Brick slips and lime mortar

[Bogart]

Am going to be doing one of the kitchen walls with brick slips. I intend to use white lime mortar can anybody see problems with this as opposed to a standard coloured mortar?

[Zebra]

How do you make white lime mortar?

[Bogart]

By working it a lot in the joint the lime comes to the surface.

[TheForge]

You can use a very white lime like Buxton and mix with chalk or marble dust. If you need more body fine silica sand won’t add much colour.

Over working the mortar just brings a lime bloom to the surface to form a crust.

[a twig]

You can use a very white lime like Buxton and mix with chalk or marble dust. If you need more body fine silica sand won’t add much colour.

Over working the mortar just brings a lime bloom to the surface to form a crust.

What this man says 100%, I've also found that NHL seems to dry "whiter" than fat, I used a premix NHL mortar from conserv that was properly white, ideal for something more decorative. Excellent stuff, linked below and available in 10kg tubs up to 25kg bags.

https://www.lime-mortars.co.uk/lime-mor ... scarr/25kg

[Bogart]

That is the sort I will use just wondered if suitable for brick slips but see no reason why not.

[a twig]

I assumed you'll be using a flexible tile adhesive or dedicated brick slip adhesive product to attach the slips and the NHL is just for the pointing?

In which case that will be fine.

Normal mortars (cement or NHL) won't bond the slip to the wall strongly enough though

[Bogart]

Yes this is just for the pointing only. Years ago I used a pointing gun which I found to be not a lot of use, it used to squirt out a lot of water and leave a very thick mortar still in the tube. I wonder if they have improved?
Or maybe was just how I used it.

[a twig]

I've had better results with a bag and a wide nozzle, and making it slightly wetter than usual, never got on with the guns and lime mortar myself. Most of the time I just use hawk and finger trowel these days, particularly for brick where it is all straight lines.

I also bought a cheapo finger trowel and used a grinder to tickle it into a thinner shape with a point on the end and that's been great for ashlar etc

There is a company that makes a "gunlime" mortar that flows betters for guns etc, can't readily remember who but I posted on here ages ago about it. Probably not worth cost / hassle though

[Bogart]

Have been in contact with the lime mortars people you gave me the link to. At least they answer queries and they did mention that they have a gun suitable mortar. I am still sceptical on this as past experience was not brilliant.
As I am only doing one wall of the kitchen which amounts to around 190 slips maybe I will stick with the tried and tested method.