Dying mortar

[Bozza]

I am currently building a loose stone granite retaining wall in the garden.  I am considering pointing it to gave the effect in the attached pic which is likely to be lime mortar.  It doesn’t need to be lime mortar,  which is quite expensive,  so I am consider dying cement based mortar a lighter colour using white pigment dye.
 

I have zero knowledge or experience of dying cement,  or using lime mortar, etc I would appreciate any advise of anyone with relevant knowledge.  

 

cheers !  Bozza.

 

 

 

[nod]

If you add hydrated line You will get the effect pictured 

4 sand 1 cement 1 lime 

and lime is as cheap as chips 

[Bozza]

31 minutes ago, nod said:

If you add hydrated line You will get the effect pictured 

4 sand 1 cement 1 lime 

and lime is as cheap as chips 

Cheers Nod I’ll give that a go.  I thought the hydrated lime was pricey at £17 per 25kg bag but I supposed that will make 150kg on the ratios you suggest.  

[Onoff]

I did 3 builders sand, 1 sharp sand, 1 cement and 1 lime to get this colour around my flints. I didn't want "white" that would contrast too much with the mortar which was 4 builders sand to 1 cement.

 

 

[nod]

27 minutes ago, Bozza said:

Cheers Nod I’ll give that a go.  I thought the hydrated lime was pricey at £17 per 25kg bag but I supposed that will make 150kg on the ratios you suggest.  

It will go a long way 

Probably worth doing a couple of trial mixes till you get the colour you want 

Use Something small like a cup

Four cups of sand etc 

Dont use a plastersizer The lime will aerate the fix 

[Canski]

Try white cement and yellow sand with some lime. 

[Onoff]

8 hours ago, Bozza said:

Cheers Nod I’ll give that a go.  I thought the hydrated lime was pricey at £17 per 25kg bag but I supposed that will make 150kg on the ratios you suggest.  

 

So it's true Jocks are tight! 😂

 

Pity you're not this neck of the woods as I've a near full bag of hydrated lime you could have had for nothing. 

[gaz_moose]

the 25kg bags of hydrated lime are massive.  easily 3 or 4 times the size of a bag of builders sand.

[joe90]

12 hours ago, nod said:

If you add hydrated line You will get the effect pictured 

4 sand 1 cement 1 lime 

and lime is as cheap as chips 

My builder did this as I wanted it to look like lime, and it does, just what I wanted.

[Conor]

If you want lighter than the lime mix (if your sand is quite orange, the mix will come out looking a bit muddy) you can replace 1 of the standard sands with white sand. Going by your posted pic, think white sane may be needed. I'm doing to experimental mixes soon myself as we've a lot of red brick butting against white render and want to soften the contrast with pale mortar.

Edited September 23, 2022 by Conor

[Gone West]

As @Canski has said you can use white cement which is what I have used in the past to create that look for mortar.

[PeterW]

I’ve used white cement and lime with plastering sand to get a near “sandstone” finish and it works well. The  issue is normally though that your sand provides most of the colour - see if the BM can get you yellow sand in bulk bags

[Bozza]

Cheers everyone this all give me the steer I was looking for