Direct Colors DIY Home Improvement · Episode 19
Listen to this episode
Pigment colors concrete by coating the cement particles, so the dose is calculated against the cement in the mix — never the total weight of the bag. That is a problem, because very few manufacturers print the cement content on the bag. Shawna Turner on how to find or estimate it, why grout and stucco read differently from the color chart, and how to convert an unhelpfully small number into teaspoons.
5 min 25 sec · Download MP3 (7.5 MB)
For this job you need: Concrete Powder Pigment · ProSeal Li™
Not sure which is right for your slab? Send us the details — the free project consultation is a person, not a form letter.
The written guide on this topic, with photographs: How to Color Grout With Concrete Pigment.
Editor’s note. This episode was recorded some years ago. The transcript below has been corrected where the facts have changed; nothing about the technique has been altered.
- ⚠ Neither blue named in this episode is still offered. “Cornflower” and “Royal Blue” have both gone from the pigment range. The current blues are Ice Blue, Steel Blue, Slate Blue, Sapphire, Ocean Blue, Midnight Blue, Persian Blue and Blueberry — see the full color chart. The arithmetic in the worked examples is unaffected; only the color names have changed.
- The “Custom Batch Calculator” now lives with the other tools on the Coverage Calculators page, and the shade picker is on the pigment calculator product.
- “Sprayable Satin Finish Sealer” is now EasySeal™ Satin, and the “DCI Penetrating Lithium Sealer Hardener” is now ProSeal Li™.
- ProSeal Li™ was described as “a one-time application”. Softened: a penetrating sealer avoids the periodic recoating a film sealer needs, but we do not claim a single application lasts forever.
- The step-by-step calculator video referenced is no longer published.
- Two color names have been removed from the transcript, not just flagged. “Cornflower” and “Royal Blue” are no longer catalog colors, so the worked example now reads “your chosen color”. The arithmetic is untouched and no current color code has been substituted in their place.
- Housekeeping, applied to every episode in this archive. The spoken sign-off has been rewritten to point here rather than at the old directcolors.com/listen address. The RSS-feed line, the social-media list and any pointers to retired photo-gallery, blog or video pages have been dropped, along with pointers to pages that have since been retired or superseded by the links under What’s Next — in some episodes that removes a whole sentence or a short exchange. Every speaker says “design consultation”; the service is now called the free project consultation, and we have used the current name throughout rather than send you to a page that no longer exists. Run-on speaker turns, duplicated intro lines and obvious transcription slips have been repaired without changing meaning. Nothing bearing on technique, safety or product choice has been altered; those changes are itemized above.
Still accurate, and the reason to keep this episode: pigment doses against cement (plus lime, if present) and not total mix weight; these mixes run roughly 3:1 sand to cement; grout, stucco, plaster and mortar contain no aggregate so colors read differently from the chart; and converting pounds to teaspoons or grams is the only sane way to handle a sample batch.
What you need for this job
The teaspoon conversion works with the current pigment. These are the materials it applies to.
- Coloring grout, stucco, mortar or plaster
- Concrete Powder Pigment — non-reactive, so it suits any cement-based material
- Sealing the finished work
- ProSeal Li™
Small batches are where dosing goes wrong. Send your mix weight through the free project consultation before you color a whole job.
Full transcript
Amie Nolen: You’re listening to Direct Colors podcast Episode 19: Calculating Pigment for Coloring Grout, Stucco, Mortar and Plaster. If this is your first time listening, then thanks for joining us. Many of our customers are interested in coloring grout, stucco, plaster and mortar, but have a difficult time finding the right colors — especially blues — and small enough quantities. Direct Colors General Manager, Shawna Turner, is here to talk more about calculating for and mixing custom colors in these materials. Welcome, Shawna.
AN: Calculating pigment for so many different cement-based mixes sounds complicated. Is it?
Shawna Turner: It definitely can be. The difficult part is the fact that very few manufacturers report the product contents on the side of the bag. Usually the technical data sheet will include the amount of cement in the mix, but that’s not always available, so we often are forced to make an educated guess that may vary somewhat from product to product.
AN: Why is the amount of cement in the mix so important for getting the color right?
ST: Concrete pigment creates color by coating the cement particles with color, so other ingredients are a less important part of the color equation. The pigment needed to achieve a specific color from our color charts is based on the amount of cement only, rather than the total weight of the mix. Each mix is comprised of a 3:1 ratio of sand to cement and/or lime. If lime is also added to the mix, the cement and lime should be added together for the purposes of calculating pigment load. Whether you are mixing your own material or using a pre-bagged ready mix, having this basic information can help you to determine how much pigment you need for a project.
ST: Because grout, stucco, plaster and mortar are cement, sand and possibly lime mixes containing no aggregate, colors can appear somewhat different in fact than they are on color charts. Testing is incredibly important when working with these materials and will help avoid mistakes.
AN: There are several calculators on the website. Which calculator should a customer use for these mixes, as opposed to concrete?
ST: The calculator most useful for coloring grout, stucco, mortar and plaster is the Custom Batch Calculator. It requires two pieces of information: the weight of cement and/or lime in your mix, and the pound rating for the color chosen from our concrete pigment color chart. We recommend calculating both for batch size as well as the overall project.
ST: For example, if you planned to use one 80 lb bag of stucco mix and wanted to integrally color it, you’d enter 20 lbs for the cement and lime content, and a “1” for the pound rating, to calculate the amount of pigment needed — which is just under a quarter of a pound, 0.21 lbs, per bag.
ST: If you’re calculating for a sample, the pound output from the calculator is likely to be unhelpful, so we’ve provided a link to other calculation options at the bottom of the page. For example, say you have about 5 lbs of cement and lime in your mix and the amount of pigment needed for your chosen color is 0.1595 lbs. That is a difficult number to work with, so converting pounds to teaspoons for such a small batch is very useful — here it works out to 15 teaspoons in 5 lbs of white Portland mix. Calculating from pounds to grams is also a good option. Gram scales provide more exact measurements, especially when measuring small amounts, and can be used for any small or medium sized project.
AN: What about sealing? Is it necessary in all instances?
ST: Outdoor stucco applications should be sealed with an acrylic or penetrating densifier sealer, to protect the color integrity from the elements. Some customers prefer a light shine and the easy application EasySeal™ Satin offers, especially for stucco projects. ProSeal Li™ has a matte finish and is perfect for grout projects where gloss isn’t all that desirable. This sealer enhances overall durability and does not need the periodic recoating a film sealer does. Sealing for interior projects isn’t necessary, but acrylic sealers will deepen color appearance and add some gloss.
AN: Thanks for making pigment calculations for grout, stucco, mortar and plaster mixes easier to understand. If you have questions, call one of our expert technicians at 877-255-2656 and we’ll help you select the best products and technique for your needs. If you prefer email, send in a free online project consultation and we’ll get back to you within 24–48 hours. Direct Colors DIY Home Improvement podcasts were produced twice monthly for your enjoyment, and the show notes live here in the Direct Colors listening archive. Thanks again for joining us!
What’s Next
- Grout → How to Color Grout With Concrete Pigment
- Stucco and mortar → Stucco Colors · Custom Mortar Colors
- The full range → Concrete Pigment Color Chart · Coverage Calculators
- Coloring a slab instead → Integral Color
- Shop → Concrete Powder Pigment · ProSeal Li™
