Hello all. I have to do a bit or repointing on my house asap as there's a slight water/damp problem. I am having a lot of trouble finding the right colour mix. I'm using combinations of Portland cement, lime, dark red sand and yellow sand. Everything is drying out too light. Mortar tone doesn't seem to be readily available in a colour to suit my needs. I need a deep yellow/grey/buff finish. I need to darken the mix somehow. Any advice most welcome! The photo shows my failing pointing on the left (smaller piece) and the closest I have find so far (3 parts yellow sand, 3 parts red, 1 part cement). I don't want to repoint the whole house and it doesn't need to be perfect, just not obvious.
When I did my extension, I use 1 : 1 : 6 mix (1 Portland cement, 1 lime, 6 building sand). It comes out reasonable match to my old Victorian house. You can slightly adjust the ratio to fit your need.
You could try some black in the mix. It goes greyer as it dries. Even when the new mortar is slightly darker than the old it shows up less than if it is lighter.
You can get grey & also carbon black(which is not so dark as black) cement colouring, look on Ebay. And Bond It do a liquid dye in several grey shades, & Sika MaxMix Cement Colour is another liquid dye available in black.
Try 1:4 yellow sand, point a perp joint and let it really dry out before judging it. Mortar from the same batch can appear very different against different bricks, in situ is the only way to tell really. If it’s still too light there’s always “ Liquidweather” a brush applied tint.
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