I need to repoint some brickwork. One of the things I'm wondering about is whether or not to use mortar dye to darken the mortar so it is close to the color of the bricks. It seems like it wouldn't be a bad idea but I notice that the professional jobs I have seen around here do not use it.
Is there any reason not to use it?
Unless you're going to be covering the entire wall and every joint (moderately unusual amount of repointing, but not unheard of), you'd leave a mismatch color for sure.
Otherwise, there's no real reason other one of what appearance one is striving for--it adds only slightly to cost, a little to labor for the pro's but there are far more brick laid w/o color than with.
For amateur, getting a match in color from one batch of mortar to the next may be a little iffy particularly if not making consistent batch sizes as would a pro w/ a full mixer setup, etc., ...
So, it's just a "your call" sorta' thing...
I see it a lot around here, except in cheap housing. Quality houses often use brown pigmented mortar with brown bricks. I once worked in a building that was erected in 1848 and it had red pigmented mortar between the bricks. The amazing part of this old building was the mortar thickness, only 1/8 of an inch and it was a 4 story building.
What if you need to repair some mortar around windows that has fallen out. Does anybody have a good idea how to match the color of new mortar with mortar that has been weathering for 40 years? I don't want the repair job to be glaringly obvious.
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