There are problems I didn't think too much about, such as the fact that it's hard to get a good concrete mix when you're only using 1/4 bag of ready-mix concrete per day, and it's much harder to get it colored with liquid coloring. I made several batches of red bricks that weren't colored anything at all like a real red or pink brick.
Mainly though, the finished bricks are very fragile. Probably no moreso than ceramic tile, but I expected more from concrete, especially with the extra-high-strength bags I used.
The molds aren't difficult to use, and you can find recipes for inexpensive homemade mold-release made with castor-oil, though I just used WD-40 for the first batches of bricks, until I saw how the casting was going to work.
I intended to use these for flooring, but I have a cast-concrete stepping stone, cast to look like a tree stump cut off right at ground level.
It looks great, very realistic, complete with growth rings, but after a few years of being walked on, the rings are showing wear, being smoothed down where people walk the most.
For that reason, I'd never use them as flooring. I may, instead, create some 4-foot high accent walls, removing sheetrock up to the 4-foot level and replacing it with lath, then adhering the "bricks" to the lath.
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Thought (used) was part of describing how bricks would look (old and used). It means the molds are used, they are in good shape, but probably would not have payed that much for used molds if I had realized. Hope they up to lots more use.
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