mortar mix for decorative garden wall

Apr 23, 2015 11 Replies

I've got some marshalite ash decorative bricks for a garden wall, see

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The are basically stone effect, grey, but with some larger brown/yellow flecks (i.e. made of cement with some larger grit sand in it). Can anyone suggest a good mortar mix that will bring out the yellow tones in the bricks? I've seen the wall done with a brown stained mortar but it looks terrible. Basically, I don't want it to look like "cement" if you get the idea. Mix needs to be strong enough for a 4" thick wall with 8" piers every metre, about 6 courses high. Thanks, Simon.


I'd use white Portland, lime and yellow sharp sand.

Its a nice rustic look. If you want it paler, try and get washed sand

photo + graphic editor should help decide

NT

Plus you can buy cement colouring dust to add in.

Grow stuff between the bricks at intervals

Does the lime affect the colour ? I've not used it before and its another bag to buy ! Anyway, I'll have to get some white Portland and try it with the sand I have got (sharp and maybe a bit of soft) to see what it look like. Simon.

Lime owns the colour. Its white, and sand colour has only a little effect on that

NT

Depends how much you add. They fade streakily, except for iron oxide.

NT

They will degrade back to something softer with weathering. My roof pointing was done in jet black mortar. It is now dark grey - which is better than the default light grey.

AFAIK all cement colours are synthetic iron oxides. Naturally occurring earth pigments should be more subtle. Umbers, siennas, ochres etc.

Well, I've certainly used ones that aren't, and I know printing inks have been used, and various other things. Whether they're different now I don't know.

NT

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