Any shade-tree masons out there? Could use feedback...

I see you took my advice and masked off the surrounding bricks. If all the mortar you got on the tape had gone on the bricks, you would have had a real mess on your hands.

Looks good.

Sadly, when I did batch 2 of the mortar, despite careful remasking, I got some seepage from smoothing with a wet sponge. So the bricks under The joint have a light gray haze on that side I need to clean up. Will post a picture eventually.

Also I should have masked the underside exposed part of the bricks on top of the joint.

Despite cosmetic minor problems it looks a lot better now than it did with the failing mortar, and the new joint is sound.

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Marc_G said:

Sadly, when I did batch 2 of the mortar, despite careful remasking, I got some seepage from smoothing with a wet sponge. So the bricks under The joint have a light gray haze on that side I need to clean up.

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Why in the world did you use a sponge???

Saw it on some fool YouTube video. This gets back to my beginner status. Oh well. I will see if I can clean it up this weekend.

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Marc_G said:

Saw it on some fool YouTube video. This gets back to my beginner status. Oh well. I will see if I can clean it up this weekend.

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Gonna post any pictures of the stains?

Do not use a wire brush on the bricks. The metal will rub off the wire brush an imbed itself into the brick and look terrible. Use the stiffest Nylon or natural bristle brush you can find. Try some vinegar on the stains with a vigorous brushing before resorting to a more powerful acid.

bradycros said:

Gonna post any pictures of the stains?

Do not use a wire brush on the bricks. The metal will rub off the wire brush an imbed itself into the brick and look terrible. Use the stiffest Nylon or natural bristle brush you can find. Try some vinegar on the stains with a vigorous brushing before resorting to a more powerful acid.

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Good plan. I will use vinegar and nonmetallic scrubbers. Was thinking to use one of those green and yellow scrubby sponges with the abrasive pad. Let me see what sort of nylon brush I can find. Pics this weekend. Been a crazy week!

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As I mentioned in an earlier post get a foam rubber ball, split it in half and use it like an eraser.


Richard

Hi guys,

Here is a picture of the repair showing the concrete stain on the bricks on the left side:



OK, rookie idiocy is to blame.

I'll try the corrections described above during the weekend and see if I can clean it up. Thanks!

By that time it may be too set to use the rubber ball technique, use muriatic acid [hydrochloric] instead. It attacks the masonry but is mild to the bricks, brush it on and rinse with the water hose. There may be a blush show up in a week or two but no worries it rinses off also.


Richard

TheTellurian said:

By that time it may be too set to use the rubber ball technique, use muriatic acid [hydrochloric] instead. It attacks the masonry but is mild to the bricks, brush it on and rinse with the water hose. There may be a blush show up in a week or two but no worries it rinses off also.


Richard

Click to expand...

Family stuff is slowing down my remediation attempt. The stains are now 6 days old. Rain coming in tomorrow. May not get to it before then.

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I had a few minutes before dinner last night, so I went out and rubbed the stains with a foam rubber thing. That had some effect. I then broke out the vinegar and stiff nylon brush and worked the stains a bit. Then finished off with a nylon scrubber sponge abrasive side. Flushed with lots of water with a hose. The proof will be in the drying, but it's raining this morning so won't have any idea of success or failure until later when things dry up.

Hope it looks good after all your effort.

bradycros said:

Hope it looks good after all your effort.

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It does! Thanks for your help. I took a picture an hour ago but the glare from the sun washed it out. Will wait for the sun to move then get a decent picture.

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OK, here's a picture. Sun still causing glare but you can see the remediation:



The only real "Fail" in this job is that I should have masked the protruding underside of the course of bricks above the joint. Having not done that, there's a lot of mortar coating those undersides, and it makes the joint appear to be super thick. Amateur mistake on my part. Oh well.

The bottom line is that the joint is repaired, no more water will get in there, and from the street, it looks fine and not worth a second glance. Only me, who knows I goofed a bit, and any masons that walk by, might notice anything out of order.

Thanks for your help guys.

My next similar project is that driveway thing. Basically, I need to rent or buy an angle grinder and diamond wheel. But I'm holding off. I've got some more professional driveway work that needs to get done, and I'll see if I can add this crack-fix to that job rather than tackle it myself.

Looks good.

More to it then meets the eye, eh?

bradycros said:

Looks good.

More to it then meets the eye, eh?

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Hell yeah. Like any craft, it involves things both obvious and obscure. And a few counterintuitive elements.

I thought you were an electrician. I didn't realize you were skilled with the trowel. [emoji3]

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I was a bricklayer for 5 years, then became a electronics technician until I retired.

When I first spotted the thread topic, I thought it asked for Freemason.

Wondered if I needed a secret handshake to read the thread.