Get Perfect Color Matches: Tips for Prepping Your Masonry Samples for Our Color Lab
We talked with Tagba Al Yassimou (Alex), a Color Matching Specialist at our Color Lab in Hanover, Maryland, for his advice on how to best select and prep masonry samples to get the best color matching results. With his 13 years at Cathedral Stone Products, many masons, contractors, and architects have come to rely on and trust Alex again and again.
In the Color Lab, Alex and his team develop custom formulas for mortars and coatings using powdered and liquid pigments and substrate-specific materials formulated for compatibility with the stone type being restored.
The type of masonry also affects how a coating or mortar repair will appear once the job is complete, so it’s essential to test on the same stone type — brownstone, limestone, brick, and other substrates — to get the best match. “We have pre-cut limestone tiles that we use to test our color matching formulas, but, ideally, we want to test on a sample from the actual site,” Alex told us.
As for pigments: Dennis Rude, Stonecutter and Cathedral Stone’s founder and President, is committed to using only synthetic pigments. Alex explained why:
“They last so much longer than natural pigments. Sunlight makes natural pigments fade. It doesn’t do that to synthetic pigments."
Tagba Al Yassimou (Alex)
Alex offered us the following tips to ensure you get the best color match:
1) Clean the sample. Always match to as close to the original substrate as possible. Even if you do not intend to clean the structure, a repair matched to clean substrate will get dirty over time and will blend perfectly with the surrounding substrate over time. Learn more about prepping for a color match with this video.
2) Send a large enough sample for us to assess thoroughly how well various formulations match. A sample should be no smaller than 2" x 2”, but larger if possible.
3) When cutting a sample to send, select from the specific location to be restored (ideally) or a location that represents the typical color and texture of the repair location.
4) Fill out the information form thoroughly so we can understand as much as possible about your color match. See links below.
5) Once you receive the custom-matched mortar or coating, apply it for approval to the area where you obtained the sample. Stone naturally varies in color, and it’s important to get color approval based on the area that was matched. Once your matched color is approved, you can then decide whether to “tweak” the color on site to match the varying tones of that color. Watch this video for more information about “tweaking” colors in the field.
6) Wait for the mortar or coating to dry for eight hours to get a true color assessment.
7) Assess the color from 20 feet away.
8) Once we have developed an exact match, we can, if ordered, formulate a shade lighter and a shade darker for “tweaking” the color in the field.
9) Apply in multiple test areas and seek approval from a decision-maker before moving ahead with the full patching or coating application. Watch this video for more information about mixing custom color mortar stains on-site.
Please note that our custom mortar colors have a two-bucket minimum. We don’t do this intentionally, it’s simply the minimum amount our mixer can produce.
Project Success
By following Alex’s tips, you’ll achieve a more accurate result, prompt approval, and the ability to move forward with confidence that the restoration won’t need to be repeated due to an inaccurate color match.
