Oxide powder to make cement white?

[Leew]

Hi there! We are wanting to pour a self leveling floor in a bathroom and considering using white pigment. The question is, Will it actually change the colour of the cement or maybe just make it slightly lighter? If it won't make a huge impact we will just stick with good old grey. Thank you! 

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Leew. It's wonderfulto have you join us and many thanks for your question on cements.

To get a truly white cement floor you need to start with white cement. However, the closest you might find is off-white cement. Standard cement is naturally grey, and it is extremely difficult to override it with white oxide. Adding white pigment to grey cement will usually only give you a slightly lighter grey rather than anything approaching a white finish. If you are aiming for a clean white look you really do need to begin with a white cement product. Even then, you may still end up adding some white oxide to push it toward a brighter white, because white cement on its own can still dry to a softer, duller tone. Trying to turn grey cement white with pigment alone is not going to achieve the result you are after, so if a true white finish matters, choose a white cement base, or you could experiment with adding white oxide to off-white cement.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell