How to Build a Brick Floor

Brick tiles generally are less than an inch thick and are laid like floor tile.

Any brick floor you lay today is likely to actually be a brick-tile floor, as full bricks are too deep and heavy for most floor structures. Brick tile is real brick formed into a floor-tile thickness (generally less than 1 inch), so it can be laid like floor tile. The main difference with the installation is aesthetic. The rectangular bricks are best laid in staggered rows (as on the side of a building), instead of the usual grid pattern of square tiles. Also, the lines between the bricks are wider, at 1/2 inch.

Things You'll Need

• Chalk snapline
• Square
• Small piece of wood, 1/2 inch wide
• Thinset mortar
• Mortar trowel
• Wet saw
• Grout
• Grout trowel
• Sponge

Instructions

1. Stretch a chalk snapline across the middle of the floor in one direction, and snap it. Pull the line in the perpendicular direction, and set a square where the string intersects the line you just snapped. Get the string square against the line, and snap it, leaving the floor divided into four square sections.

2. Spread thinset mortar over the intersection of the two chalk lines, using your mortar trowel. Determine which direction you want the long sides of the bricks to run, and press your first few brick tiles into place along that line, with the narrow ends of the bricks sitting on either side of the intersecting line. Use the short piece of 1/2-inch wood to correctly space the bricks.

3. Spread additional mortar and lay additional brick tiles, first along the starting line and then building up and out from there. Stagger the rows of bricks, so the narrow edges of the bricks in one course meet at the center of the long edges of the brick on the previous course.

4. Lay all the bricks that will fit on the floor, cutting the ones by the walls as necessary on a wet saw. Let them set overnight.

5. Spread grout over the floor with your grout trowel, pressing it into the spaces between the bricks and scraping it off the surface. Wipe off the excess grout with a damp sponge.

Tips & Warnings

• Wear eye protection when cutting the brick tiles.

References

• Brick Floor Tile Inc.: Installation Instructions