anyone know anything about cements, bricks?

allen levine

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I stepped up onto the brick step up near my front door and the front row of bricks has separated and can be pulled forward.
Its not all of them just one side of the stoop.
There is cement underneath them, obviously the rough winters, ice, rain, have killed the bond between that cement and brick.
(it was installed in 2003)

Can someone suggest a product, one of those concrete patch, mixes, ? that I can mix easy enough and just try to secure the bricks in enough so they wont pull out.
A product readily available at home depot or lowes.
 

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OK, I'll preface this by saying I'm the son of a civil engineer who made a living designing concrete mixes (among other things).

It ain't cement. It's mortar. :D Cement is the gray powder that you mix with sand and gravel to get concrete, or just sand to get mortar. My dad beat that into me (figuratively) as a young child. I got in trouble in 1st grade for correcting my teacher when she talked about a "cement sidewalk". There ain't no such thing, lol. :)

Anyway, back to the question...

You should be able to fix the loose brick with fast-setting mortar repair mix available from Home Depot or Lowe's. If you use it, you should knock off as much of the old existing mortar on the sides and bottom of the loose chunk as you can. You'd essentially be replacing the old mortar with new. I'll warn you in advance that doing neat mortar work is harder than it looks. The pros make it look easy.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_354681-286-...serSearch=mortar+repair+mix&productId=3472653

For the spots where you just have gaps in the mortar, but the bricks aren't yet loose, there's not much (short of expensive epoxy products) that will flow into the crack to hold the pieces together. You can try to mash some fresh mortar into the cracks, but it will not do much to help adhere the two parts together.
 
before I start tomorrow in the garage, Im heading over to HD to see what they have in stock.
I have a lot of trowels, all shapes and sizes, so 15 bucks for a bag of mortar repair is worth the investment.

if I see my work doesn't hold, Ill get a brick guy to take off the front bricks and do it over again, or whatever he can remedy.

Ill see how I do first, as I don't think its too bad, the mortar underneath is very solild and bricks don't seem to be going down or falling off.
 
I was watering some flowers getting about to head over to hd this morning, I was talking to my neighbor, the ex contractor(he works if he feels like it), I showed him the bricks, told him Im going to get a bag of mortar repair, and he offered me a tube of construction adhesive, says hes used it on bricks before, and had some in his shed.
I had to borrow his 29 ounce gun, I only have a small tube gun, and after making a mess on one brick, Ill see how it works before I get mortar repair.
didn't cost me anything, Ill see if it sets.(I used a lot, after I cleaned out all the old mortar/cement, I wanted to fill any small gaps so I used half a tube and also glued side of bricks together)
 
It will probably hold, but it doesn't repair the cracks that the water is getting into and freezing that caused them to pop loose in the first place. You'd be better off with Vaughn's advice in the long run as the joints will get re-sealed to keep it from occurring in the future or water from getting in and breaking down the structure under it. Just my $.02...:wave:

If you've already done it, they do sell a crack repair filler (http://www.homedepot.com/p/Quikrete-1-qt-Concrete-Crack-Seal-864000/100318507) that you can pour in the surrounding cracks to fill them. I'd get a chip brush and some sand to pour over it as you put it in. Sprinkling some sand then brushing the joint can help color match the fill to mortar that is already there.
 
the stoop sunk around 3/4 of an inch this past winter.
I looked around and it seems the entire border is a bit compromised, but only those bricks were loose.
Its only a matter of time.

any repair I do will be a temporary one, (that's what the contractor told me today), Ill wait until it all comes apart then have it rebuilt.
 
the stoop sunk around 3/4 of an inch this past winter.
I looked around and it seems the entire border is a bit compromised, but only those bricks were loose.
Its only a matter of time.

any repair I do will be a temporary one, (that's what the contractor told me today), Ill wait until it all comes apart then have it rebuilt.

Same thing has happened to my front stoop, Allen. Loose/crumbling bricks and mortar. Lotsa loose bricks in the sidewalks, too. The past (record breaking cold!) winter was pretty brutal. Had frost heave where there'd never been any before.

Got an estimate, and the guy wanted about $2,000 to re-do just the stoop and front walk, and when he described the shoddy work he wanted to do (just pour a couple inches of concrete over the whole thing), I sent him packing. I need to find another contractor, or else try to take on the whole job myself. Not really something I want to try.
 
OK, I'll preface this by saying I'm the son of a civil engineer who made a living designing concrete mixes (among other things).

It ain't cement. It's mortar. :D Cement is the gray powder that you mix with sand and gravel to get concrete, or just sand to get mortar. My dad beat that into me (figuratively) as a young child. I got in trouble in 1st grade for correcting my teacher when she talked about a "cement sidewalk". There ain't no such thing, lol. :)

I worked with a civil engineer from South Carolina. When I asked about pouring cement on a project, he replied: "Well you may pour CEment, but Civil Engineers LAY Concrete." I learned the difference.
 
I love this thread! I'm learning so many things with it!
Vaughn, We use the same words here, "cemento" ( cement) is the grey powder) "mortero" ( mortar) but concrete is "hormigón", but how do call the mix of lime and sand? We call it "mortero de cal" ( lime mortar literally), is not used nowadays but it was what romans used to build all their buildings and they still hold! They still used it here when I was a kid for certain applications.

However, when I was learning english they also told me that cement was a synonym of glue.:huh::dunno:
 
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Toni the English language is a real mix up. I as kid born of English mother and father could not understand how they could call glue we use in model planes as cement. Duh. I was taught cement was that grey powder too. And my grandfather on mothers side was a builder. Go figure.
I have a real good chuckle to myself when i think of that old movie (My Fair Lady) and the tune .....why cant the English learn to speak...
Always thought they fine ones to speak.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jhninL_G3Fg

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk
 
I worked with a civil engineer from South Carolina. When I asked about pouring cement on a project, he replied: "Well you may pour CEment, but Civil Engineers LAY Concrete." I learned the difference.

LOL, I'll have to share that with my dad. (You can also place concrete, too.)
 
Just this afternoon I saw a trench for laying a pipe being filled with what looked liked concrete. I asked the back hoe operator and he mentioned the name of the product, but I couldn't understand it. He said that it was used to prevent settling, and that it could be dug up afterwards. I guess it was a concrete mix but with hardly any cement. Has anyone ever heard of this?
 
Just this afternoon I saw a trench for laying a pipe being filled with what looked liked concrete. I asked the back hoe operator and he mentioned the name of the product, but I couldn't understand it. He said that it was used to prevent settling, and that it could be dug up afterwards. I guess it was a concrete mix but with hardly any cement. Has anyone ever heard of this?

I've seen that done with lean concrete (regular mix with a much-reduced cement content), but we always just called it lean concrete or a "lean mix". I wonder if the name he gave you was some type of slang term?
 
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