LESLIE: Alright. Glenn is calling in from Devils Lake, North Dakota. Hey, Glenn, go easy on us, Satan. I’m kidding. (Tom and Leslie laugh) Hey, Glenn. How are you?
GLENN: Real good. Real good.
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) Alright. Tell us what’s going on at your money pit.
GLENN: Well, I’ve got – in the basement, it was poured in two sections; a seam right down the middle. And the concrete is flaking off of this seam, about up to four to six inches, in a wide area. And actually, I’ve got some real light carpet. It’s bubbling up. I was wondering what I could do to …
TOM: And it’s only happening in the seam area?
GLENN: Yes, it is.
TOM: Yeah. Well, you know, when they pour concrete, the aggregate is sort of bubbled up to the top and then they sort of shake it and vibrate it and it sinks down. And sometimes, if you get some inconsistent mixing, you can get some parts of the concrete surface that are a little more susceptible to chipping, which may be what happened depending on how this was poured.
But I will say that the best thing to do is to pull off all of the loose stuff; don’t try to repair it in place. Pull it off, get everything off that you think is even the least bit loose and then you want to use an epoxy patching compound because what that does is that really seals the surface in and it attaches well to the rest of the concrete. And once it’s done, it will never pull off again. You can’t try to patch this with more mortar or concrete because it will separate – it will delaminate – but if you use an epoxy compound, then it’ll stick really well and it will never fall off.
LESLIE: And the epoxy is super-flexible so any further movement that you get in there – you know, it will go with it.
TOM: Yeah, expansion and contraction. Mm-hmm.
GLENN: OK. Sounds good. Thank you very much.
TOM: Good luck with that project. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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