LESLIE: Alright. Well, next up, we’ve got East Tennessee Radio and David from Tennessee. What can we do for you?
DAVID: I’ve got a problem with masonry – stone masonry. We’ve got a stone stairway outside and mortar is breaking – and a wall around it. The mortar is falling apart and some of the stones are very loose and dangerous.
TOM: Well, it sounds to me like what you need to do is to re-point that masonry wall because with the irregular stones, it is going to loosen up. And so, what you’re going to need is to scrape out the deteriorated, broken up masonry …
LESLIE: And pointing is just another fancy word for masonry – for grouting, right?
TOM: Yeah, pretty much. (chuckling) Yeah. It’s the reason we can charge more; because we know the bigger SAT words in home improvement. Like pointing …
LESLIE: (overlapping voices) (chuckling) Pointing.
TOM: … when we’re just talking about slapping some of that cement stuff in between those stones. (chuckling) So that’s what you want to do.
By the way, when you mix the cement for pointing, you want to use a little bit extra lime because it kind of makes it stickier and it’s easier to apply. But what you have to do is to scrape out the loose stuff and to re-point it. It’s not a terribly difficult job and, frankly, I think it’s kind of a fun job to do yourself. But if not, you could hire a mason as well.
DAVID: Alright. Well, thank you very much.
TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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