White concrete / mortar

[Tony K]

I have two feature walls in my SB to be made with reclaimed red wire cut bricks. I am considering white mortar rather than the standard sand and cement mix. 

 

Does anyone have any experience with white mortar? I have heard the occasional tale that it fades quickly or stains bricks but can't find any real evidence of that. 

 

I am aware that it costs significantly more than standard concrete, but otherwise I believe it is essentially the same product used the same way. 

 

Am I missing anything? 

 

Cheers 

[ProDave]

It is used regularly here for external render.  Use "Snowcrete" instead of ordinary grey cement and the colour of the sand makes a difference (though you are often just stuck with what comes out of the local quarry)

 

So a small mix and try a bit to see what it is like.

[Faz]

Used it on my 3 - looks great with the red bricks (and the buff tbh). Only negative experience is that it is a bit more prone to salting - especially if laying across the winter. Got salt lines where the rain splashed up from the lifts.

[Tony K]

Cheers. @Faz that looks good, and as I'm going for a rustic look I can happily risk some salting! 

[Tony K]

18 minutes ago, ProDave said:

It is used regularly here for external render.  Use "Snowcrete" instead of ordinary grey cement and the colour of the sand makes a difference (though you are often just stuck with what comes out of the local quarry)

 

So a small mix and try a bit to see what it is like.

 

I've got plenty of decent builders sand, and I'll try that with the snowcrete, thanks. 

[bassanclan]

In my opinion it is better with yellow building sand than red building sand

[Tony K]

3 minutes ago, bassanclan said:

In my opinion it is better with yellow building sand than red building sand

 

Then I'm in luck, as I've got yellow. Didn't even know you could get red. 

 

Does anyone know the ratio? Would I be correct to presume that the lower the ratio the brighter white the mortar?

[joe90]

My bricklayers used some lime in the mix to whiten it a bit to look like  lime pointing!

[Faz]

1 hour ago, Tony K said:

 

Then I'm in luck, as I've got yellow. Didn't even know you could get red. 

 

Does anyone know the ratio? Would I be correct to presume that the lower the ratio the brighter white the mortar?

1 bag of cement to 12 shovels of sand mate.

[Mr Punter]

You can get white sand in some parts of the country.  Also white cement and hydrated lime.  Use a gauging bucket if you want it consistent.  1:1:5  cement lime sand.

[Tony K]

Well, having just done a trial sample I'm not blown away from the Snowcrete white cement, at least not in a 1:4 mix with yellow building sand. 

The resulting mortar is noticeably different in colour to the normal cement and sand mix, but its certainly not white, more like orange. 

The buckets were clean, we used clean water etc, so no obvious reason for this disappointing outcome, but at the price I can't see that I'll go with Snowcrete. 

[PeterW]

The sand you use will change the colour. You  may need to find a silver sand and mix that in part to the overall blend to get something whiter. 

[Radian]

52 minutes ago, Tony K said:

Well, having just done a trial sample I'm not blown away from the Snowcrete white cement, at least not in a 1:4 mix with yellow building sand. 

I found the mortar made with Snowcrete to be incredibly sensitive to the colour of the sand. Our house was built with purbeck sandstone set in a mortar composed of one part both white cement and lime with six parts of what was referred to as 'ginger' sand by the planners (to match local buildings) and when I built some recent additions I had a hard time matching it. I ended up with three different sand supplies and had to mix them carefully to get a decent match.

 

What did suprise (and please) me was when it came to pointing the patios I wanted a slightly different look and mixed up some grey OPC with the 'gingerest' of the three (because I still had a ton of that left over). The mortar came out quite a light buff which blended nicely with the slabs.

[Tony K]

@Radian thanks, that's interesting. I'm experimenting with the white cement for use in a couple of feature walls made with reclaimed wire cut brick. I'm minded to go for recessed pointing, so I could use normal mortar and then consider white pointing later if I'm unhappy with the recessed results. 

[Radian]

I hope the colour of the mortar shows up in my photo (BTW the steps wern't pointed at that time). I was quite surprised at how there was no hint of greyness to it - I think the strength of the ginger somehow cancelled it out, but yes, I was most relieved not to have to pay out for the expensive cement again!

[Brickie]

5 hours ago, Tony K said:

Well, having just done a trial sample I'm not blown away from the Snowcrete white cement, at least not in a 1:4 mix with yellow building sand. 

The resulting mortar is noticeably different in colour to the normal cement and sand mix, but its certainly not white, more like orange. 

The buckets were clean, we used clean water etc, so no obvious reason for this disappointing outcome, but at the price I can't see that I'll go with Snowcrete. 

When did you do this sample? 
Has the mortar had time to fully cure & achieve its proper tone? 

[Tony K]

14 hours ago, Brickie said:

When did you do this sample? 
Has the mortar had time to fully cure & achieve its proper tone? 

 

Yesterday, so perhaps more time is needed, though as of today it certainly isn't white. I'll pop a photo on here in a bit. 

[Tony K]

4 hours ago, Tony K said:

 

Yesterday, so perhaps more time is needed, though as of today it certainly isn't white. I'll pop a photo on here in a bit. 

 

Here it is. 4 building sand to one snowcrete. 

Not very reminiscent of snow. 

 

[Declan52]

50 minutes ago, Tony K said:

 

Here it is. 4 building sand to one snowcrete. 

Not very reminiscent of snow. 

 

Will never go white unless you use silver sand as mentioned above. 

[Buzz]

1 hour ago, Tony K said:

 

Here it is. 4 building sand to one snowcrete. 

Not very reminiscent of snow. 

 

As mentioned above,  give it time and see what colour it it goes to , I was a little disappointed with ours when I first saw them being laid but after a few weeks the whiteness started to come through and is just right IMHO for the bricks. 

[Tony K]

1 minute ago, Buzz said:

As mentioned above,  give it time and see what colour it it goes to , I was a little disappointed with ours when I first saw them being laid but after a few weeks the whiteness started to come through and is just right IMHO for the bricks. 

 

 

Did you use snowcrete and building sand at 1:4 to get the result in your photo @Buzz?

[Radian]

I agree with Buzz here. At this time of year it takes weeks to be rid of all the water that went into the mix. The mortar might cure in a few days but it remains damp for considerably longer. Dampness hides the efflorescence that will inevitably develop and lighten the joints in time.

[Buzz]

40 minutes ago, Tony K said:

 

Did you use snowcrete and building sand at 1:4 to get the result in your photo @Buzz?

Not sure about the ratio as that was the builders call but I know it was Hanson white cement with a bit of lime , this is the only pic I have of the sand make of it what you will .

[Radian]

36 minutes ago, Buzz said:

Not sure about the ratio as that was the builders call

 

Oh, 12:1 then ?

[Tony K]

2 hours ago, Buzz said:

Not sure about the ratio as that was the builders call but I know it was Hanson white cement with a bit of lime , this is the only pic I have of the sand make of it what you will .

 

 

The sand looks similar to mine but the rest of your recipe is different. I'll have another look at the sample section just before I need to make the final decision. 

 

Expensive stuff that snowcrete, by the way.