Mortar colour?

[Harry Bloomfield]

I have some pointing to do soon, a few selected areas...

The existing mortar which I need to match is a light grey colour. How do I go about finding a reasonable match for the existing mortar please?

[A.Lee]

Do a few differing sand/cement mixes,make notes when mixing them, let them dry, and see which is the closest colour. Try anything from 3 sand/ 1 cement to 8 sand 1 cement. A typical mortar for pointing would be around 6/1. Alan.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thanks Alan - I was more curious about how the sand colour affects the final dried mortar colour. Our local building supply co seem to usually have a pale yellow and a dark orange colour. Can the sand colour be ignored?

[A.Lee]

Building sand is always a dark red colour here in the Midlands, maybe it is a different colour in other parts of the Country where it is sourced from different quarries. Sharp sand is a yellowish colour here (though it does change from different suppliers,and definitely has differening consistencies), but is not usually used for bricklaying/pointing as it has too many bits of small gravel in it, it is usually used for concrete, or laying slabs.

You need building sand. You dont say how old the building is, older buildings used a lime mortar (it flakes away really easily when old), though it is OK to use cement/sand for pointing, so long as the mixture isnt too strong - 6/1 would be fine. Alan.

[George (dicegeorge)]

there's a house near here with pointing in the wrong colour - it looks bad..

does pointing mortar keep it's colour or is it slowly bleached over the years?

it's a thing to be experimented in a hidden place before starting on the building..

[EricP]

The sand you want is a grey colour.

I used the wrong one last year for some pointing so it gets chipped out this year and replaced.

[marc]

When building our extension last year the builder pointed out that the original motar was a very light, almost grey colour (house built circa

1939).

He got some special sand from "Tarmac" small bag to test and then large bags for build. The sand was a yellow colour but when mixed with standard cement came down to a much lighter colour. We were very pleased with the colour match, which helped maintain the correct look of the house.

I'd say the motar had faded on different sides of the house in the same way the bricks had.

HTH

Marc

[Rick Hughes]

Locally our sand is light yellow - dredged.

However for my build I bought Lime Pit sand ... graded pit sand which is very fine and light brown in colour, I had Lime mix as it is self healing for cracks, plus easier to work with.

The colour of sand does make a big difference as does the cement ... if you need a really light colour then use snowcrete cement.