To follow up on the crack in the stone foundation of the house with the improper slope. I want to discuss the ribbon joint that had to be pointed to match the existing ribbon joint. We always first remove the old joint and clean out the dust and debris from the stone joint. I even like to vacuum out the debris and dust to ensure a great bond. Good mortar  bonds occur when there is a clean base and enough moisture in the new mortar to pull the moisture from the new into the old. This is where the bond first occurs. If a contractor is not cleaning out the joints properly, then a proper bond will not happen. It may look like it has and you’ll pay them for the job but sooner then later it will begin to unbond and fall out. I see it all the time!!

With the ribbon joint ,you have to first pack out the stone joint with your mix. When your going to cut a stone joint then a bar sand must be used. Don’t let anyone use any other sand to do ribbon joints. Using bar sand will allow the person to cut the joint properly as required, without the small pebbles that come in concrete sand.

Look at the existing stone joints and see if the stone joint comes out past the stone face or is recessed in towards the stone face. Either case, in stone pointing restoration your job is to match the original at all cost. After packing out the joint I’ll grab my one inch margin trowel and put a tight steel trowel finish on the joint. this gives  the stone joint a nice smooth finish.

 Each joint will vary in the size of the ribbon joint. Most ribbon joints are in the one inch wide range but will vary alot. Grab two razor blades and find a object that is one inch wide that you can hold in your hand. Tape the two blades on either side of the object so that razor part is flush with the object and even with one another.

If the stone joint is a level one then you’ll need a small two foot level to keep things straight. Some ribbon joints follow the contour of the stone. Either way, do what is original.  Grab your mortar cutter and level and lightly run the razors across the top of your level. Lightly make the two lines into the stone joints. Don’t go to deep into the joint or you’ll have a problem cutting. All your doing is making  lines to follow.  Use your margin trowel now to cut back away from the lines. The top line in the mortar joint will need you to scrape upwards, the bottom line you’ll scrape downward. Once you have both lines scraped you’ll reveal the nice straight Ribbon joint you just created.

This stone joint is by far the hardest one to learn but once you got it down you can do all of them. After the joint has dried ,please give the ribbon joint a light brush. Good luck from john the mason  and help with masonry.com

Concrete…one of my favorite materials to work with. Can you imagine the pressure the concrete guy is under when that huge truck shows up and he is the only guy who knows how to finish concrete? Concrete does take a skilled craftsman with a good feel for his magnesium float (concrete tool). Just think… the material comes out wet and needs to dry perfectly level or pitched a certain way for water runoff. It does take a lot of practice but small jobs can be done with a little Help with Masonry.com
I would tell you if more than two concrete slabs are to be replaced then maybe consider a masonry contractor for the job. If it’s only two, then grab your safety glasses and sledge hammer and start reading. The first tip I can tell you is that all concrete comes out easier when you pre-dig the dirt around the concrete. By relieving the pressure against the concrete and undermining the dirt under the slab, you’ve just made your job much easier. If you have to cut against existing concrete, grab your saw and masonry blade and do that before you start slamming the sledge against the concrete. If you don’t cut the slabs against the damaged ones, you might chip the other concrete and now you’re going to be mad. Try and cut as deep as possible into the concrete to make it easier to snap when you slam it.
Now I know that not everyone will have access to a saw with a masonry blade but you never know who might. If you know a person with a gas powered 14 inch saw or could pay a handyman to simply cut the ends for you that would save you time and stress. Now that the ends have been cut you’re ready to slam. Oh wait!! Remember to always wear your safety glasses before slamming concrete. Also, a good tip would be to remove any debris from the surface of the concrete before slamming. If you slam on top of broken stones or small rocks, one might find your chin. OUCH!! Give the concrete a quick broom and start slamming. Tighten your stomach muscles and swing the sledge down onto the corner or slightly inwards. A couple of good swings and you should have it cracked. If you have a steel bar or even a good strong piece of wood, try and get it under the broken concrete and pry upward. If you can jam a rock under the slab and angle the concrete, your next slam will be a great one. You’ve now just released a ton of pressure from the concrete and it will gladly break for you. Remove all concrete and always try and find a clean fill dump or a recycling area that would take your used concrete. Used concrete makes for great fill.
Grab an iron rake or a very stiff leaf rake and straighten out your earth base. If the base seems very loose and not at all compacted, then grab a hand tamper and give it a good tamping. Whether you’re using a hand tamper or a gas powered tamper, always start at the outside perimeter and work yourself into the center. This way everything is locked inward. Great tip!
Next measure from the top of the existing concrete down six inches. That should be where your earth is tamped to. Time to add ¾ inch of a crushed stone base on top of our tamped earth base. In most cases, two inches of stone tamped tight will give your sufficient compaction and will make for a great base. I don’t recommend going right on top of the earth with your concrete, your only asking for another cracked slab. Make sure that you don’t add too much stone or your slab will be too thin. You now should be about four inches to where your concrete height will be. The next step for you is to form your two new concrete slabs. You’ll need (2) 2 x 4s to span from one existing slab to the other. Make sure you tuck both ends of the wood behind the existing slabs so they can hold them in place. Both pieces, of course, will be at the same height as the existing slabs you need to meet. Wood stakes will definitely come in handy now because we need to support the center of the wood form so the concrete doesn’t push our wood inwards. Pushed wood makes for crooked concrete.
Once you’ve gotten your forms together, we need to have expansion joint installed on each end of the new concrete. Our concrete is going to move ever so slightly and we need to allow for this movement. In the beginning stages of the concrete curing there must be some room for expansion. Without it, the concrete might crack.
Expansion joint will come in different thickness and sizes. Four inch height and half inch thickness will do the trick for basic concrete. The two types are fiber joint or asphalt joint. Both work fine however the fiber is easier to cut but will also break easier when handling. Go with the fiber and be careful when transporting.
Do I dare say that it’s time for concrete to be poured? At this stage of the lesson you can either pay thru the nose for one yard of concrete to be delivered or you can mix 80 lb bags. I suggest you start off with the bags and keep on reading. Concrete truck drivers are sometimes not the most patient people in the world. Go with the bags!
The type of concrete needed for your project can be picked up at any supply house or big box chain for a relatively cheap price: three bucks a bag for 80 lb bags. 3,500 psi strength concrete will do the job. Read the back of the bag and it will tell you how many bags you’ll need for the square feet that you’re pouring.
You’ll need a tarp for placing under your mixing pan or wheelbarrow. Grab a mixing hoe and pull over the water hose. I recommend that you fill your pan with about three gallons of water and slowly add your bagged concrete into the water. Try adding one bag and see how it feels. Then slowly add another bag. If you’re mixing in a wheel barrow only three bags at a time will fit.
What I’ve learn over the course of twenty years in the business is that bagged concrete takes much longer to dry then truck concrete. So when you’re mixing and setting the concrete in the forms, make sure it’s not too wet. A good rule of thumb is to make it a little wetter than what you could hold in your hand. Put your first shovel full against the one expansion joint and make sure you don’t get any behind the expansion joint…if you do then the expansion won’t sit tight against the existing concrete. Begin to dump or shovel the concrete against the last concrete you dumped. Don’t overload the concrete on top of each concrete dump. This will cause a headache you don’t need. Be smart and carefully place the concrete next to each one. Once you’ve got a few loads of concrete in the forms then grab your iron rake and begin to level out the concrete. Stand over the concrete and use the rake in a tamping motion nice and easy against the concrete. Look at the height of your forms and it will give you an idea as to where you should be. Good tip! When leveling concrete it’s so important to get the right amount leveled. You need to rake the concrete so that it’s just above the wood forms on all sides. Only go about a half inch above the forms and you’ll be in great shape. Make sure you also fill in around the wood sides and don’t leave pockets of missing concrete.
When you were out buying the 2 x 4’s did you happen to buy the straightest 2 x 4 that they have? You’ll need this to level off your raked concrete. Cut the 2 x 4 down to the width of the concrete slab. Make the cut so that the wood is slightly larger than your concrete forms. If someone is helping you with the concrete, then one person should be on one side of the form and vice versa. Start at one end and lay the board across the concrete to grab one end of the wood form. Hold each end and begin to go back and forth with the wood firmly against the wood forms. As you go back and forth slowly push forward. Don’t angle the wood as you’re moving it or you won’t get a nice straight edge. Keep the wood nice and flat against the wood forms. As you move forward, take a good look not to leave pockets in your concrete. If a pocket does occur stop and grab a little extra concrete in your wheelbarrow and fill it in. Go back over with your wood and straighten it out. As you finish your pass with the wood, fill in any holes after leveling out the concrete. You might have a little extra concrete from leveling out the slab. Put it in a bucket and save it for later.
Now, like I talked about earlier, that bagged concrete seems to dry slower. It will depend on the day you pour the concrete and, of course, where you live. I would give it about a half an hour and give the concrete a little touch and see if you can push the concrete down easily with your finger. If it goes down quickly and easily then wait another half hour. If it takes a little pressure to push, then grab your magnesium trowel and strap on your knee pads. You’re also going to need a steel edger for the outside of the concrete and possibly a soft broom. Kneeling down, lay the float on the concrete and begin in a circular motion putting a little pressure on the trowel. As you are going in these circles, you’re moving to one side. But don’t move until all concrete is covered with the juices of the concrete. What you’re now doing is sending down the stone inside the concrete and allowing some moisture to rise to the surface and mix with the more liquid part of the concrete. You don’t want to see any stone through the concrete. After maging (masonry term) the concrete, grab your edger and with the round part against the wood slowly push down against the wood. Don’t push past the surface of the concrete or you’ll have a valley and that’s no good. With the round section against the wood, run the edger down the wood. Keep level pressure on the edger and finish out your run. Fill in all pockets if necessary. You’ll most likely have to go back over the flat part of the concrete and the edge. Most concrete is not ready to finish after the first troweling. There is one more step to finishing concrete… it’s the steel trowel finish after the maging. This will require expert finishing techniques and would be difficult to try. Mag the concrete good and level and you’ll be fine without the steel troweling. If you wanted a tight broom finish you would have to steel trowel the concrete and then lightly broom the concrete perpendicular with the wood. If you do want to go for it, then buy a twenty inch steel trowel and finish the concrete in the same motion as the mag. The steel trowel will put a glass like finish to the concrete. That’s the look you should be going for when finishing the concrete. Some people will leave this look to the concrete if it’s inside a garage or interior concrete. Steel troweled concrete can get slippery when wet.
When you are done finishing your concrete, you can leave it as a mag finish also. The mag finish is easier to handle and has better traction in wet weather. A silicone sealer can also be used on the concrete to prevent staining and is generally a good idea. The sealer will go on in spray form or you can roll it on. Check with the sealer label on the bag to see the best method for applying.
Hope this lesson helps when you give it a try. Don’t forget to look in our “Questions to ask a masonry contractor” if the job is just beyond your skills or time frame. Help with Masonry.com can help with all your masonry needs.

Let’s talk about if the concrete is cracked and is not a tripping hazard to anyone. Clean out the joint as best as possible and make sure you can actually get your product into the joint. If it’s just too tight to add any product, putting the product on top of the crack won’t last very long. If that’s the case, you’re better off with a polyurethane caulk. Many caulks come in different colors. Try and match the concrete color as close as possible. If the joint is moist at all, don’t caulk it. It won’t bond correctly. Grab a hair dryer or heat gun and dry out the crack. Once dry, you can begin to caulk. A good rule of thumb with regards to how much caulk to use is if the crack is ½ inch wide than the amount of caulk applied also needs to be ½ inch thick. If you’re in a cold region, you know that frozen water can move anything! If the crack is a large crack, try hydraulic cement poured right into the crack. Pour the cement right to the top, or slightly over, for the best bond.
If your concrete is peeling away and the stone is showing then you’ll need to purchase vinyl concrete patch or self leveling cement. Again, like all surfaces it must be cleaned as best as possible to ensure that the product will work. If you can power wash the area that would be best. If you can add a cleaner to the power washer, that would be really great. Let it dry before applying the patching material. Most patching material must be mixed and the vinyl patch is no exception. Once thoroughly mixed, then pour the material over the surface and spread evenly with a brush or squeegee. Let it set over night and remember…no walking on it. Remember to read the directions on the bag before starting because every situation is different. Good luck, and remember, if you don’t have the time or skills please check out “Questions you should ask a masonry contractor”. It will help!