Is It Cheaper To Make Your Own Tiles?

Taking the time and effort to make your own tiles at home can be a rewarding experience that allows for personal customization and cost savings. Tile-making is a craft that involves designing and forming the tiles from raw materials like clay or concrete. It requires creativity, patience, and some artistic skill to mold the tiles into the desired shapes and colors. With the right space, tools, and materials, you can create beautiful custom tiles to install in your home.

In this guide, we’ll weigh the costs, time requirements, environmental impact, and other key factors to consider when deciding if homemade tiles are the right choice for your next home project.

Cost of Materials

The cost of raw materials is one of the biggest factors when deciding whether to make your own tiles. Clay, glazes, stains, and other materials can add up quickly. A 25 lb bag of natural clay may cost $15-25 depending on the type and quality. Glazes and stains also vary in price from $15-40 per pint. In addition, you’ll need materials for sculpting and decorating the tiles like rubber stamps, sponges, carving tools, etc. which can cost another $50-100 to get started.

In total, expect to spend at least $100-200 on supplies when first starting out. For specialized clay bodies and glazes, costs may be higher. Making your own tiles requires a continuous investment in materials over time as well. While professional studios buy materials in bulk for efficiency, buying smaller batches as an individual leads to higher per-tile costs.

Tools and Equipment

Making your own tiles requires some specialized tools and equipment that can be quite costly. The biggest investment is in a tile kiln, which is used to fire the clay tiles at extremely high temperatures to harden and set them. Tile kilns start at around $1,000 for a small tabletop version, but industrial-sized kilns can cost $5,000 or more. You’ll also need other supplies like:

• Clay and glazes
• Mold frames and tile cutters
• Safety equipment like respirators and gloves
• Mixing buckets, putty knives, modeling tools

In addition to the upfront costs, you’ll have ongoing expenses for materials like clay, glazes, stains, and specialized tools for painting or decorating the tiles. The costs can really add up quickly. Unless you plan to sell your tile creations, it may be more cost effective to simply purchase finished tiles rather than investing in all the tools and equipment needed to make them from scratch.

Space and Storage

Making your own tiles requires a significant amount of space. At minimum, you’ll need enough room for your workstation, tools, and materials. If making tiles in volume, having a dedicated studio space is ideal.

The work area should be large enough to accommodate tile molds, drying racks, tables, and storage. You’ll need open floor space to lay out tiles. Good ventilation and lighting is also important. The studio would ideally have easy access to water sources and drains for mixing, cleaning, and waste disposal.

Proper storage is also essential. Raw materials like clay, aggregates, colorants, and glazes take up space. You’ll need shelving to store finished tiles as well. Having enough storage room to allow tiles to fully cure over weeks or months is crucial. Insufficient space can lead to cracking or other defects in rushed drying. Many homemade tile studios are set up in basements, garages, or outdoor sheds to allow ample room.

Time Investment

Making tiles by hand is an extremely time-consuming process. From mixing the clay, molding each tile, drying, firing, glazing, and firing again, handmade tile production requires an enormous number of labor hours.

Experts estimate it takes around 1-2 hours to make just 6-12 handmade tiles. So to tile an average 10×10 ft room, you may need 100-200 tiles which would take 100-400 hours to produce by hand. That’s 2.5-10 forty hour work weeks dedicated just to tile making.

In contrast, mass produced ceramic and porcelain tiles can be pressed out rapidly by machine, requiring just minutes per tile. So the time investment difference is substantial between handmade and factory produced tiles.

Unless you truly enjoy the artistry of making tiles by hand and have ample free time, know that it requires an extreme time commitment vs. purchasing machine made tiles. You need to carefully weigh the hours needed vs. the cost savings, as your time also has value.

Learning Curve

Making your own tiles requires developing specialized skills that take time to learn. It’s not as simple as just mixing some materials together. There is a steep learning curve as you figure out the right tile mixtures, proper curing times, techniques for staining/polishing, etc. Be prepared for a lot of trial and error as you experiment to find recipes and methods that work for your application.

Creating high-quality DIY tiles that are durable, consistent, and aesthetically pleasing takes practice. You’ll need patience as you test different approaches and formulas, adjust process variables, and refine your skills. Expect that your initial attempts may result in cracked, crumbling, or poorly shaped tiles. But with experimentation and persistence, your tilemaking abilities can improve dramatically.

If you’re willing to invest the time upfront to push through that learning curve, the payoff is the ability to customize tiles exactly how you want. Just be realistic about the effort required as an amateur to gain the skills of a seasoned tile artisan.

Quality Considerations

When making your own tiles, it can be challenging to achieve the same level of durability and consistency as professionally manufactured tiles. Some factors that impact the quality include:

• The type and quality of materials used – Using cheaper materials like lower grade cement or subpar aggregates can impact strength and longevity.

• Proper mixture ratios – The right proportions of cement, aggregates, pigments etc. are key for optimal quality. It’s easy to make errors if not measuring precisely.

• Adequate curing time – Allowing tiles to cure for the full recommended duration ensures they reach maximum hardness and durability. Rushing this risks weaker tiles.

• Consistency in preparation – Small variations in mixture, thickness, tamping pressure, curing etc. from tile to tile can affect consistency of quality.

• Lack of technical expertise – There is a learning curve, and without proper training it’s unlikely a beginner can achieve professional quality results.

For high traffic areas, the increased chance of cracks, chips or wear may make DIY tiles impractical compared to commercial quality assurance.

Customization

Making your own tiles allows you to customize them in ways that are difficult to achieve with store-bought tiles. You can create tiles in any shape, size, color, or pattern you desire. This gives you the flexibility to perfectly match your personal style and home decor. Handmade tiles can feature custom images, textures, quotes, names, and more. For example, you may want to imprint a meaningful date, favorite flower pattern, or family name into the tiles. Such personalization makes the tiles special and unique. With homemade tiles, you are only limited by your creativity and imagination. You have total artistic freedom to craft tiles that reflect your personality.

Environmental Impact

When considering the environmental impact of homemade vs. store-bought tiles, one of the biggest factors is the carbon footprint. Manufacturing tiles on an industrial scale inevitably consumes more energy and emits more greenhouse gases versus making them in small batches at home.

Commercial tile manufacturing uses electricity to power large equipment and the firing process. Clay and other raw materials may be transported long distances. The tiles then must be packed, shipped to retailers, and finally purchased and transported by the consumer – each step adding to emissions.

In comparison, homemade tiles use minimal electricity for small equipment like a tile saw or hand tools. Raw materials are purchased locally in smaller quantities. There is no complex supply chain or shipping since the tiles go from the artisan’s studio right to their own home. The drastically reduced transportation and manufacturing emissions make homemade tiles the more eco-friendly choice.

Conclusion

In summary, there are many factors to consider when deciding whether to make your own tiles or purchase pre-made tiles. Some key considerations are the cost of materials, necessary tools and equipment, space requirements, time investment, learning curve, quality, customization options, and environmental impact.

When weighing all of these factors, for most people, it is likely not cost effective to make DIY tiles. While you may save on material costs, there are significant investments required for tools, equipment, space, and the time spent learning techniques and creating the tiles. The quality and consistency of homemade tiles may also not match professionally made tiles.

However, for those who highly value customization and want an arts and crafts project, making tiles yourself can be rewarding. The environmental impact may also be lower without manufacturing and shipping pre-made tiles. Overall, the decision depends on your personal interests, budget, and how much value you place on your time versus cost savings. For most home renovations, purchasing quality tiles is the simpler and more cost-effective option.