Brick Staining - Colorant Kit

Wow!! I am so happy with this product! I had the ugliest hearth bricks before using this product and now I love my hearth. It is a lot like painting with watercolors but it works great. The first photo is my hearth before. I cleaned the brick with water, a scrubber, and Sonett scouring powder and let it dry for a week before applying the stain. The first photo is my hearth before, and the second is after staining. ADVICE I found mixing colors to be fairly easy. The instructions did not define how much powder to put in the water because it will depend on how bright you want the color. I found that about 4 teaspoons worked the best in the recommended water quantity for color mixing. I would apply many light coats to achieve your color. There was more than enough powder in the kit to likely color two hearths the size of mine. I am an artist and I am skilled at mixing colors, but I know that there is a number you can call and they will give you a formula to help you mix your color just right. I would and likely will buy this product again. I have exterior brick that is the same ugly color and I can't wait to change it too!

TL;DR: This product works (at least for the mortar). Here's the short story: we had a new, double-sided fireplace installed. The mason messed up the mortar color -- it was supposed to be light gray not orange (who gets orange?). Content never to have to work with him again, we sought out options. All of the other options were expensive. Since those other options were some variation on chiseling away the mortar or redoing the entire fireplace, it was worth a shot to try this. == Summary == * The product is a powdered that, when mixed with water, can be applied with a paintbrush depositing a layer of material over the top of the stone/mortar. * The process was simple, fast and effective. We could do all the mortar on one side in about 30 minutes (10x8). It takes about 30 minutes to dry completely and the change is obvious. * It took ~4 total teaspoons of material per half cup to get the color change we needed. One 1/2 cup was enough for about 1/2 the fire place mortar on one side (about 5x8). == The Contents == The box includes everything you need to do this except the water: brushes, materials, mixing container, and instructions. For colors, the box includes black, white, red, blue, and yellow. All I needed was the black and white. The powder is all in small little plastic containers. This kit DOES NOT contain a lot of powder. It was more than enough to do my double sided fireplace's mortar, but I wouldn't be surprised for a larger project you'd need more than the supplied materials. You can order just the powder in the colors you need direct. == The Process == First, I did as the box suggested: emailed for a recipe. The result was that I got a recipe for equal parts white and black and to adjust partial teaspoons at a time until I got the right color. For reasons below, that wasn't particularly helpful. Second, I started experimenting on some mortar on the bottom. I tried their recipe but I came to realize: it takes quite a bit to actually _do_ anything. My ultimate recipe was 2 teaspoons white + 2 teaspoons black + 1/2c of water. Anything less than that required multiple coats to start to hide the orange. A few things I did that worked better: * Don't use tap water. I used distilled water. It seems to work better. * Wait at least 10 minutes between mixing and application. It does say this in instructions and I think it does make a difference. == My Experience == Once I got the recipe correct, this process was fast. The mixture goes on more or less like water on a paintbrush. It's not thick. And, at least in my "gray" case, it was hard to tell that it was actually going on except that it looked wet and the orange started to go away. Since it goes on like water, getting rid of the excess water after dipping it in prevented a lot of dripping. Forgetting to do it was just a time waste since it meant a relatively simple clean up step. We did tape off the wood and drywall around the mortar. Not sure if that was strictly necessary, but it definitely didn't hurt. A few things I learned: 1. Be careful not to go over an area multiple times. The product is additive. The more times you go over it, the more noticeable the color change. Get the color right the first time to make sure you do it that way. 2. If you're experimenting in an area, keep tabs on the ADDED values for the same reasons 3. Keep a wet rag handy. It removes the "mistakes" pretty well. 4. This is not hard. It goes fast. 5. I did only do 1/2c at a time. I could see the process of remixing to be tedious if you needed to do a large surface area.

My newly built house developed a crack in the mortar above the garage door. The builder replaced the mortar joint, but I was not happy with the repair. The color was off and you could see the zig zag repair. I spent a great deal of time mixing and remixing, painting in the mortar joint and painting over the joint and finally the repair could not be seen. I waited almost a year to write this review to see if the color lasted. It has. So if you have the patience and the perseverance. to do this correctly, I would recommend this product for mortar joints. It seems to me that to do entire bricks would take a great deal of material and cost a small fortune, but for mortar joints, it is fine.

Great product, easy to apply. Completely transformed our brick fireplace to achieve the desired colors.

The colorant is great but it is not something that stays consistent even when following the directions the same way. I used the same amounts each time and the results were different each time. Don't know how that happens but it did.

Washed right off! I spent so much time getting the recipe right and applying to my clean fireplace. Only to discover it washes right off. Auggrhh!!!!! Wish I had used a concrete stain. So mad. A heads up would have been great!!!!! Requires a sealer of some sort ?!?

I had a brick repair on the wall in the front of my house. They did not match the rest of the brick at all, and I was embarrassed every time I walked past it. When I bought my kit, I didn’t know what to do with it at first, but I got great service. One of the Masonry Cosmetics guys, helped me. I sent him samples of the brick and pictures and he figured out the stain colors for me. He also noticed something that I never would have thought of on my own: the mortar color was wrong and had me fix that first. Fixing that was the icing on the cake. Great product and even better service.

We have an old brick patio with thin pavers that aren’t made anymore. They are highly varied in color including yellows, reds, and almost black. We had to repair a section of the patio with brick that did not match. We used clay brick. One expert after another told us there was nothing we could do about the color because there is no paint or stain or covering that will work on clay. We tried the kit, however, and have been really pleased. Because our patio has so many colors, it’s work, but so worth it. Matching existing color(s) takes trial and error, but just take your time. Since this kit allows for endless color mixing, we are confident now that we can get our patch matching in time. So far it’s weathered the Florida summer and storms for 2 months and hasn’t faded one bit.