cement colourant with ordinary cement?

Hello, I'm reconcreting a small front garden and considering colouring the concrete, probably a pale yellow, using cement colourant.

Can someone tell me whether it's sensible to use cement colourant with ordinary cheap cement, or does it really only do a good job with e.g. Portland cement etc.?

Thanks in advance!

Harry

Reply to
Harry Davis
Loading thread data ...

I thought portland was ordinary cement, OPC. Colouring pigment works with all cements, but if you want pale yellow or cream you'd need to start with white cement.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

cements, but if you want pale yellow or cream you'd need to start with white cement.

White cement and building sand gives you yellow, without colouring. Some building sand has quite a lot of (natural) surpless pigment.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I had a holiday job in the 60s, with a chap who was pointing the stones on historic buildings. My job was to wash the sand to remove bright colours. barrow, hose in bottom, getting wet all day long. Fantastic job. I loved it.

Any that did not go grey we returned to the builders merchants, and they brought us something else.

Reply to
Bob

snipped-for-privacy@care2.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:

Thanks for this. My cement bags say Lafarge general purpose, which I thought was different from Portland, but clearly you are right.

I'm not sure whether it's 'wholly' Portland, though:

So this is the wrong stuff? If I used some yellow colourant with it, would the result be greyish yellow (which would probably be OK), or would something else go on (as it might for example with some art paints, where chemical properties can prevent application of standard colour-mixing rules)?

Thanks again!

Harry

Reply to
Harry Davis

Cement dyes are normally iron oxides, which are pretty much chemically inert I would have thought. A little goes a long way and can look garishly bright

Reply to
stuart noble

All cement is made to a standard unless you sneak some in from furrin parts. The only thing you might watch out for is some has additives that make it much darker than the traditional stuff.

Reply to
harry

Ordinary cement IS Portland cement. And white cement is only tad more than grey..

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

cements, but if you want pale yellow or cream you'd need to start with white cement.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Yellow dye won't have any efect on dark green/grey cement, you'd have to use white cement, which is about a tenner a bag. Also you'd need white or very pale sand for the dye to have the desired effect. And you'll need a hell of a lot of dye to achive any kind of colour per mix, that is, if you are adding it to the mix rather than adding it to the laid concrete, at least a kilo per 25kg of cement.

Red's a different kettle of fish, it goes a lot further and you can get red sand which sort of meets you half way.

Reply to
Phil L

As with all pigments, a lot depends on the quality of the dispersion. I went overboard with the yellow when patching round a manhole cover. Bright yellow :-)

Reply to
stuart noble

yellow + grey = a warmer tint of grey

NT

Reply to
meow2222

in theory yellow adds brightness, red adds warmth

Reply to
stuart noble

"Phil L" wrote in news:ei1as.97409$ snipped-for-privacy@fx27.am:

Thanks for this. I've already bought the standard cement.

Do you think I could get away with buying a bag of white cement, mixing it with a lot of water and some yellow colourant, and then doing a cement wash?

Or can you only do cement washes on walls?

The area I'm doing is in a front garden and only gets occasional foot traffic.

Harry

Reply to
Harry Davis

It would work. Temporarily. I'd lay the bulk in grey, and a top layer with white. Lay the 2nd before the 1st is fully set and they'll bond as one.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

On 01 Oct 2012, you wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Thanks for this. What thickness would I need for the top layer?

Harry

Reply to
Harry Davis

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.