Home Maintenance For Dummies, 2nd Edition

by Carey, James

  8. Using the wood float, pack the material firmly into the area, being sure to eliminate any air pockets.

  The butt end of the float works great for this.

  9. Remove excess patch material with a wooden float and finish the patch to match the surrounding concrete with a metal concrete trowel.

  10. When the material starts to set up (in approximately 10 to 30 minutes), cover it with a tarp or sheet of plastic.

  Doing so holds moisture in. If the material dries too fast, it may crack or not adhere securely.

  Most exterior concrete surfaces have a slightly rough finish to prevent slipping when wet. The most common finish is the broom finish. After the patch has become firm, brush it lightly once (and just once) with a broom. Or, for a small patch, use a stiff paintbrush.

  11. Until the patch has completely dried (which can take up to a week), remove the cover once a day and spray the patch with a fine mist of water and then replace the cover.

  Leave the form board in place during the drying process to reduce the prospect of damage resulting from form removal or foot traffic.

  12. Complete the job by carefully removing the form boards, stakes, and bricks.

  Getting Things on an Even Keel

  If you walk across your brick or stone path or patio and you feel as if you’re on a ship on the high seas, chances are good that a little leveling is in order. Unlike a poured-in-place concrete path or patio that might need to be jackhammered out, a brick or stone patio is one big jigsaw puzzle embedded in a layer of sand. Consequently, this is a project that you can easily do yourself by selectively removing pieces of the puzzle, shoring up the sub-base, and reinstalling the pieces. The real beauty of this project is that it can be done a section at a time, and you can take as long as you want to complete your work. It’s not like you have a slab of wet concrete that must be finished before it dries hard as a rock! A few tools and a little time and it’ll be smooth sailing.

  Leveling settled brick patios and walkways

  As a couple we know demonstrated when the repair of their sinking brick patio was featured on Ask This Old House, leveling and resetting a brick patio is slow, heavy work. Fortunately, it’s not a complex project — just one that takes time and effort to do right.

  You need the following:

  Chalk

  Crayon

  Small pry bar

  Shovel

  Hand tamper

  Rubber mallet

  4-foot level

  Measuring tape

  Broom

  Crushed limestone

  Coarse sand

  Fine sand

  Then follow these steps:

  1. Use chalk to mark out the settled area.

  2. Starting in the middle of that area and working toward the edge, use a small pry bar to remove the whole bricks and stack them neatly nearby.

  3. Number any partial, cut bricks using a light-colored crayon.

  Don’t use chalk — it’ll rub off and make resetting a nightmare.

  4. When all the settled area’s bricks are removed, explore what’s underneath.

  You should find sand. And under that you may find crushed limestone or compacted gravel. But it’s more likely that you’ll find dirt or clay underneath.

  5. If you find dirt or clay that’s wet or loose underneath the brick, dig it out until you find solid earth.

  6. Fill the now-low areas of the bed with crushed limestone and compact it thoroughly using a hand tamper.

  Your wrists and hands will never be the same!

  7. Use a level to see where the top of the reset bricks will be; then use more crushed limestone (tamp it down good!) to fill the bed until there are 3 inches between the bottom of the level and the top of the bed.

  Most patio bricks are 2 inches thick, and you want to leave room for 1 inch of sand underneath.

  8. Add 1 inch of sand, and then double-check that you still have 2 inches for the bricks.

  9. Reset the bricks you removed earlier, working from the middle outward. Be careful to maintain the original pattern.

  Be sure to put them in straight down to avoid jamming sand between them and messing up the spacing. Whack each brick hard a couple of times with a rubber mallet to make sure they’re securely set.

  10. Sweep fine sand into the joints to fill the gaps and to lock the now-level bricks in place.

  Save some sand to sweep in after the next rain.

  Leveling and resetting stone paths

  The process for fixing a sinking, uneven brick sidewalk or stone path is the same as it is for a settled patio (see the preceding section). However, in our experience, you’re more likely to find just dirt underneath. Our advice when you find no stabilizing stone/sand base: Pull the whole thing up and start fresh with a proper substrate. That way you won’t have to fix it again in two years . . . and then every two years after that.

  Recoating an asphalt driveway

  Few home-maintenance projects are easier than sealing an asphalt driveway. Mostly you need a strong back to maneuver the big, heavy buckets of sealer.

  You need these supplies:

  Putty knife

  Broom

  Clean and sturdy stirring stick

  Squeegee or roller

  Hose

  Asphalt caulk

  Asphalt patch

  Asphalt sealer

  When you’ve gathered everything you need, follow these steps:

  1. Check the weather forecast to make sure the temperature will stay above 50 degrees and there’ll be no rain for the next 36 hours.

  Cool temperatures and excessive moisture interfere with adhesion and drying.

  2. Remove debris from any large cracks using a putty knife, and thoroughly sweep the entire surface with a push broom.

  3. Fill all cracks more than 1/4 inch wide with asphalt caulk.

  You need to use asphalt patching material to patch bigger cracks. Smaller cracks can be filled by the sealer.

  4. Prepare the surface by spraying it with water to remove any dust. Clean oil spots using one of the methods described in the “Cleaning off grease and oil stains” section, earlier in this chapter.

  5. Allow the driveway to fully dry.

  6. Get the sealer ready.

  Drag the big, heavy buckets of sealer onto the driveway. Without opening them, flip them upside-down to allow the heavier goop to sink toward the top; then flip them back, crack them open, and stir thoroughly with a sturdy, clean stick. Put the lid back on the now-stirred sealer and drag one of the big, heavy buckets of sealer to your starting point.

  7. Pour out only as much sealer as will coat about 20 square feet (you’ll figure out how much that is pretty quickly); then use the roller or squeegee to spread the coating across the driveway using overlapping strokes.

  Two things to keep in mind as you apply the sealer:

  • Stir the sealer as you apply it to ensure its consistency.

  • A thick coat is not better than a thin coat.

  8. Keep dragging the big, heavy buckets around and doing 20 square feet at a time until you’re done.

  Be careful not to slop sealer onto the sidewalk or street.

  9. Let the sealer dry for at least 24 hours, and preferably 48 hours.

  During the drying time, stay off the driveway. Put the empty buckets at the end of the driveway to prevent visitors from driving on your freshly coated and very, very handsome driveway.

  For the Love of Masonry

  One of our favorite children’s stories is “The Three Little Pigs.” In fact, we credit, to some degree, our early interest in construction to our early interest in that book. After all, the story is about three pigs who delve in to construction as owner-builders. And like most construction projects, they had their share of headaches. Enter the Big Bad Wolf! Obsessed with having a delectable ham dinner, he tried to destroy the pigs’ homes.

  Sadly, he was successful in demolishing the first two homes — constructed of straw and wood, respectively. However
, the third little pig used brick to build his home, which foiled the wolf. Huff and puff all he might, the wolf couldn’t blow down the house built of bricks. And he wouldn’t have been any more successful with a home built of stone.

  The only difference between brick and stone: Reinforced brick is structural, and stone is primarily decorative. However, when it comes to cleaning, repairing, and sealing, the techniques and materials used for brick and stone are the same.

  We have yet to see a real, live wolf attempt to blow down a house. But efflorescence, salt air, stress cracks, and severe weathering can be as big a threat. Chapter 4 tells you how to deal with efflorescence. The following sections explain how to handle the other problems.

  Dealing with stress cracks

  Stress cracks typically occur in mortar joints rather than within the brick or stone itself. If stress cracks in mortar are the problem, see Chapter 4 for the lowdown on tuck-pointing.

  If the problem is a cracked or broken stone or brick, you can remove it by chiseling out the mortar surrounding it. With the mortar out of the way, the brick or stone will have room to expand and can be broken up easily using a cold chisel and a small sledgehammer. Just insert a new brick or stone into the hole to replace the one removed. Then finish the job by mortaring around the brick or stone for a solid fit.

  When a new mortar patch dries and doesn’t match the existing shade or color, have a small amount of latex paint color-matched to the existing mortar. Use an artist’s brush to paint the new mortar joints. No one will ever know where the existing material ends and the new work begins — including you!

  Cleaning your masonry

  The most common masonry-cleaning problems are:

  Fungus, moss, and mildew: One quart of household liquid bleach mixed into 1 gallon of warm water, applied with a stiff-bristle brush, usually takes care of these unsightly problems. (Don’t forget to rinse the solution off with clean water.) However, sodium hypochlorite, the active ingredient in bleach, may not dissolve large masses of these types of growths. In such cases, scrape off as much of the crud as you can with a broad-bladed putty knife (or wire brush); then scrub on the killer mixture.

  When trying to eliminate fungus, it’s the bleach that does the job — not the elbow grease. Make sure you give the bleach plenty of time to work before scrubbing and rinsing away. If not, fungus spores will remain and can grow back quickly.

  Oils, soot, and mineral residue: Oils, soot, and white, powdery mineral residue pose a slightly more difficult problem. They’re embedded more deeply than moss or mildew into the pores of the masonry. You need a solution of 1 part muriatic acid to 9 parts water to get rid of this hard-to-remove crud. Add the acid to the water and apply the solution; allow it to set for about 15 minutes; then use a bristle brush to clean the affected area and rinse with fresh water. (If soot is the problem, head to Chapter 15 for ideas on how to get rid of it.)

  Paint: Sandblasting, wash-away, or peel-off paint removers; hand or electric wire brushing; muriatic acid washing; and power-washing are just a few of the ways that you can remove paint from masonry. Sandblasting or wire brushing is hard, messy work, and paint removers sometimes create more mess than they eliminate. Instead, we recommend power-washing. You can rent a commercial power washer for about $50 per day. It’s easy to operate, mess is kept to a minimum, and you don’t have to be a chemist to make it work. Be aware, however, that a power washer works fine on the outside of your home, but all that water could wreak havoc on the inside of your house. Therefore, when it comes to removing paint from brick or stone, your best bet is a chemical stripper such as Peel Away (see Chapter 15).

  Applying a sealer

  Applying a sealer can minimize brick or stone damage from salt air and severe weathering. It can even work to prevent efflorescence. Just as you would with concrete, you need to thoroughly clean your brick and stone before applying a sealer. See “Sealing concrete” earlier in this chapter for information on what you need to perform this task.

  Chapter 18

  Decks, Fences, and Retaining Walls

  In This Chapter

  Doing right by your deck

  Taking care of fencing

  Maintaining your retaining wall’s health

  Eventually, everything on the planet deteriorates. However, some building materials last longer than others. For example, stone, brick, plaster, concrete, and aluminum (discussed elsewhere in this book) last a long time and require little or no maintenance. On the other hand, wood and wood-based composites must be regularly maintained and protected with paint or a preservative to achieve lasting quality. Why? Because wood is highly susceptible to damage caused by moisture and the sun’s ultraviolet rays, whereas the other building materials aren’t nearly as fragile.

  So given wood’s need for maintenance, why is it used in building construction? Simple: Wood is beautiful, available, very inexpensive (compared to all the alternatives), and really easy to work with.

  Because of wood’s susceptibility to fungus and rot, and its need for regular and ongoing maintenance, we discuss wood maintenance in great detail in this chapter. You can easily deal with wood’s shortcomings and prolong the life of your wood structures with the information in this chapter.

  Chapter 5 explains how to care for wood siding. This chapter focuses on other outdoor wood structures. Although you use many of the same principles and techniques to care for outdoor wood structures that you use to care for wood siding, the structures discussed here are more difficult to protect because each structure contains many pieces of wood, each piece having more than one side exposed to the elements.

  Preserving Wood

  Wood is wood and whether the wood is used for a deck, a fence, a gazebo, or a retaining wall, there is one common fact: Wood and water don’t mix. Fortunately, you can protect your wood structures in a number of ways, as the following sections explain.

  Anything that contains wood must be treated like wood. Some manufacturers of composite materials would like you to believe that their products require no maintenance, but that’s just not the case. Wood composites are basically wood chips mixed with a resin. After one or two greasy barbecue spills, you’ll find that composite decking stains just like the real McCoy. Composite surfaces do seem to hold up better in the beginning, and they don’t splinter the way natural wood does, but composite materials can’t be refinished. (That won’t become important until at least ten years down the road, when replacement is your only choice.) Composite wood should be protected with penetrating oil (a wood preservative), just as solid wood should.

  Paint

  A painted deck or fence can be beautiful, but painting can also be a real problem. Unlike wood siding, wood in decks, handrails, fences, retaining walls, and other complex structures expose several surfaces of each piece of wood to the weather. Some of the surfaces (such as the area between a fence rail and a fence board) are inaccessible and can’t be protected, which makes it difficult to achieve a complete waterproof membrane, even if you caulk.

  Partially painted pieces of wood create a real problem. Even if the unpainted side doesn’t get wet directly, exposed wood can absorb moisture from vapors rising from beneath. After the exposed wood absorbs moisture, the painted surface on that same piece of wood can become riddled with bubbles, splits, chips, and peeling paint. And when the painted surface has been compromised, it can no longer fully protect the wood — in fact, the damaged surface becomes a contributor to further moisture attack.

  Our advice: Don’t paint unless you can cover all six sides of every piece of wood. In situations where pieces of wood are sandwiched together, and the joined surfaces can’t be painted, then the pieces should be joined as one by thoroughly caulking all connecting joints. If all sides can’t be reached, you’ll get the best protection with an oil or oil-stain finish — not with paint.