Howdy Folks, Kirk and Dad here with Kirk Giordano plastering,
Today, I want to show you guys something that is quite common.
100-year-old house they have the concrete that was built 100 years ago, this retaining wall
and the folks who are really concerned about it, They said, man, it looks horrible, what can you
do? I said actually it doesn't look bad if you think about it it's a 100-year-old house.
you've got trees that are at least 100 years old, The roots alone will lift a house this high.
So I'll show you guys something what, what you do if it's all buckling out of there, and you tried
painting, and you tried caulking, you tried cement you're going to keep trying guys because this is
now a maintenance issue, every 10 and 15 years, you got to redo this because the bushes grow this
holds hundreds of tons of water, so the movement and the pressure is always going to do this.
Anyway, Dan, just went ahead and broke this out. He broke this side out,
he broke this side out right here, and I'll show you what we're gonna do,
You see, here's what we had; we had this concrete in there, they've had membranes
in there, they had a lot of stuff in there, but when they're this big guys, you might as well
just put concrete back in. So what we're prepared to do is what you guys need to do if you have this
is not panic, number one because it is perfectly normal, you clean it you use a hammer, you clean it
all out get all the loose stuff out, then you wire brush it, if you can, pressure wash it as it's a big wall
wall, pressure wash it, then you wire brush, you put a bonding agent the bonding agent has got to
go over here a couple inches here and completely in here and then you take I'm looking at this
mud we have, this mud is Rapid-Set. What the heck is Rapid-set? It's a fast, fast set cement. Very
fast, twice as strong as say, portland cement, so as I'm talking here this is getting hard, I was just
doing a job with Jay the other day, and I was talking and talking and talking, and it got
away, and so we had to mix more.
So this is all you have to do guys, you put this, you can use Portland cement you could use fix-all, the fact is all of these are sold at Home Depot, but this job
This Rapid-Set, that's quick guys, and it's a heavy sand, so it matches all finishes.
Home Depot and Lowe's also sells,
Green-Core, Green-Core is a finer sand, but it's for smoother finishes.
so I'm going to give this just, uh, about less than a minute, and I'm gonna hit it.
I'm gonna take this, and I'm gonna fix that right there too.
I got five minutes with this, and then I'm gonna lose it.
But here's why they did this correct guys? You see these uh holes right here?
They got the holes in here so when this fills up we'll say 10 tons of water it does come out here,
if it were to hold it like a swimming pool the whole thing would be collapsed.
So what I was looking at I was explaining to them this is, this is about as perfect as you can get.
You can get more perfect than this; the guys who built this are down here two feet; they've
got rebar in here, then there's concrete. I won't show you this, but over there,
they have a brand new retaining wall; uh, we'll just show a little bit. I don't wanna
bug neighbors and they'll say Kirk, what are you doing? well, I'm showing your wall
that's brand new, that's cracked like an egg. Anyway, that one doesn't have any of
the holes to allow the water to come out. Can they drill some? Yes, do they know about it? I
don't know and I don't want to knock on their door and tell them, but that's not our business.
Anyway, getting back to this right here, what we'll do is I'll take, now, water.
Okay, we'll take a sponge float.
Oh yeah, use some water now tap this out and this is a float finish it you see,
it's sandy, it has the aggregate coming out. So I'm gonna take this, and bring out that sand or
aggregate, there it is, there it is, and as far as a little bit of stucco getting on this brick.
No problemo, because I've got the water hose right next to me, and I can fix that.
So, boom, there it is, guys; that's how easy it is for you guys to do your own fix;
You don't need to call a fellow like me to come out here and do that, unless
you just don't know how, don't want to, or just got too much cash and you say, hey man, I don't like
to do physical work. We like physical work, any the way that's, that's all there is to it guys.
And I take the water hose and just clean that excess off.
So that's all you guys need to do, so anyhow, guys,
I'm gonna go ahead and use the rest of this mud before it goes
too hard. We thank you for watching, and as usual, we'll see you on the next one.
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and as usual, we'll see you on the next one.