The Brew Cabin

When you look at the many paving catalogues provided by the manufacturers, they all show the buff or york coloured flags, having been pointed in a mortar the same colour as the slab.
How do you achieve this, is there a colour additive available, and if so, where from.

Ps. What a fantastic web site.

You can get mortar dyes from most Builders' Merchants, Gary, and they come in a wide-ish range of colours. Reds, Buffs, Browns and Blacks are the most common, but there are in-betweeny shades, such as 'Marigold' (a sort of pale orange) and 'Tan' (a sort of reddy-brown). Blues and Greens are much more expensive and really not worth the effort for paving pointing.

Most of the dyes are based on metallic oxides and they work by colouring the cement in the mortar/concrete. The amount of dye used varies from brand to brand, but 1kg dye per 25kg of cement is a typical mix for a reasonably coloured mix. However, most, if not all, dyes fade over time, and what starts out as, say, dark brown will mellow to a mid-brown over a couple of years.

You can mix the dyes to develop a shade you find attractive. Youc could, for example, mix buff with broiwn to get a honey sort of colour. You should also know that the colour of a freshly mixed 'plastic' mortar can be hell of a lot different from the same mortar a week later, when it's cured.