Brick Mortar Color?
We want to remove the paint off our brick facade and re-point if necessary, but I want to make sure the mortar is the right kind. As you can see in the picture it looks like the mortar is a red/orange color. There are some houses in the neighb. with similar mortar, but I’ve never…
We want to remove the paint off our brick facade and re-point if necessary, but I want to make sure the mortar is the right kind. As you can see in the picture it looks like the mortar is a red/orange color. There are some houses in the neighb. with similar mortar, but I’ve never seen any newly re-pointed houses done like this. Anyone know if I can get the same color today.
Thanks
Nothing is worse than bright white mortar, just look at the house on President Street between 4th and 5th Aves, (next to the new buildings) the mortar is so bright white that it looks horrific, actually beyond horrific…………..
I also do not like the mortar the same color as the bricks, as another poster said, it looks tacky. It also makes it look from far away that the bricks were just painted as there is no difference in the brick and mortar.
I think the mortar should be kind of the subdued grayish color, I would think you want to notice the bricks, not the mortar….
I just hate buildings with bad mortar jobs, I can spot them a mile away……
I love those narrow Roman bricks Bob. Theres two short otherwise unremarkable buildings on Clay street between Manahattan and McGuiness Aves in my neighborhood which just look great becuase of a brick type similar to the Roamn bricks. The mortar line between the bricks is barely visible.
FWIW my house is transitional Romanesque/Renaissance -revival, built in 1899.The brick portion has narrow yellow/tan Roman brick with thin tan-colored mortar joints. IMO white would look terrible.
Tinted mortar was common in the late 1800s. It was usually used with pressed red brick and thin joints to give the building a more monolithic look. You see it a lot with Romanesque Revival style buildings. Kudos to you for putting so much thought into your facade work! I’ll echo what a couple of people have said – a good mason should be able to match the original mortar in both composition and color.
I did not read all of the replies, so I am not sure if this is redundant: there are powdered dyes which can be added to mortar to color it. Speak to your mason about it.
(we are not masons and do not do brick work)
Steve
The pic I’m showing is of one of the few bricks that is not painted. The mortar is not white, it is the color you see in the pic. Trust me, the mortar is the color you see in the pic (orange/red). There is no paint on the mortar.
“We want to remove the paint off our brick facade” – OP
“The brick in the picture is not painted” – OP
so which is it then? your text vs picture is confusing. have you performed the test elninio describes? the mortar in the photo does look to be typical white with a wash of paint over it.
If you remove the paint from the brick you will have to repoint. The process of removing the paint removes much of the mortar as well. Typically they put peel away remover on the bricks and then after removing the paper, blast the whole facade with high powered water.
Ohwell,
I strongly believe that the mortar joints are as white as lime. That’s how it was built in the 1800’s. The pink is just residue from the red paint the facade was painted at some point. Try scraping some of the mortar off and you’ll see the white mortar. You could also try to remove one brick to find out. Just don’t let them use grinders and make sure they use the right materials to re-point.