Brick Chimney Mortar Colour

[Fordy]

I need Helpppppppppppppp...

I have tried to colour match the mortar in my internal chimney a couple of times now but it always dries different to what I have mixed. What I am trying to do is just make it look similar so I can go over the whole chimney with a slate sealer. Is there any product on the market to achieve this or should I try mixing up paint to try to match..
Photo attached.. As you can see there are quite a few spots that I had to remortar..

Thanks

[ozwinner]

Hi.
Its near impossible to colour match mortar.
The best and easiest way is to rake out all the mortar and redo the whole lot.
Sorry..

Al

[Fordy]

Thanks Oz
thought that may have been the case...

Might look at painting the bricks instead as remortaring would be a huge job as the chimney is nearly three meters tall..

[chromis]

The mortar could be a little darker but really I quite like the effect.

Kind of industrial/rustic...

I wouldnt paint it. It would ruin the look..

[ozwinner]

Thanks Oz
thought that may have been the case...

Might look at painting the bricks instead as remortaring would be a huge job as the chimney is nearly three meters tall..

If the mortar is lime mortar, which it looks like in the piccy, ( going by age of brick, style, arch ) it would take about a day to rake out and repoint.

Al

[Markw]

Just had a new extension completed on the house where the builder has tried and with reasonable success to match the mortar.

First he looked at the little bits of un-coloured motar within the original mortar matrix to try and determine the original cement brand used - believed to be blue circle grey - right age etc. You need to know to get the right grey shade to start with.

Then taking a piece of old mortar he put this in a clear glass jar with water to observe the wet colour, then made the new mortar mixture up to approximate the wet colour of the old mortar.

Once laid in the bricks the result didn't look anything like the original colour for about 2 weeks but slowly the mortar colours came closer and closer together. Now from a distance of 50m you can barely tell the difference in the mortar colour. In time with sun bleaching you will never know I have extended the house - the brick were matched as well and I also re-used the original windows.

[Fordy]

I am quite sure its a lime mortar as the house is nearly 100 years old and in some of the mortar is bits of twigs and rubble...

Never thought of wetting the old mortar to see what wet colour it was sounds an interesting idea..

I am relenting on the paint idea as we really want the bricks to show up so spending a day redoing might be best as I guess all I really have to do is scrape out just enough to make it look right..

[ozwinner]

If you do the whole lot again experiment with Brigton Lite cement and white brickies sand, and of course lime..
The colour contrast with those red bricks would look good.

Make the mortar up in a bucket, you have to gauge the mix so get a container of some sort to measure with.
If mixed this way the colour should remain consistent for the whole job.

Put in 3 sand, 1 cement and .5 of lime. ( and a dash of detergent )
Mix it dry first then add water until you have a nice stiff mix.

Al