Colouring pointing

[Feltwell]

Hello all,

A 2 part question here, the safe one first!

My house needs re-pointing, currently it is mish-mash of patches of badly eroded original lime and patches of cement. It will be re-pointed in lime, but the white colour is an issue.

The house was originally pointed in a grey colour by the look of things - it certainly wasn't white all over. You can see where certain architectural details, such as brick arches on the front elevation, were picked out in pure lime white pointing. Having re-pointed a little already around window reveals, the resulting white pointing looks odd. Any tips on how to colour the lime pointing mix? It looks as if it may originally have had coal ash mixed in with it, but I have heard that this weakens the mix.

And now the dangerous question!

I'm just getting quotes in to build a garage next to the house. It's not intended in any way to be a faithfull recreation of a Victorian building - it has been designed to blend in aesthetically with the house, but will be built with current methods, e.g. block and beam floor, pre-fabricated roof trusses, cavity walls etc.

Cost is a major issue and so is availability of builders willing to use lime, as I don't have the time to build this one myself. I could try and get the outer brickwork built with the same lime mix as is used to re-point the house, or I could go for cement for cost reasons and ease of finding a suitable builder. But if I go with cement, how best to make it look like the house pointing? Use snowcem and the same colourant as the house?

My flame-proof suit has been donned, I await the cries of derision and casting out into the cement-riddled non-green world of the new builds!

 

[JoceAndChris]

OOh Feltwell good luck. I do hope your flame proof suit is breathable though, might get a bit sweaty in there.

What's wrong with cement pointing in a new build anyway? Isn't lime a bit of a waste of money/effort?

 

[Feltwell]

Hadn't thought about the sweaty suit, urrghhhhh....

Lime is better environmentally, but frankly in this case the amount of cement used in the pointing compared to the amount used for a block & beam floor, foundations, blockwork etc will be tiny. Yes I'd love to go down the limecrete and traditionally built roof etc route, but cost is too much of a factor. Breathability and ability to flex and cope with little foundations isn't an issue of course.

 

[chuckey]

You can get white cement, you can also get coloured dyes for (grey) cement. So you can experiment with the mix yourself then all you have to do is to persuade your builder to actually adhere to your colour mix. :lol:
Yes removing the whiteness out of lime mortar is some thing I am interested in. Gently paint the surface with the equivalent of 100 years of a soot stained atmosphere?
Frank

 

[Pford75]

Send a sample of the old mortar to Mike Wye's and they will try to match for you and send you the relevant pigment if you want to mix it up yourself

 

[AMc]

But if I go with cement, how best to make it look like the house pointing?

Another vote to use white cement in the mix. At one point I caught a brick layer mixing it up - they thought my reason for wanting lime mortar for an aesthetic decision (white like the rest), not a practical one (weaker than my old soft brick).

 

[worms]

You mention cavity walls, is this normal for a modern garage? And if so, what is the thinking behind this? Based on the sum-total experience of only one, 1980s garage, I assumed single-skin breeze-block was the norm?

 

[Feltwell]

You mention cavity walls, is this normal for a modern garage? And if so, what is the thinking behind this? Based on the sum-total experience of only one, 1980s garage, I assumed single-skin breeze-block was the norm?

It's the size of the garage, it's quite large. If I didn't go for cavity walls, then I'd need lots of brick pillars - a 4 1/2" single skin brick wall all the way along would be too unstable. I've also found before that they tend to be damp.

I could have gone for a 9" solid brick wall, as per the house, but building with a cavity and inner lightweight block wall worked out cheaper plus should mean no damp. It also means I can insulate it easily. I'll have the slightly daft situation where the garage is better insulated than the house! The cost of the insulation is negligible though, and I've found before that it makes a garage / workshop much more comfortable to work in.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts. White cement was what I had thought of, hence the Snowcem reference above (it's the brand name I know). I didn't realise that Mike Wye did mortar analysis, I will rake a bit out and send it off, see what they say.