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Ryan Crone asked:

Sep 11, 2014
Messy Mortar
My wife and I are building a house and we love the messy mortar look. The sample they did were great and what they did up until brick inspection was also good. However, now it seems the mortar is a darker color and there are spots that are all white. Also, where the brick is vertical it looks orange. We are concerned how this will get fixed. I happened to be there when a brick mason was still there. Here is what he told me 1-Mortar was still trying, however it is still not the same color even after 6 days in texas heat 2-The orange color is due to them cutting the pieces with the saw, they go back later and do some type of wash to make it match 3-The all white patches can be correct easily They assured me it was not the finished product and they go back and touch things up and make it all match. Should we be concerned and anyone know the process of doing this type of work? We see it and get concerned because we don't feel it will match. We are meeting with our builder also. We just don't know what to believe. Any information is greatly appreciated. Here are some picture of our concerns
Dec 1, 2014

It looks like the mason did a good job concerning the texture. But the color is way off. Unfortunatly its not easy to match new to old. The good news- Staining morter isnt hard to do if its not sealed. I suggest a few practice bricks and some best efforts at staining them to match, then do the rest. The bad news- it will probably never be pefect and if it is it will show after a few years of all that Texas weather torture.

Lori Boyter of RockAway Co. PRO answered:

Dec 23, 2014

The wash the brick mason is talking about is an acid wash. That should take care of the white stains. As far as the vertical brick looking a different color, the acid wash should take care of that too. However just like fabric and woodgrain anytime youbturn a material from horizontal to verticalbit will appear to be a different color because the grain pattern in the material is running differently and reflects light differently.  

The acid wash should help with the motor color. As it ages it will naturally darken and blend.

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