# Lighten Mortar Joints



## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

Either live with the color (you won't care months from now) or remove it and apply something else. There's no way to lighten it.


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

To late now but any concrete supply company has samples of all the morters they sell so you would know what it would look like once it drys.


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## wkearney99 (Apr 8, 2009)

joecaption said:


> To late now but any concrete supply company has samples of all the morters they sell so you would know what it would look like once it drys.


As she posted, they DID look at something beforehand, and are not seeing that same thing now that it's on the wall. 

But for the next batch, yep, well worth the time to go with a standard color of mort*a*r (and there are many) so you can see a fully cured example. Bearing in mind that adjacent colors of the brick and other materials (windows, etc) all come into play with how the mind perceives a given color. What might looks one way in a 12" long strip might be perceived differently when done on a whole wall with landscaping, siding, windows and other colors all around it. 

If she really, really wants it different then now's the time to set about digging it back out for repointing. Best get it out before it's fully hardened. 

But honestly, unless it's wildly out of whack I would think twice about obsessing about it. The costs to redo it and the long term issues with the work will be a lot more stressful than a simple shade of color difference. There's lots things to be picky about in life, not sure I'd find this as one of them.


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## TRUEPRO (Apr 10, 2012)

The sun is mainly responsible for the lightening of mortar/concrete. Areas that receive less will be darker, areas that receive more will be lighter. You have to give it a good amount of time before you see how it turns out. Sometimes months...


Are you sure the exact same color of sand was used? There is WHITE masonry wash sand and sometimes there is YELLOW masonry wash sand. This can somewhat determine the final color of the mortar. All you can do now is wait for the seasons to take toll on the mortar. Unless you want to spend $6 per foot to have all the brick joints redone.


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## jomama45 (Nov 13, 2008)

Any chance they "burned" or "burnished" the joints due to the brick sucking the moisture out of the mortar too fast? This will certainly lead to darker joints on the surface...


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