tinting?
Size of the area
The more brickwork there is, the longer the job takes. But it isn’t strictly linear. Small jobs carry a minimum charge because of travel and set-up, so a handful of bricks won’t cost a tiny fraction of a full wall.
How big the colour change is
Darkening a slightly bright extension by a shade is relatively quick. Making a dramatic change, or matching weathered brickwork with lots of natural variation, takes more skill and more time. Some walls need several different tint mixes to recreate the variation in the original brick.
The number of colours involved
Many UK houses are built in “multi” bricks with several tones mixed together. Matching those means mixing several tints and applying them brick by brick in the right pattern. A single-tone brick is quicker.
Type and condition of the brick
Porous clay bricks take tint well. Dense engineering bricks can need a different approach. Bricks that are dirty, stained or covered in algae need cleaning first, which adds time.
Cleaning and preparation
Tint has to go onto clean brick to bond properly. If the wall needs external cleaning, efflorescence removal or graffiti, algae or carbon removal, that will be part of the quote. Skipping it is one of the main reasons cheap tinting fails.
Mortar work
If the mortar joints stand out, they may need tinting too. Mortar tinting adds time but often makes the biggest difference to the finished look. If the mortar is crumbling, repointing may be needed first, which is a separate cost.
Access
Ground-floor work from the ground or a ladder is the cheapest scenario. Upper floors, gable ends and chimneys may need a mobile tower, a cherry picker or scaffolding. Access can sometimes be a significant part of the total, especially on larger houses or awkward sites.
Location
Prices vary across the UK, as they do for most trades. Travel distance can also affect smaller jobs.
Heritage and listed properties
Older and listed buildings need extra care, breathable products and sometimes liaison with conservation officers. This can add time. See our heritage restoration service for more on this kind of work.
Brick Tinting Costs by Job Type
Small patch repairs
Patches left by crack repairs, new air bricks, replaced lintels or removed pipes are some of the most common jobs we do. They’re usually quick, but there’s a minimum charge because the set-up and colour matching take the same care whether it’s ten bricks or a hundred. Expect prices to start from around £300.
Bricked-up doors and windows
Bricking up an opening almost always leaves a visible outline. Tinting the infill to match is usually a half-day to full-day job depending on size and how tricky the match is. Some of these also need the mortar tinting to finish the illusion.
Matching an extension
This is the classic tinting job. The price depends on how many elevations are visible, how far off the colour is and whether the original brick has a lot of variation. A small single-storey rear extension is at the lower end; a two-storey side extension on the front of the house is at the higher end, particularly if access is needed for the upper part.
Changing the colour of a whole elevation
Changing the front of a typical semi-detached or terraced house is a bigger job, usually measured in days. If the front elevation is two storeys, access will be a factor.
Tinting a whole house
A whole-house colour change is the largest type of job. Because it involves every elevation, it’s usually priced individually after a proper look at the property. Many homeowners compare this with the cost of rendering or rebuilding, and tinting tends to compare very well (more on that below).
Garden walls and boundary walls
Garden walls are usually easy to access, so they can be good value per metre. They’re also a popular job when a wall has been rebuilt or extended with bricks that don’t match.
How Long Does a Brick Tinting Job Take?
Time is the biggest driver of cost, so it helps to know roughly how long each type of job takes:
- Small patches: often a few hours
- A bricked-up opening: usually half a day to a day
- Matching an extension: typically one to three days
- A full elevation: two to four days, depending on size and detail
- A whole house: a week or more
Weather can stretch these timings. Tint shouldn’t go on in heavy rain or near-freezing conditions, so a job booked for winter may be spread over more calendar days than working days. That doesn’t usually change the price on a fixed quote, but it’s worth knowing so you can plan around it.
Are There Any Ongoing Costs?
Very few. Unlike paint, tint doesn’t need redoing every few years. Most homeowners simply keep gutters clear and give the walls an occasional gentle clean. Some very exposed walls benefit from a breathable weather protection treatment, but it isn’t needed on every job. We explain when it’s worth paying for in Do Tinted Bricks Need Sealing?.
What About Scaffolding?
Scaffolding is the cost that catches people out most. If your job involves upper floors and can’t be reached safely another way, scaffolding may be needed, and it’s usually charged by the scaffolding firm rather than the tinter.
Ask early whether access equipment is needed and whether it’s in the quote. Sometimes a tower or cherry picker is cheaper and quicker for short jobs. If you’re already having scaffolding put up for roofing, windows or repointing, it’s well worth timing the tinting to share it.
Is VAT Included?
Always check. Some companies quote with VAT included and some without, and on a larger job that can make a meaningful difference. A clear quote will say either way.
What Should a Brick Tinting Quote Include?
A good quote should make it easy to see what you’re getting. Look for:
- The areas being tinted, ideally marked on a photo
- Whether cleaning or preparation is included
- Whether mortar tinting is included
- Access arrangements and who’s paying for them
- Whether a colour sample is part of the process
- What the guarantee covers
- Whether VAT is included
- Payment terms and any deposit
If anything is vague, ask before you agree. Our post on 10 questions to ask before paying a brick tinting deposit gives you a ready-made checklist, and our guide to brick tinting guarantees explains what proper cover looks like.
Brick Tinting vs the Alternatives: How the Costs Compare
To judge whether tinting is good value, it helps to compare it with what you’d otherwise do.
Replacing the bricks
Taking out mismatched brickwork and rebuilding it costs far more than tinting. You pay for demolition, new bricks, bricklaying, mortar and waste disposal. Even then, there’s no guarantee the new bricks will match any better. They’ll still be cleaner and brighter than the weathered originals.
Rendering
Render covers the problem completely, but it costs considerably more than tinting for the same area, changes the look of the house entirely and needs maintenance of its own. If you like the look of brick, render solves one problem by creating another.
Painting
Masonry paint can look cheaper upfront, but it needs redoing every few years, hides the texture of the brick and can trap moisture. Over 20 or 30 years, repainting usually ends up costing more than tinting once.
DIY tint kits
DIY kits cost around £30–£60. That’s the cheapest option on paper, but correcting a bad DIY job often costs more than having it done professionally the first time.
Why the Cheapest Quote Isn’t Always the Cheapest
Brick tinting is a skill, and the difference between a good job and a bad one is huge. Cheap quotes often skip cleaning, use poor-quality products, rush the colour matching or leave mortar out entirely. The result can look wrong from day one or fail within a few years. Putting it right means paying twice.
We cover this properly in Why the Cheapest Brick Tinting Quote Could Cost You More in the Long Run.
How to Get an Accurate Brick Tinting Quote
The quickest way to get a reliable price is to send good photos. Here’s what helps us most:
- A wide shot of the whole area from across the road or garden
- A few close-ups showing the bricks and mortar clearly
- Shots in daylight, ideally on a dry day, so the colours are accurate
- Rough measurements if you have them, or something in the shot for scale
- A note on access, such as whether it’s upstairs, over a conservatory or near a boundary
From there, we’ll put together a plan and a transparent quote with no hidden extras. Larger or more complex jobs may need a site visit.
Ways to Keep the Cost Down
- Combine jobs. Tint the extension, the bricked-up window and the garden wall in one visit rather than three.
- Share access. Time tinting to coincide with any scaffolding already going up.
- Deal with damp first. Fixing leaks before tinting avoids paying to redo work later.
- Book flexibly. Being open on dates can help, particularly in the colder months when work is weather-dependent.
- Be clear on what matters. If only the front elevation bothers you, there may be no need to tint every wall.
Brick Tinting Cost FAQs
How much does it cost to tint a whole house?
It depends on the size of the house, how much access is needed and how complex the colour change is. Whole-house jobs usually run into several thousand pounds. The best way to get a real figure is to send photos for a quote.
Is brick tinting cheaper than replacing bricks?
Yes, usually by a long way. Tinting avoids the cost of demolition, new bricks, bricklaying and waste, and it disrupts the house far less.
Is brick tinting cheaper than rendering?
In most cases, yes. It also keeps the brick look, which many homeowners want to keep.
Do I need to pay for a site visit?
We can usually quote from photos. If a site visit is needed for a larger or more complex job, we’ll tell you upfront.
Is mortar tinting extra?
It depends on the job. If the mortar needs tinting, it will be listed on the quote so you can see exactly what’s included.
Can I get a same-day quote?
Yes. Send us photos and we aim to come back the same day.
Get a Free Brick Tinting Quote
If you’d like to know exactly what your job will cost, send us a few clear photos. We’ve spent over 20 years tinting brickwork on everything from patch repairs to whole houses, and we’ll give you a straight answer on whether tinting is the right fix.
New to brick tinting? Start with our complete guide for homeowners, or read how long brick tinting lasts before you decide.
Call 0808 3040260, email info@brickmakeover.co.uk or contact us online for a free, same-day quote. We cover areas across the UK.