Whiter pointing

Feb 10, 2008 3 Replies
G

I wonder if someone can advise?



My house was built in 1963, and has very light-coloured cement mortar pointing around the brickwork - very light grey, almost white in a certain light.



I recently had a window opening bricked up. In an attempt to match the colour of the pointing, the builder added a small amount of lime to the mortar. This lightened it a fraction, but didn't have the desired effect - it's still a darker grey than the original. Adding lime didn't seem the best approach to me, at the time. I now need to brick up another, more conspicuous opening, and want to get it closer this time. Should I be suggesting (a) a greater amount of lime in the mix, (b) whiter sand or (c) whiter cement?



Regards Richard


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A

You can buy white cement -- I wouldn't bother with lime in this case. A problem is likely to be builders sand, which often has a very potent yellow iron oxide colour. A courser sand has less of the fine pigment, but it is slightly harder to use it for brick laying.

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M

Either Lime mortar with yellow sand or white cement " Mixing lime & cement wont do it,least not at acceptable proportions.

NT

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G

Thanks for the replies. We'll try Snowcrete and see how we get on. I have a small area to do first, before the big window filling-in job.

Regards Richard

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