colourwash for slabs?

[izzyeckerslike]

The slabs outside our patio door are old weathered dirty grey & some with large gaps between them, they were laid long ago by some incompetent DIY'er

We've scraped out all the weeds & filled the gaps with mortar mix so that alone has made a huge difference but we wonder if it's possible to do a cement colour wash somehow?

The yellow cement colour powder would do the trick but how is it best to make sure it doesn't wear off ? we tried a test patch mixing it as directed but it dried too fast presumably & is rather powdery so maybe it needs more than a wash but floated on with a trowel?

 

[Alastairreid]

oxide cement colourant will wear off very quickly! it is supposed to be mixed evenly through a mortar mix.
just adding water and painting on will not work on the long term i'm afraid.

 

[izzyeckerslike]

Does it need some kind of primer such as PVA applied first or is it better to mix some in with the cement/sand mix?

 

[Thermo]

no it wont work. it will wear off of the slabs

 

[breezer]

years ago my dad laid a patio, red yellow and white slabs, after about 6 years you could not tell which was what colour, they all "faded"

 

[noseall]

IT WON'T WORK!

 

[joe-90]

It'll work for a while. I left some nails on my patio once and the oxide stains were there for over a year. The yellow stain is the same iron oxide. Just try it on an unused slab and see what happens.

 

[stuart45]

For colour washing brickwork you mix up the colour solution and then add alum or white copperas as a fixing agent. Bricks however are different to slabs so I doubt if they will hold the colour for long. Have you tried just cleaning them up with a pressure washer?