Brick Tint - how to colour bricks?

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

We have some bricks which had frost damage. We have cemented (mortar) over them, filling the mortar joints and the face of the damaged bricks. Yes, I know ideally the damaged bricks should have been removed/replaced but we did not want to do this as not experienced enough and also difficulties matching bricks. Also know that we could/should have bought powdered tint to put into the mortar mix before applying but we didn't do this.

Mortar looks ugly colour. We'd like to colour the cement so it looks less obvious but the only paint we can find is very paint like, solid colour rather than more of a wash/tint.

We've seen brick tinting websites which sell brick tinting kits that say they can permenently and completely tint the colour of bricks and mortar. These products and claims (before and after pics) look very good but the tint is very expensive.

Just wondering if anyone knows a cheaper source or cheaper alternative to this tint which would work on bricks and be long lasting? Or would it be possible to buy an ordinary masonry paint and water it down in some way to make it more tint like? What fixative would we need to apply over a watered down paint to help it to hold/last.

Many thx for any advice.

evoke

Just a random thought: try powdering a real brick somehow to create a lot of brick dust and mixing that with the mortar. Then remove the 'ugly' mortar neatly where you've filled bricks and refill with the brick-coloured mortar.

waterwatereverywhere

Hello Evoke

Thank you for your suggestion - but can't really face having to chip out all the old mortar and re-apply. Am hoping someone can suggest a sort of tint/wash and fixative I could just paint over to save having to re-do completely or buy the expensive stuff from the likes of Beggington brick/Brick Dye that I've seen when googling.

keystone

waterwatereverywhere wrote: »

Hello Evoke

Thank you for your suggestion - but can't really face having to chip out all the old mortar and re-apply. Am hoping someone can suggest a sort of tint/wash and fixative I could just paint over to save having to re-do completely or buy the expensive stuff from the likes of Beggington brick/Brick Dye that I've seen when googling.

How is a tenner on ebay for 100ml of Bebbington's stuff expensive if it achieves what you want?

Cheers

muckybutt

An easy way and somewhat old way of tinting / ageing bricks is to wash the bricks / mortar with a dilute soot and water mixture.