How To: Grout Cultured Stone (Lots Of Tips From A Professional Stone Mason) Bags, Mortar, Troweling. 

Great points Pete, i should have mentioned wetting the bag. depending on the joint style we use wooden tools for a similar finish, and lots of glove joints especially on sea walls.

Thanks Clint!

Glad it helped! THanks for watching Nils. yep this frusterated me for a long time. i forgot about the dawn trick. a lot of drywallers do that too. good luck on your project!

Great tip! I'm about to try this out!

thank you for watching Denise! the dye is a really tricky thing. if it is a dry powder you can mix up a lot ahead of time and then wet the portions you need, using equal water ratios each time, certainly tryy to keep the same ratios on the same wall and then adjust around a corrner. sometimes you can buy a pre colored mix that is easier. if its a liquid dye then you got t0 get even more precise and scientific. measuring out everything and keeping as consistent as possible. each day's weather conditions can change the color a lot even with everything else under control. I have honestly tried to steer away from dyed mortar on bigger jobs. it is a huge liability. and it looks great if it all works out but it looks not so good if you end up with 5 different shades. on a smaller project. like under 100 square feet it is pretty doable. i hope this helps

yep tis the season to make hay while the sun shines. that noodle fishing sure looked like fun!!!

@@TheHowToHeadquarters it is especially when you have 3 or 4 cats on all at once

Glad you enjoyed it. thank you. I've got a bunch of uneded vids i got to get out. thanks for the encouragement. have you done much in the masonry world?

@@TheHowToHeadquarters just a DYIer but have watched all the Haduck vids so I guess semi pro now lol. Going to tackle building a faced stone wall up against the side of my concrete stair walkup. only goes as high as 2.5 feet, only like 10 sq face feet. Will end up getting mostly large rectangles of types of flagstone. My question is do I need more than just type n mortar to secure to each other andcesp. To the parged flat side of cement stairs ? Considered like brick wall ties but read they rust off, not needed etc. In Chicago so cold winters. My first go at facing stone. Any advice ill take it. Will be eying your other vids prior too. Trying to learn.

yup Mike Haddock is great!! i would add some extra straight Portland to the type N mortar and sand maybe 1 part type n 1 Portland 3 sand. and i would add an acrylic fortifier to the water. Kaufmanns is and excellent brand but the quickcreet acrylic fortifiers are good too. they just seem to accelerate the cure. which can de a pain in the hot summer. But the most important thing is to keep the water from getting behind it. a good cap on top is a much more determining factor as far as longevity over mortar type. if water can work its way in behind the wall, it will deteriorate especially in freeze thaw climates like ours.

@@TheHowToHeadquarters thanks much for the response! You are exactly right with the last part because that's exactly what happened. Builder pur this up 20 years ago with house and im told by 2 stone guys no one does it with sand and stone mortared to side of concrete anymore cause water gets behind and busts it up over time. Zactly what occurred by year 10-15. Wanted some guys to tear it out and parge the wall but they found big void under steps and got cold feet so just redid all the joints and used good stone they had to redo. Now I'm finishing portion they ran outta stone. I know even with caps, learned term coping stones applies too, won't keep our rain and gutter water that flows over it. Oh well I only need to make it 7- 10 years then sellin. Good luck growing channel. If you were local hire u in a NY minute!

@@stevevenn1 thanks Bob! yep those coping pcs will make all the difference! and it will definitely get you 7 years. especially if you spray it every year or 2 with a waterproof sealer like aqua pel

wow great to hear from San Diego. it was probably crystalized silica that gave you the sparkle. you might be able to get some to mix into your grout . it is a identified carcinogen now so its a little harder to get. or you might be able to pick up a tile grout with that sparkle element and then mix that in. its a DIFICULT game to match existing grout that has been weathered sometimes you got to just get it close and let it blend over a few years. if your mortar joints were small (less than a half an inch) that 1/3 port 1/3 sand 1/3 mortar could have been appropriate. is it showing deterioration after the 19 years in the average spot? or is it just failing where excessive weather or movement has taken place?

Thanks for watching Tim, I don't like to apply mortar when the next 3 days are likely to dip below 32 degrees. If the water in the mortar freezes, that arrests the curing process and that is as strong as the mortar will ever get. the thin mortar applications we show here are particularly susptable to freezing. thicker creet pours create their own heat and can protect themselves a little better in their own thermal mass. there are tricks. blankets over the new work, or admixtures like anti hydro which accelerate the curing process, even tenting and heating, but really it gets inefficient and risky as soon as the thermometer gets near 32. 50 to 70 degrees is the ideal temp for a nice slow cure

Thanks and great videos!!

the best way is to get white premixed mortar for glass blocks. if you can source that. its hard to make it yourself consistently. maybe a tile grout. or very light sand and type n light mortar.

Hey Bill, I'm sorry this is a bit confusing. especially since the names of these products have been blended together. one way to differentiate is by weight. the premixed mortar (which gets constipated without the other stuff) is usually sold in an 80 lb bag. the magic ingredient is pure type s mortar. that is usually in a 72 lb bag. they have it at the box stores usually, but nobody there knows the difference. pure type s mortar is finer than bread flower. no sand, just Lime, Portland, and some carcinogens. If all else fails try a masonry supply store. the guys at the counter there usualy know the products and have a higher turnover rate. if straight type s sits around too long it can get clumpy and cause more problems. i hope this helps

well I'm not an engineer and i cant see your exact application, so i have to be careful to take a stab at this...But typically the wall ties (or any lateral force) are not a major structural concern. It is the weight going directly down on the floor or the brick shelf that when it sags or gives causes the wall ties to give way. but the problem or the solution lies with the vertical force. if you plan on covering a 4x8 brick wall with stone veneer, you are looking at 32 sq ft at roughly 10lbs per sq ft so 320 pounds. if 2 adults stand near the wall, does the floor sag, bounce, deflect? if there is a concern, an additional floor joist or a micro-lamb might pick up additional weight. or an angle iron lagged to the masonry structure below the floor level. i hope this helps. i don't think i can give you my electronic mail address here but if you have more questions and you want to talk more directly you can find my address thru rogers rigs. which is my website for my other you tube channel

@@TheHowToHeadquarters really appreciate you taking time to answer my questions

its my pleasure! I hope it turns out well!

its warm eanought now. yes you can cover it if it gets cold at night, but its better to just wait to do it when the nights are abve 32

Tanks Ken, yep i wish i knew this trick a few years earlier. so now i'm telling the world. if you have any other foundation repair questions i'd love to help. -Roger

well i have done exactly that before to try for whiter joints, and it kinda worked....but the thinset made the mortar hard to work with. it was not a disaster, but not exactly how i has hoped. it was sticky and had a rubbery consistency and any smear on the stones did not clean up well at all. the BEST option i have found is white mortar used for glass blocks. sometimes this is at lowes listed as glass block mortar. it is basically exactly like type s mason mix but pure white. if you want to gray it up a little then add a scoop of regullar premixed mortar.

@@TheHowToHeadquarters thanks! Will try that. I also just spoke to a local brick and stone place and they have a type N white mortar so will try that too

i hope it worked

sorry i got so into explainin i did not show the actual process. but the info is there

yes! for mortar joints there is not a big difference in proformance. thanks for watchin!

Thank you so much! yep i could not find the answer for years and i had to hand pack joints for 1000s of feet before we figured out the laxative. I hope it all goes well!

thanks for watching.. let me know if i can help

THANKS!

i'm glad this helped Charles! yep i did the same thing. hand mixing and wondering why it did not work. with youtube existed back then

you can cut it with a utility knife or sizors. i immediately take the metal cone out if it has one in it

thanks for watching frank! its a little confusing. its type s premixed mortar in an 80 lb bag that is extra enriched wits straight type s mortar in a 72 lb bag. the straight mortar is the bonding cement the premix is straight mortar that has be already mixed with sand.

I wonder if he means type s cement

Glad it was helpful!