hi guys Kirk and Jayson here with Kirk Giordano plastering, I'm going to show you guys today is how
we put a smooth finish over this retaining wall now we're going way back old-school
on this generally you'd see me use a premix bag with say like Santa Barbara smooth mesh and BMI
marble that's all in one bag today we're using a setup that is over there that's who we're mixing
everything by hand guys we're Jayson actually showed how to mix this but we're putting lime
we're putting white cement we're putting gray cement we're mixing it with sand what he already
mixed everything it's kind of a drag but these folks want a certain color they say what color
do they want that they would go through this extent let's see I'll show you over here by the
pool they want the color to be just like what's in the bowl here the concrete manufacturer give
them a sample give them the give them all the materials to match that so that is our that's
our job today to match that color which is no big deal I'll show you something I'll give you
a couple tips guys to what we're gonna do alright the fellow he's you give it his best shot and it
actually come out pretty good what he doesn't like of course are these joints right here yeah
here's a tip guys like when Jay he's just mixed us some Jay, and I know mix enough to go from
that corner here to go to this corner here that way he'll skim the first one and I'll skim that
right in back of him and then well hard still trial everything we'll get our tops and corners
but it's got to be enough we can't stop in the middle of a wall stop in the middle of the wall
then you're gonna have this joint right here anyhow we're gonna go ahead and get started Jay,
I'll probably put that on a tripod and we'll show you just this one small section and when
we're done with everything we'll show you that - I'll give you some tips on corners and how to get
your clean edges and things like that and how to apply it when you're going that old-school method
I personally again prefer the modern ones where you just take the bags throw it in everything is
pre-mixed you don't have to add the lime and what happens if you don't add the lime well it's not as
durable flexible dependable so anyway you got to have that lime if you're gonna go this old-school
method so when we get started we'll show you in a second okay guys bear with me before we show you
how we have to actually apply these two coats this we just put two coats on it it was in the Sun and
now it's in the shade obviously but in the Sun you can see every little wave every dimple every area
that's not a hundred percent like oh I hate thee is that glass word but very very smooth now one of
the things is when you're doing this system here and they give you sand you got to make certain
that sand is very very clean if it has heavy grit you'll spend hours picking the little grits out
because it's got to be fine that's the benefit of getting the color coats pre-bagged guys and I say
that because we found some grit in this and we're having a heck of a time anyway we got two coats on
here and while we're on grit clean tools clean bucket take the water hose clean off the tops
clean off the bottom hose this real well because you don't want one piece of dirt because you have
the cement on here you take it to the bottom now that cement gets pulls the dirt up or the rock and
you're having a hard time what I'm doing now is I mean we're gonna show you how we apply both coats
but I always like to get a feel for it when it's the old-school style because again I need to see
what kind of grits in that bag and nothing we can handle there's a few but what we do it guys is we
just go back and forth and when it starts to dry what I'll generally do is rather than try to make
these corners extremely crisp because they when you add these a lot here they get kind of weak
so what I'll do is I'll take a float or I'll take a brush and just lightly hit it like that
with water guys you got to have water on it and that strengthens them up then take your trial
go back over it get rid of some of the brush lines or float lines come down on it come down
what that does is it strengthens these corners because if you just have one crispy beautiful
quarter you sit on it or put a log on it or piece of firewood or anything it's kind of crumble so
you don't want it completely crisp guys always get it just a hair bullnose you hardly can't see
the bull nose but that's what I recommend I mean that's the way I like to do it guys all right guys
Jason is putting on the well he'll start here he's putting on the first coat and so my we're trying
to find some areas that will show well we've damn near finished the job but we're trying to show
some area that up so somewhat well to the camera you notice it's got a lot of big rocks in it
grains of sand that's why you put that first coat on for little coverage allow it to set and then
you come back with that second coat this is kind of like a scratch coat and now we got that first
one on because I didn't wet this wall I can put the second one on immediately you get over here
of course you guys can't see what I'm doing here but for the sake of getting into view I'm doing
is just basically putting that next one on this one I'm going a little bit heavier we're taking
it without that lime guys we'd be in trouble in any rocks you see which actually has its share
of rocks just look them out it really increases the time you fly this when you pick up pebbles
but again as I say there's nothing we can't handle and so I'm using this fat I'll take
it here and then I'll I'll give myself some fat for the top the corner that little bit of fat
there you guys if you ever try to do this a tip would be to use a square trial not this not a
swimming-pool trial I use the swimming pool chalk because I'm kind of familiar with it but I'm only
using this piece to here I'm using this is a 20 inch table using only 16 inches of this trial
coming and once what you got this on guys it's a matter of knowing when to hit it y'all comes
with do your tops like so this this really does out of all finishes I've shown you folks how to
do a steel trowel finish especially going the old-fashioned way with bags it's one of the
hardest to learn how to do Jay and I have been here already six hours doing the 20 feet there
and plus the back side to here here and the tops so it's we're making it look what we're supposed
to make everything look a little easier than it actually is anyway once this is set I'll show you
how we continue to hard steel trowel it because this is just one stage of the job alright guys
we've got this whole thing spread out and now it's just a matter of going back over it and
he'll troweling it top if it kind of gets away from you you can for just a short while hit it
with water say like for example I'll hit this whole thing with water right down here with the
sponge flowed with they got many different tools to hit it with I have few brushes on my truck a
few a lot of different things to wet it down what you do is you bring it back to life and then hit
it again and keep in mind guys I'm using only this part of my trough I'm not using those edges
because there's too much troweling here it's too heavy for those edges to be effective so that's
why I recommend you folks if you're gonna try to do this use a square trial they start around
12 by 5's whatever size you are comfortable use again I use bigger inner trials but I'm
used to this stuff and see that lip right down and leave that lip go I'm gonna keep coming this way
you know take my clothes clean all the crap out of it that's again we don't want to pull
any grit or grains anywhere we keep our trials clean guys okay get everything off of here and
again I don't know if the camera can see that lip that's okay we take it put a little water on here
but put some water on here it's a very hot day hot walls bring it back to life and we just start the
same process over steal that draw scale it down we take our edge here back over if it was Sun sunny
you'd be seeing a little bit better what the right action what I'm actually doing but because we're
in a shade it's gonna be a tough tough thing to see now again I've got this lip forming up
here that's okay I'm gonna leave that lip there and I'm gonna take this entire wall because I'd
rather have the lip there and then I'm gonna come back and I'll just take it here here but for now
if I do that I'll lose the rest of the wall so we just keep going a lot of elbow grease a lot
of pressure guys the more pressure you put the tire you can get it can this be like glass no why
because there's sand in here and in fact the sand in here is pretty pretty coarse so we just keep
keep doing that when we're done with the whole project I'll show you and we didn't have it a lot
of time to show you folks how to spread it because hot day and the camera wasn't right the Sun and
shade but we're doing the best we can all right last time I'll show you here wet this down put it
down hot wall so I want to bring it back to life a little life anyhow take that straw come on come on
in case any of you guys ever done this good thing to remember is the paper shouldn't touch the wall
otherwise when you're done you pull the paper and you pull out the whole bottom see here here's
that sand again we have a little bits of sand throughout this mix we're trying to go a little
heavier to cover all all that extra you don't want to go too heavy we're not browning if we're going
on exterior brown coat I can put it thick with the finish coat if you go too thick then you get
hairline cracks and chatter mark so it's always important guys to make sure you get sand that's
that's right or just get it in the bag too anyhow we're gonna go ahead and finish up and when we're
done we'll just show you everything all right guys we are complete with this generally I haven't used
this system in Oh 15 years reason is aggregate you want the bags that are already pre sized
with the sand that way you're not here all day it took was it took me an extra two hours just
to do this because of grains of sand sticking out here and there but you can't blame anybody that's
what happens when you buy from the material yard last thing we do is I'm getting ready to clean
this up we take our green sponge float and give a clean line here one side flip it both sides of
dirty clean it here that'll give you a six inch window you take your water hose now and clean
up anyhow figured I'll show you the least clean up to because that's as important as doing the actual
job especially when you have tile anyhow guys my name is Kirk it's been a long day for us Jason on
the camera he's also tired as usual folks we thank you for watching or see you guys on the next one