Indy Total Construction

Basic masonry repairs include:

• Filling in dings in floors and driveways
• Replacing a block or brick
• Repointing mortar

To patch concrete first remove all loose material from the old concrete. Use a vacuum cleaner. Then scrub away any oil or grease with hot water and trisodium phosphate (TSP). Use a stiff brush. Protect your hands with rubber gloves.

After the concrete is clean, wet it. Fill in the patch. The best mix for patching concrete is one part Portland cement to three parts fine, clean sand. Add concrete glue to help feather out the edges of your patch and secure it to the old concrete. Leave a wet rag or gunny sack over the patch for a couple days.

Replace a broken or missing concrete block with the same mix. Chisel the old mortar away. Soak the new block in water for five minutes and wet the blocks around the hole. Trowel in mortar on all sides and set in the new block. You may have to take some mortar out little by little to make the block fit. Keep nudging the block with your trowel handle or a piece of wood. Don’t use a hammer.

Once the block is in place and aligned, tool the joint to match the rest of the wall. If the other joints are tuckpointed (grooved) make the new joint match. Wipe up any mortar spilled on the face of the block before it hardens.

Use a finishing tool to finish mortar joints after the mortar begins to harden.

When you replace a brick or block, trowel in mortar around the opening. Nudge the block in place with the handle of a trowel or a piece of wood.

To patch concrete, clean and wet the area. Fill in the area and feather the edges so the patch will stick.

Replacing a fired (red) brick is the same as a concrete block. But be very careful to match the color or your replacement will stand out..

Try not to spill mortar over the face of the brick. If you do, you can remove the stain with acid and a stiff brush. BE CAREFUL WHEN WORKING WITH ACID. Always add the acid to water. Adding water to acid can cause an explosion. Protect yourself with goggles and rubber gloves. Wear old clothing. Muriatic acid will remove clothes, eyes, and skin faster than it will remove the mortar stain.

Repointing is putting new mortar into joints when the old mortar is falling out. First clean out the crumbling mortar. You can make a tool for this by nailing through a block of wood until the point of the nail extends 1/2 inch. Slide this point along the joints and you won’t dig too deep. Then wet the bricks and flush out loose mortar with a good strong hose jet.

Mix no more mortar than you can use in one hour. If you are repointing a whole wall or chimney, use any color mortar. However, if you are patching only a section, take care to match the color of the old mortar. Don’t work with mortar when the temperature is below freezing.

You can make a tool to remove old mortar by driving a nail through a block of wood until it extends about 1/2 inch.

People walk, ride, and play on concrete and asphalt surfaces. Because the greatest use of these products is in floors, slabs, sidewalks, and streets, concrete and asphalt aren’t usually considered home repair problems. But almost every house has some cement in or under it. Concrete workers and finishers will always be in demand because cement is useful.

Mortar can be- mixed in a suitable container by hand. It contains Portland cement, sand and water and sometimes lime in certain proportions.

Depending on the job, you will need some of these tools for work with mortar or concrete. Always keep tools clean.

Add an aggregate to mortar and you have concrete. Concrete can be mixed in different proportions. One common mixture contains one part Portland cement, three parts sand, four parts aggregate and a little water.

Concrete can be mixed in a container such as a pail or a wheelbarrow or on a slab or piece of plywood. You can also use a small power mixer, but do not fill it more than half full or it will not mix properly. Never mix concrete on the ground. The slightest bit of mud weakens the concrete.

Cement means an adhesive that holds things together. Cement is a word that is often used in place of:

• Mortar or

• Concrete

Mortar is usually a mixture of sand and Portland cement used with or instead of lime for greater strength. It is used to cement bricks and tiles together. To prepare mortar, add the correct amount of water and mix. Mortar works best on a wet surface. Dry brick or block will absorb water from the mortar before it can set properly. Whenever possible, soak the block, brick, or wall to be patched before applying mortar.

When gravel, crushed stone, or some other aggregate is added to sand and Portland cement, it is called concrete. Concrete can be bought in different sized sacks. When mixed with water, one 80-pound sack of premix will make up an amount that will fill a section 4 feet by 4 feet by 1/2 inch. You can also purchase the sand, lime and aggregate separately and mix it by hand or with a power mixer 3). For big jobs it is easiest to order concrete by the truckload already made up and ready to pour.

A few basic tools are necessary for working with concrete or mortar. Be sure to clean all tools before the concrete hardens on them.