Brick Wall Mortar - What's the "normal" colour, and how much will I need?

DIYNotIan · 11 Jul 2016

Hi all

I'm having my dad over soon to help me make a brick wall bed in the garden.

Colour - Is it the cement, sand or both that have most bearing on the colour of the mortar? I want the colour to be the normal kind of grey concrete colour. Not yellow! If I simply asked for sand and cement from the builders merchs, what would I get? Do I need to ask for something specific or will the standard stuff get me the grey colour I want?

Amount - how much sand/cement will I need? The wall will have around 150 house sized bricks.

Many thanks for the help.

Max

^woody^ · 11 Jul 2016

The darker the sand the darker the mortar. Red sand will give darker grey and yellow sand lighter grey.

1kg of sand per brick. 1 kg of cement per 4kg of sand, or 1 bag cement per four bags of sand.

DIYNotIan · 11 Jul 2016

Exceptionally helpful! Thanks Woody - much appreciated.

theprinceofdarkness · 12 Jul 2016

Just be careful, as you reduce the amount of cement, the mortar, not suprisingly, goes to the sand colour. So if you use 6:1, its sand colour, if you use 6 1/2 :1 its still sand coloured. Changing from 4:1 to 4 1/2 :1 will change the colour of the mortar. You are using plasticiser arent you? Search around for a silver coloured sand, round here Wickes sand is custard coloured -not to my taste.
Frank

geraldthehamster · 12 Jul 2016

MaxDread said:
The wall will have around 150 house sized bricks.

Sounds big enough to wall off Mexico...

tomfe · 12 Jul 2016

I would not be able to lift many of them in a day

DIYNotIan · 12 Jul 2016

Hi all

My dad said we will be looking at a ratio of 3.5/4 to 1. So hopefully that will give a nice grey colour then and not orange.

theprinceofdarkness said:
You are using plasticiser arent you?

I'm not sure tbh. He just told me to get sand (soft) and cement, and that we would add a little washing up liquid. This is all new to me and I'm not even sure what that is! Maybe I'll ask him about it. Is it something additional or do you get cement with plasticiser already in it?

geraldthehamster said:
Sounds big enough to wall off Mexico...

tomfe said:
I would not be able to lift many of them in a day

Does it sound like a big wall??? Will we get it done in a day do you imagine (early start!!!).

Thanks for the replies.

Max

tomfe · 13 Jul 2016

MaxDread said:
The wall will have around 150 house sized bricks.

MaxDread said:
Does it sound like a big wall???

We were taking the mick, you said you had 150 bricks the size of a house.

You should easily lay 150 bricks in a day, make sure you set out full brick courses and then your corners and it'll be a ****.

DIYNotIan · 13 Jul 2016

tomfe said:
We were taking the mick, you said you had 150 bricks the size of a house.

Aha... Or should say, HaHa! Sorry guys, was a bit slow on that one. Very good!

tomfe said:
You should easily lay 150 bricks in a day, make sure you set out full brick courses and then your corners and it'll be a ****.

Not entirely sure what you mean there to be honest. Are you saying to do the corners last or is there more to it? Tips are great though so please keep any tips coming. The more the merrier.

RE: Plasticiser. Okay, I've looked into this now and see that it is an "alternative" to the Fairy Liquid. Whilst a few say the FL is fine to use, the vast majority say that it is not and give good reason as to why. So I'll get me some plasticiser and use that instead. Will 5L be enough for my 150 (ahem, standard sized) brick wall? Something like this ok:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/no-nonsen...id-mortar-plasticiser-not-relevant-5ltr/2486h

Cheers

tomfe · 13 Jul 2016

On your foundations dry lay the first course so the length and when you get to it width are full bricks no cuts. This will mean you don't have to cut any bricks.
Then lay the first course with mortar and then build up the corners to the desired height.

Nige F · 13 Jul 2016

Mastercrete cement has plasticiser included

DIYNotIan · 13 Jul 2016

Thanks for the explanation tomfe. I get what you mean now. Very helpful, cheers.

Nige F - thanks for that suggestion. It's all a bit last minute though and I'm getting the materials from our local depot so it will depend on what they have. If they don't have Mastercrete and I end up having to buy plasticiser, from what I can tell you only add a little and so I'll have LOADS left from a 5L bottle. No problem seeing as it is so cheap. If I'm right that is....

Are most plasticisers similar or are certain brands to be trusted/avoided?

Cheers

^woody^ · 14 Jul 2016

You don't need a plasticiser, and if you are not experienced in bricklaying, you wont know an difference if a mix has it in or not.

Just make sure you buy building sand and not any other sand.

If you do use fairy liquid , don't use any more than half a teaspoon per bag of sand

geraldthehamster · 14 Jul 2016

^woody^ said:
You don't need a plasticiser, and if you are not experienced in bricklaying, you wont know an difference if a mix has it in or not.

I'm not very experienced in bricklaying, and I do think a bit of Feb makes a difference... Although I still do it equally badly, with or without.

Cheers
Richard

DIYNotIan · 14 Jul 2016

Thanks for the posts. But I already placed the order this morning so I already have the plasticiser. 5L of the stuff! This stuff to be precise:

http://www.everbuild.co.uk/building-products/building-admixtures/201-Mortar-Admix

Reading the bottle, it looks like I'll be using - at most - 250ml. So there's going to be a lot spare!

Cheers

diynot

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Brick Wall Mortar - What's the "normal" colour, and how much will I need?

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