Concrete Front Steps Makeover - Use Cement Stucco Basic Building Products Last Long A few days ago, I dedicated one of the new LIVE streaming videos I do each M-F on my YouTube channel at 4 PM Eastern Time to one of the first building products used by man. I’m going back thousands of years Read More »
Concrete Rust Remover - Special Acid Just Below You may be like me and notice things about who knows what. For example, you may pay attention to decorating things and color coordination. Or, you may focus on landscaping and outdoor furniture arrangements. The list of things to look at in and around homes is almost Read More »
Concrete Patch - The Best Ones Require Work Do you have a wide unsightly crack in your concrete sidewalk, driveway, or patio? The concrete may have cracked all the way through the slab and now one piece is higher than the adjacent piece. Some cracks can be trip hazards. Each Sunday, I walk up the Read More »
Surfside City Condo Collapse - My Early Guess: Rusty Rebar Fractures and Weakened Concrete Columns This past weekend, my wife asked me all sorts of questions about the tragic sudden collapse of the 40-year-old condominium building near Miami, Florida. We’ve dated since high school and she knows I’ve got a geology degree instead of one Read More »
Repair Stucco Wall - Why It Failed My wife and I are the head ushers at our church. Each Sunday when we arrive early, we walk up a ramp that allows those attending mass in a wheelchair an easy way into Sacred Heart Church in Laconia, NH. The ramp was built with two poured concrete Read More »
Install Tile Over Cracked Concrete Floor - Use a Membrane QUESTION: I’m about to install ceramic tile on a concrete floor of a 40-year-old house. The concrete floor has cracks in it. This is a DIY endeavor and I don’t have the extra money to install the expensive membrane that I should use. Are my Read More »
"If you decide to apply one of the many magnificent epoxy coatings, you introduce a wildcard into the equation. There's a good chance the epoxy will fail and chip." DEAR TIM: I’ve got problems with some of the concrete on the outside of my home as well as in my garage. There are lots Read More »
DEAR TIM: I’m about to have a new concrete driveway installed as well as some sidewalks. I asked the bidding contractors how long I might expect the concrete to last. The range given was from twenty to thirty years. That seems like a long time but I thought it could last much longer. How long Read More »
Use Clinkers to Make Interesting Things QUESTION #1: Timmy, I was on a tour of the Gamble house in Pasadena, CA and saw the most unusual deformed brick in a garden wall. The brick was twisted and looked more like random rocks than brick. I want some for my own house! How are clinker brick Read More »
Smoking Fireplaces QUESTION #1: Oh Tim, I need your help. I’ve got a masonry fireplace that puffs smoke into the room when a fire is burning. It gets worse as the fire dies down. I’ve spoken with three different bricklayers who build fireplaces and have received three different answers. Confusion reigns at my home and Read More »
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