Can anyone advise me on how to mix-up some "black ash" mortar to fill in the hole around my recently renewed soil pipe. The previous owners of the house used normal sand mortar to fill in holes which looks really bad and obviously stands out from the rest of the mortar which is 1906 black ash stuff.
What can I add to normal mortar that will give it a permanent black colour?
I haven't tried it and don't know if it would look *exactly* like ash mortar, but at Wickes I've seen "cement dye" in black and other colours for use in mortar, concrete, etc.
black mortar dye?
You can get it from any of the sheds or a BM
Thanks guys. I had no idea such a dye existed. I'll have a look next time I go into my local store.
:)
TIP: - if you go to B&Q, open the tub and make sure there's something inside it, people are notorious for taking the bag out of one tub and putting it into another, hey presto - double dye! .. or half price if you like ;-)
but as I said, I've never tried it. I'd be curious to know how it works though!
Are you querying the almost oxymoron of black ash - i.e. what other colour would ash be?
Or the concept of black ash itself? My understanding is that the left overs from industrial coal burning was used in place of sand in the mortar since it was cheap and readily available. 'Tis horrible stuff to work with 100 years later, it gets /everywhere/ whenever it's disturbed!
Hoping to block up the hole and the draft this weekend, so will post back when I finish the job :D
Dyed cement looks crap once the colour has faded/streaked. The obvious answer is to use the same recipe as the existing mortar. Cant tell you what that is offhand, but shouldnt be hard to find.
NT
The message from thankyousam contains these words:
Grey, white, all sorts of colours.
Most of my ash is wood ash and almost white. I've also got a freshly-made slate box here filled with Cremains (dreadful word!) that are a sort of mid-grey.
A house I used to own (1903 Newcastle) had a covenant in the deeds specifically stating that such mortars wouldn't be used to build it. It also used the term "jerry built", which is etymologically interesting in its own right. Of course when I stripped some plaster off a previously hidden inside wall, you can imagine what I found holding the inner leaf together...
I was just suggesting that he mix black ash into the mortar. Available in quantities from every open fire flue..otherwise known as 'soot'
Even soot comes in a range of colours :-) Vegetable black, bone black, lamp black etc.
I agree. My roof tiles were bedded with black dye in the sand and it all washed out after a few years.
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