Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 19, 2010 10:22 am I would like to get a few opinions on the colour of my mortar. When the brickies were laying the bricks, I noticed that they were using an orange coloured sand. I rang the SS straight away to inform him of this. He assured me that they use orange sand with an off-white cement to acheive the look. He then told me that the colour of the mortar can vary depending on the colour of the sand from the quarry and that it would lighten up as it dried. It's now been 2 weeks since the bricks were done and it still looks nothing like off-white. http://i899.photobucket.com/albums/ac196/clydefrog777/DSC_0066.jpg Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 2Jul 19, 2010 11:27 am That's orange. The ones at the top are more orange, were they layed more recently? The exact degree of orange depends on the viewing angle on my monitor, but it's obvious that there IS orange there. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 4Jul 19, 2010 11:43 am There's certainly an orange tinge to it but I think when you see the whole house done it looks fine and doesn't scream orange IYKWIM? Building an Eden Brae Saville 27 http://karry327.blogspot.com/ Building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=44247 Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 5Jul 19, 2010 12:52 pm I want off-white mortar and to be honest, looking at your photos I would NOT be happy. It is orange. I wouldnt care if it looked good far away (so does a lot of * work if I may say so...), I want it to look good fullstop. Custom European Cabinets - Melbourne Kitchen Specialist PM for business details as website currently being updated! Our Crazy Owner Builder Journey! Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 6Jul 19, 2010 1:13 pm I definitely wouldn't call that off-white. If you paid extra for off-white I'd be getting them to re-do it or at least demand a refund and maybe some sort of compensation. In saying that, I quite like the look, but if it's not you paid for you shouldn't have to put up with it. Building the Foxley 29 with PD. Contracts signed 24/05/10 Land titled 3/11/10 Land settlement 18/11/10 Site Scrape 17/01/11 Slab poured 3/02/11 Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 7Jul 19, 2010 10:18 pm Hmm... i gotta say that's about as off-white as a fake tan. Our off white was based on a greyish kind of sand and offwhite cement. In this pic below, the bottom row of bricks were done about one week before the top layer of bricks which were done same day as the photo: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And in this pic, this is after cleaning: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ T&T Knockdown and rebuild - building Metr1con Nolan 41 (43) @ http://tim-and-tina.blogspot.com! http://www.verdantdental.com.au Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 8Jul 19, 2010 10:33 pm I agree with Bam - it looks ok from far away but you want it to look good up close too our builders used orange sand with the off white cement and it turned out whiter than that. I think they could do better than that. "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." ā Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 9Jul 20, 2010 11:50 am I just dont understand what the builders are thinking, when we request and pay for off-white mortar, it means just that, not orange or any other colour. I have seen other people on here that have had trouble with "off white" and the builders interpretations of off white. I will certainly be on the lookout when it's bricking time to make sure it's the colour I want. I'm sorry but to me yours does look orange and I would not be happy. Site Start: 10th September, 2010 PCI : Friday 27th January, 2011. Handover: 3rd February, 2011 Build Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=37677 Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 10Jul 21, 2010 2:23 pm We ordered off white, and the majority of the house has it - but there's patches where it looks like they've tried to fix it up, and as a result is dark grey - there's a definite line you can notice Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 11Jul 21, 2010 6:26 pm Apparently off white sand can be difficult to come by. We live in Brisbane. They used to mine it on Stradbroke Island, but now it comes down from Hervey Bay. Our bricks were laid last week with off white mortar...and the mortar looks WHITE. Yours is orange, not white. Just completed build with Hallmark Homes Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 12Jul 21, 2010 8:34 pm That's definately orange. I too wouldn't be pleased either. From a distance, your house looks fabulous, and the mortar looks lovely. How much would it really lighten? To a lighter orange, but obviously not to the off white shade that you've paid for. Dear J.K. Rowling, Your books are entirely unrealistic. I mean, a ginger kid with two friends? Sincerely, Anonymous Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 13Jul 21, 2010 9:23 pm I read similar problems someone had a few months ago. This made me question my builder before I committed to paying to upgrade to the off white mortar. I wanted to know exactly what they use. They told me they use "bright & light" cement with white sand. I haven't started building yet, but, I'll keep and eye out what colour sand they use. To achieve the off white I believe they will have to use an off white coloured cement such as "bright and light" but the colour of the sand makes a difference in the overall result too. Thread - https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36205 Land Settled - 19 Jul Site Scrape - 23 Aug Slab - 2 Oct Frame - 27 Oct Locked Out - 1 Dec Handover - 11 Mar Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 14May 03, 2017 10:22 pm any resolution to this? Im having exact same issue, orange sand used on off white cement... looks orange to me. I dont want to wait until heaps is done to know if this is going to be better. Re: Off-White Mortar That Looks Orange To Me! 15Aug 14, 2021 9:27 pm chrismarshall3 any resolution to this? Im having exact same issue, orange sand used on off white cement... looks orange to me. I dont want to wait until heaps is done to know if this is going to be better. Hi Chris, where did you end up with this? Same issue for me, but our brickwork is now finished and has just been cleaned. Post cleaning it looks orange. 2 1157 Very common on rendered homes Smaller suppliers get the lower quality raw materials 6 9080 Thank you. Do I use timber floorboards for stairs or do people use timber treads? Or is both the same? 6 3808 |