Leigh Bamford is a young tradesperson who takes historical restoration, even just old house repair very seriously. With five years of experience, she insists on using old materials and old techniques on old buildings.RemvoialRather than using a power grinder to remove the old mortar from between...
Marian from Baltimore Ontario has a big hole in her foundation wall where a steel 'I' beam was removed, as you can see in the photo she sent us. Her contractor filled it in with mortar and bricks. She would rather fill it with concrete.So we set up a block of concrete with a similar hole, and c...
When you have a chip in a ceramic tile you can get a fairly strong repair by using fingernail polish. It comes in a wide variety of colours these days, including both white and black and since you can mix polishes, you should be able to get close to the colour of just about any tile.For the best ...
There are many ways to apply brick mortar to a wall for re-pointing.The traditional method is to slide the mortar off of the trowel with a pointing tool.Some masons use a bag, much like a pastry bag to squeeze it on. With this method you must be careful not to make the mortar too thin, or it wil...
It may look easy when a professional is repointing brick, but there are some things to be very careful about.If you are using a grinder to remove the old mortar, be careful to avoid cutting into the brick. It is easy enough to slide up or down hill with the grinder, and even easier to mess it up...
JR in Nova Scotia has a crack between the slab of his garage floor and the foundation of the house, through which bugs are crawling in. How to seal it.The crack was probably caused by normal shrinkage of the slab after it was poured. The best way to seal the joint with the wall is with something ...
Ever wandered into the renovation centre looking for something to patch a hole in the wall? Complicated, isn't it with so many choices. Why so many? Some are made to fill large holes or cracks without shrinking, others are made to give you a fine smooth finish and some try to do a bit of both....
Try removing the trim around the door.That will usually either expose the track at the top, or removing the stops or trim down the sides may allow the door to swing out and lift off of the tracks.Although the track is installed during construction, the doors are usually hung just before the trim ...
Stephanie from East York, Ontario keeps vacuuming her sliding glass door but it keeps jamming. She knows it has something to do with wheels in the bottom, but what to do?First get someone with a good back to lift the door vertically up and swing it outdoors off of its tracks. Be careful, it is ...
Mike asked for help in repairing a large hole in drywall, so we built a model with several alternatives. All of them work. Follow this link to the Learning Curve Tab for a video on all of this.The traditional technique is to slide wood, or even drywall strips into the wall and screw them into p...
