Hi guys, Kirk and Jay here with Kirk Giordano plastering,
I'm actually on one of Jay's jobs, here to prove a point, guys. I've had a few people in the last
two-three weeks call me and say, man, I got concrete, or I've got a cinder block
walls, one guy said he was going to put wire all the way around, and he says, look, I want
to wrap the wire, or should the wire wrap all the way around or should I stop it, or can
I put the wire and then put the corners. So, I'm gonna answer that question.
This might be a long drawn out video so unless you got anything better to do, relax.
Okay, number one, the fellow who said gee, should I put wire on he said he had a concrete wall? and so
this would happen if you were to put the wire here now this wire if you hug the wall that'll
be okay, but here's the way this wire goes on and so you'd have to put a nail here and there a nail
here that would be a lot of nails, Concrete and cinderblock it is simply not necessary
to wire it, even if you use a three-point four flat stucco netting, it is not necessary, guys.
I've never encountered an instance where it was if it's that bad, tear it down.
Okay, to try to wrap the wire because the fellow says, well, I'm gonna wrap the wire. I'm gonna do
it anyway and I said, well you can do that, man, but I've only been doing this for 30 years.
And I'll tell you I've tried everything at least twice here's what happens if you wrap it okay now
you're going to be putting concrete nails.
Watch the concrete now, I'm gonna show you in a minute you'll put a concrete nail here here here it'll take you about an hour it would take me about
an hour and then if you try to put a corner aid on that what happens is it's all wavy,
because you're going a cornering aid over the wire it's a nightmare guys.
How do I know I've done it? I don't do that anymore. Here's what you can do. I mean if you want, you can put a stucco corner aid on it, and you
can put a concrete nail here here here and three on this side and now to give you a nice clean
even corner.
but that's not what video is about. Today, I'm going to show you how to make a corner without the corner aid, and by the way, guys here's a there's a little bucket and what this little bucket?
It has concrete nails. The concrete nails we use generally are these half-inch if you use this one-inch that's easier to hold, but you'll blow the corners out, and one guy says, well, it's concrete it
has no corners, and I taught them guys you'll blow it out trust me, I've been doing this stuff too
long here's what happens guys okay what is this this is a magnet you can get this online at bond
tools you can go to Westside building supplies get this magnet why do you need a magnet because
if you try to put these concrete nails in, just for example, guys like this and tap it, if your
fingers are too fat and plus I bloodied enough and lost enough fingernails when I was young trying
to do this goofy crap it doesn't work so here's what you do you get a magnet if you're gonna do
corners guys you get a magnet and you put it on and here's what happens when you put a concrete
nail into concrete, you blow it out, and yeah I can blow out about ten different other spots to prove
a point, but you get the idea if you're using it it's cinder block well then you put the concrete
nails into the grout lines it won't blow the grout out and that is how you adhere that I've
done it I've done a few videos on that already so I won't repeat it on here what I am gonna do
is show you guys something as far as how to make a corner by yourself, now jay is with me and what I
prefer guys is a piece of metal if I and I do have a piece of metal I've got a Darby I can put here
I've got rods ten foot rods that we screed off buildings to make sure that they're level every
ten feet by a quarter-inch but again that's not what this video is about. This video is I'm gonna
show you how you, we can put a 2x4 here and make a straight corner, we're gonna put some mud here
I'm going a rob Peter to pay Paul, sort of speak, and fill this up. When this gets hard we just pull this
away and of course, the stud has got to be wet. When I was Union thirty years ago, we would gun
all of our work, I worked with 20 other guys and we worked behind pumps, and my buddy, Fred Smith,
he'd be shooting it, and we come to a house say we did about 10 houses a day, we'd be blowing it on
there, and we'd come to an area where the lathers forgot to put a corner on.
Ole Fred, would say, if I wasn't usually the darby man, so he'd tell somebody else, go to the truck get me a corner, they'd
go to the truck, say, man, you got no corners. He'd say, oh dang, then, go ask one of those carpenters
for a two-by-four, not a 2x6 because they're too heavy, an eight-foot 2x4 or a ten-foot if nothing
else, and what he would do is he'd take a 2x4, wet it, just like so. Why do you get it? Because if
you don't wet it when you put it against the the wall, here and you pull it, the stucco will come off the wall,
because it'll suck into this.
I'd always catch them doing this stuff to it. I said, dude, what are you doing? you can see I'm looking to see that the 2x4 is not tweaked or twisted.
because if it is, when I do my corner that's gonna be tweaked or twisted. Anyway to prove a point.
I'm gonna go ahead and put a little bit of mud on this right, here again, Jason already did all
this and I actually was working around the corner on one of my jobs, while Jay was working here, but
I told him if he got a job where I could answer a question to let me know, he called me to
say he had this job, and it has a corner. Did you still want to come over? I thought, no,
but I will because I promised a fella I'd show it to him know what we want to do guys and now
granted, this wall is concrete. How do you know it's concrete? well, you can look at it. Its form
boards they put a bunch of boards here and they poured it, then these are form lines this is not
Cinder blocks, but the same thing applies. You have to apply enough stucco, otherwise, these form boards
will show. I get asked that so often, people say, how much stucco do I gotta put on?
I'll tell them gotta put on it least a half-inch and if the forum boards or the grout is really
sticking out a little bit more man, it doesn't take that long all you do is you're trying to fill it because if
It rains, and you put it on.
Here are something guys, if you put it on real thin like they say this, and then you try to float that when it rains, you'll see all that grout.
So what we want to do is put it on thick, another thing what I'm doing here too is we are doing the cap here, Jay I already put a
coat on that cap so I'm gonna, I go up like so, when I do my cement so, see that right there now take
this, this way, it gives me a stronger cap, and no we are not wiring any of these caps because it's not
necessary. If we tell folks, hey, gee, we'll wire it. That's usually because of a reason, like you'll have a
joint, a joint there like say, hardy board, I got a barbecue coming up where it's all, Hardy board
and I told the guy said well I'm gonna put corners here, he said the other guy, said he wasn't gonna
put corners. I said well the other guy doesn't understand that it's kind of like two pieces of
sheetrock, you a Hardy-Board here, Hardy-Board here, and if you don't put a corner there you're gonna
get a hairline crack, every single time. So that is this we will put corner eight on here no okay get
him back to what I was trying to say the first thing I'm gonna do it because I'm gonna put this stud on
by myself right here, I'm gonna fill this wall up right here, all I'm doing here is I'm giving myself
some mud, do I have there's about ten different ways to do this guy I'm just putting this mud
here because I'm gonna use this mud to make my corner and I don't want Jay to help me otherwise
it defeats the purpose.
Now let's see this stud is kind of, looks like the termites had a good meal here. This side is pretty good, and remember, guys if this stud is dry when I put this here, it is
going to come right off now what I want to do is I want to go about a half-inch a half-inch corner
now I'm gonna hold this with my knee. Now I'm holding it with my knee, I'm gonna take this
mud I just put here and fill this up. Now you guys if you're not really experienced, probably have a
Hard time doing this, but I do this every day, all right. Now I'm holding it with my knee. I'm holding
it with my knee and I'm trying not to get dirty at the same time. How bout that? All right, so get that
bottom all right a little bit more right here, yikes, right at the top. Okay we're gonna take it up
one more time, squeeze it. Takes this, come that way now all I'm doing, guys is making that transition
where, I put all that humpty mud, squaring it off a little bit, we are gonna float this, alright now
when I pull this piece of 2x4, can this whole thing fall?
Sure It can. I've done it where a few times it's fallen off, but for the sake of showing you guys hopefully, it won't, okay now to pull the
stud you're gonna push down or push forward and sideways and up, you don't have to look at it guys
I mean if I pull this way what happens? The whole corner comes off, so I'm not even going to look at
it but I'm gonna pull that way, away from my work and upward, it should have stuck, it's stuck like magic!
How bout that? I'm an artist, okay now if you come on this side, take a peek there Jay, now that's side is
groovy, all I got to do is, this I'm gonna make by hand now, we got a nice clean edge there, guys.
we let that set about 15 minutes and what Jay is doing right now is he already started floating
I'm gonna come over here, let's see what bucket you got okay again for the sake of
showing you what Jay is doing actually, Jay did this the whole thing I just wanted to do that corner and
that corner is not really ready, but a fellow like me, with so much time in, can handle it all right.
Just for the sake of showing you guys something this is wet, this wall is wet, a lot depends on
this. Guy's if you're in Pennsylvania, Canada or someplace where it's really cold, it's midwinter
you're going to have a hard time doing this. This wall, we are in beautiful, Oakland, California,
right now, in this wall, it's about 65 degrees if it was a hundred degrees, I'd be saturating this wall,
over and over and over, otherwise, as fast as I go to apply, it sucks right into it, so it's not ready,
right now, but I can make this work, I need at least another, Oh 20 minutes to let it set, but for the
sake of showing you folks now what we're doing is we're gonna float it. What does floating means that
means there's sand in this cement plaster, cement plaster is another word for stucco people keep
calling me and saying, hey, what should I buy, stucco or cement plaster. It's the same thing, guys it's I
call it mud - mud cement plaster, stucco it's the same terminology, the same stuff, Portland
cement mixed with sand. If you guys go to Lowe's or Home Depot you'll buy your probably you'll buy
"Rapid-Set," and it has sand and the Portland cement and stucco in there already. All you do is add
water. What we do is we buy, Portland cement you see the truck right over there you want to focus over
there that truck, we put two yards of sand in it that's like 4,500 pounds, and we put our Portland
in that mixer, and we put the sand. But you guys again, I'm asked this question all the time should
I buy sand separately. We're professionals. We buy our sand and cement at, "Westside building supply"
or any of the other plaster material yards such as Close, Cal-Ply, you name it. Okay, getting back on what I
I was talking about, I'm gonna float this right now, although it's not ready, now if I float this way
what's gonna happen, guys? all you do it yourself weekend warriors who watch what we do, if I float
this way, I'm gonna pull my corner right off. So, I'm gonna float this way because I want it to
adhere, now I'm gonna hit it real light, because if I hit it too hard, it's gonna come right off,
because technically guys, it's not ready to go we just take it sideways and because I'm hitting it
while it's wet. I need a clean float I take this part here and I just make my cap, I need a clean
float otherwise, it's so wet that it'll fall, my advice to you guys who are trying to do this let
it set how do you know if it's set if you put your finger in it, it's wet like that, guys
it ain't set, when you put your finger on it and it doesn't move now you can be sloppy, you can be
you can have less experience and close your eyes and float it, and it won't fall down, but right
now just I want to prove a point because I got another job I got to go to Emma let Jay finish
his own job but I did promise the fellow, I'd show them this so I am doing it here we go okay the
top we float the top and yeah I'm going slow as molasses guys, because it is wet otherwise I can
float this whole thing in a matter of minutes. The whole wall I can float this whole wall in about
five minutes, okay you clean the float get all this stucco, cement plaster, mud, whatever you want to call it, guys get it off.
You see where I'm going with these. When you're using a float guys,
use the whole float, I see guys like this they'll be using just a tip we call it to toe or they're
used to heel, I mean you spin, you, you'll spin your wheels doing this guys, what you want to do is use
The whole float is kind of like you snowboarder guys. You use the whole board. Okay, watch this. I'm using
the whole float, you see that whole float the whole the thing I'm not just using a little heel I mean a
toe or the heel the same applies with the top, okay you want to get that top clean don't mess around.
and do this kind of stuff guys you don't want to do that you want to use the whole float okay you
take that whole float you put it down here then you spin it around, you take that whole float and
come down, guys use the tools to the maximum benefit, that means the whole thing, and yeah
that does take practice. Here's another thing the reason I can make this look easy
is because of two things for me it is and because Jason already mixed up some good mud or actually, Lou, did.
Jason spreading, this is his job again use the whole float see how I'm using that whole song float?
The whole thing guys it gives you straighter lines it makes a job faster, and once you learn how to
coordinate with your tools you'll get it, it again most of you weekend warriors who do stucco work
a lot of you guys have concrete just like this you'll learn to do it, right guys, if you use the
whole the whole flow anyway I'm gonna give this about 10 more minutes because even I can't mess
with that right there because that's ready to go, it's still too cold and Jay has saturated
these walls prior so we're kind of wet, anyway Jay is going to continue floating this whole wall
here and if if you're done with everything you come back when it's dry and what I'm doing right
there is I'm throwing some of that mud off of here. guys look it think what the heck is he doing.
looking that low that's just another way to keep it dry because I want it pretty anyway guys you
see where that's going, and you got any holidays let us dad and come back and get them out because
I still have a half-hour technically to 40 minutes where I can play with this wall, but I don't have
the time anyway guys my name is Kirk and Jason on the the camera we thank you for watching and as usual, we'll see
You guys are on the next one. once again, folks we thank you for watching, and I really enjoy all
your comments if you guys like this video please click the like button down below and also if you
enjoy what we do subscribe to our channel so we can keep making these videos for you my name is
Kirk and Jason, we thank you for watching and from the entire Giordano family we'll see on the next one