howdy folks Kirk and Jayson here with Kirk Giordano plastering, today we're going to do
is uh there's something a little bit different we are going to skim coat this retaining wall
and it's a brand new built block wall cinder block it's built well - we got a foot on this side it's
the easy side of course down here we got about eight to nine feet so it's Friday where we had
a long week jay says well dad we're just going to do that all by ourself and mix and spread and I
thought well let's find out if my brother Lou will help us so we're going to have help with
this wall today anyway what we're doing is we are in a Orinda has rules just like a lot of other
cities as far as colors what you could do what you can't do thirty years ago Tiburon there are
a lot of rules color of the house you had to have approval for it and here in Orinda certain things
they want things earth-tone so the fellow says gee Kirk what can you give me a tone on this I
said well we can do a skim coat then a color coat and he says is there any way we can do one coat I
said absolutely there are a lot of cements guys a lot of white cements what's the difference between
white and gray cement nothing it just costs more because of the what it takes to make it
white the manufacturing anyway if you take white cement and we're going to use a typical Portland
cement you take white cement and you add sand the sand is usually tan in color I've seen dark
brown tans light sands but it's usually a tannish color so what we're going to do and the city says
gee that's groovy guys so what we're going to do is we're mixing white cement with sand and
the color is going to be somewhat of a tan tannish color in fact it's kind of it'll look similar to
their house but anyhow we're going to spread this out and show you how we as we are what it takes to
do it we're going to spread this inner portion and the top laughs because we're going to on this side
my brother's going to be scooping it down to us and we're going to apply it first thing you want
to do guys if you're ever going to do retaining walls is cut back cut back a little bit guys got
any bushes in your face they cut them back take a water hose clean the tops off and you want to
saturate this wall guys not too wet because if you're trying to put stucco over a really wet
surface it'll just slide but it's got to be damp enough where you get a good bond anyhow we're
going to get set up and there's one spot over here a long stretch that the tripod could actually set
properly we're on we're like walking a tightrope down here it's like that big so when we get to an
area that we could show you guys how it's applied and we'll show you the color - of what to expect
here's the last tip guys when you're doing white cement I have a buddy of mine who used to do a
lot of white cement on straw bale houses and his own houses and yeah I've helped them a lot
you can put color in the brown coat if you use white cement I don't advise it and even my buddy
with all the projects he's done you'll get some hairline cracks in it which is normal but you can
and can't do certain things I always recommend if you want the best job to do a base coat base coat
over a block and just color it afterwards but anyhow what we're going to do today is what I
explained earlier the sand in the white cement and we'll show you what that looks like when
we're done okay guys we'll show you some actual applications who is going to shovel this to me
and it's not the first time we've done this kind of stuff guys what we're trying to do is take this
there's a lot of ways to do this guy when someone shoveling above you I've had I've had the mud fall
down my shirt in my face and all that stuff but if you're experienced in you I've done this before
you're less likely to have that happen anyway for the sake of showing you guys how to spread
this fellow was walking by just now he says hey guys how thick do you go with that eighth of an
inch you could but that's rare generally you'll go 3/8 to 1/2 inch have I gone to 7/8 of an inch
to an inch absolutely that usually if the grout is hanging out we have slobbers everywhere you
have to go a little thicker one sec loose now I'm hitting it sideways here to kind of straighten it
out a little bit I've got a rod I can Darby this if I like or I can just keep going this particular
way I'll start from right here guys or okay I'll just start from right here to prove a point
get that joint out of there hey guys this is half half the battle what I'm doing right now
I'm just applying it one part is mixing it properly you can have it too soupy or too
stiff the other part is hydration if I saturate this wall meaning I take a hose to this wall and
saturate it just hit it with water it'll absorb in here like this wall here it will absorb for
about 20 minutes which means give me a lot of time to put this mud on a lot of time to whip
and clone it but if I want to float immediately I just missed it accordingly that takes a lot
of practicing I can bore you for hours over over that stuff and show you but what I'm really want
to show you is white cement with the tan sand and how it comes out and again as far as the
thickness goes the idea is I mean these these guys who did this block were phenomenal these
guys are really on the ball if you guys are looking for block guys you could email me and
say hey who is the guys that give you their telephone number a lot of times I'll come to
block walls that the grout lines are embedded by an inch or they're sticking way out and then you
got to go with 7/8 of an inch so sometimes an inch and a half and believe me we've done that
many times Oh what we'll do is I'm going to take it to about where those gloves are there
And the reason I'm a little bit over the top of this is that I'm filling this top piece up
too because we are doing the caps okay, take it sideways, then I'll show you the floating part.
So what I'll do is go back a little bit, start right where I initially left off or started with
the application of this, and we'll show you how we put a float finish on it and can you do a steel
child finish with this? We could, and it's also guys a lot less likely the hairline crack when you
go smooth draw over block or brick on the house generally it will hairline if you go steel trowel.
And with just a little bit out of town a little bit of time, we already did that 70-foot wall
over there. But, of course, it was about eight feet tall, so it was tough to shut to try to even
explain that part; right here, we're relaxing, taking our time, and just having some fun.
okay, this is a lot of time; a lot of times,
guys just use a Darby not necessary for these folks to want a float finish
okay, one more look, all right; what I'm gonna do is I'm conscious two of my joints,
so hand me that bucket of water down here, please
okay so we're roughly a little bit over half inch on everything the idea is when it rains we don't
want to see the grout lines all right now what we do guys is we take a float bucket follow me
down over here J so it's good if you can zero in close enough green sponge float guys now what I'm
going to do is get a sponge float finish what's that mean that means we bring the aggregate out
now this is the wall we did about half hour ago and I'm gonna take it into the wall I just spread
okay do that a lot of water guys a lot of water because if you don't use when this fills up with
sand then it'll drag it's not pretty guys so you want it so it doesn't drag the idea is we want a
ass and finish or float finish this is a float a green sponge float that I'm using and this is
called a sand finish mighty elegant goes with just about everything okay guys told you I'd
show you a little bit about this top there's a simple way that I like to do my caps um okay
it was started from over here this blue stuff this is well creep because the guy who did this
block was just too good that's about a smoothest finish as you can get I'm not certain if ours were
yeah will it here so what I did is I took it out of the bucket with my trowel and just put
it there now what I'll do is I'll generally just tear emitted I'll just make a pyramid
comeback on both sides I need a little bit mud here pyramid it once I got my so-called pyramid
by the way guys a lot of folks like it like this so water runs off but these guys want it flat okay
now once I got my pyramid then I'll flatten it out meaning I'm going about about a half
inch thick like everywhere else what we'll do is we'll flatten it out and then all the excess
will squeeze off these edges and as it squeezes off the edges I leave it on there over here and
by the way we are waiting for that back wall to set anyway we are always multitasking we've
got about five different things going on right now and that's how every job is guys but anyway
that's a that's a little tip for if you're doing tops you can take it off your hock and trial and
spin forever or you can just do it like that okay guys you're at the end of the day now I've floated
my whole cap now what I'm doing is the easy stuff I'm putting on my skin coat for the inner portion
but I'm not wetting this wall I've wet it already today enough times and I've got all the dirt and
moss and crap off it but it's toward the end of the day now and I don't want to be sitting here
waiting for this wall to to dry so what I will do is skim it and within 15 minutes this is going to
be ready to float so what we'll do is just put it on like so and any any clinkers from the bottom
scraping right off you continue on the merry way what I'll do is I tie it into this top piece
all right, and just keep scooting along getting done here's our radius can't go that way
this called a float finish again guy what happens if I try to steal cha this and just leave it like
this it will crack like an egg guys because that would seal it I'm opening it with the sponge float
so I'm going to go ahead and take this all the way to the end it's getting kind of late in the day we
want to get done and get out of here so when we're done with the whole thing I'll show you
the final product all right guys we are complete with this good thing a long hot day for us about
102 Orinda anyway this is the color of it it still got to dry just a little bit I'll show you can you
squeeze through this got let J all right well this is is what we had to work with watch your
step here about eight feet tall took it all the way down here about 70 feet then we went 30 feet
the other way I get some maintenance free color coat or actually it's a it's maintenance free
with the white cement and the tan sand they'll never have to paint this unless of course they
don't like the color but I told them for no extra charge would just get the white cement so they're
happy with this finish here the city of orinda will say hey gee whiz guys looks groovy great
it's not such an eyesore for all the neighbors who don't want to see a block wall anyhow guys
you can do a lot with stucco just wanted to show you the finish up close so you folks will
know what you can achieve anyway guys my name is Kirk, Jason and I are going to sleep well this
evening we thank you folks for watching and as usual we'll see you guys on the next one