Half poured pond

[GBBUDD]

In super hot weather the moisture will be pulled right out of the material your trying to add. Flash drying the material. The worst thing for concrete is to dry fast the longer it takes the better it is.

as far as cutting open loose areas . if you can tap on the area and it sounds hollow that's a sign more attention is probably needed. loose, dry, crumbly dusty areas must be removed.

 

[Tbirkey]

In super hot weather the moisture will be pulled right out of the material your trying to add. Flash drying the material. The worst thing for concrete is to dry fast the longer it takes the better it is.

as far as cutting open loose areas . if you can tap on the area and it sounds hollow that's a sign more attention is probably needed. loose, dry, crumbly dusty areas must be removed.

Oh damn that's not good then. I remember when I was applying repair mortar to cracks there was a area in the pond where it humps over to create two separate little sides and when you knock on it it sounds like you're knocking on wood. No I did not pour this and didn't want to have any f****** part in pouring it so I wonder once all the water is in that area if there's too much weight that that spot would crumble or something, I'm not really sure. When I passed on the pouring part of this job the homeowner was getting a quote from two dudes who are over there who I thought looked kind of sketchy, when I asked him if they were concrete guys he said no their landscape guys but they can do concrete and in my head I'm just like oh my God this thing is f*****.

 

[Tbirkey]

In super hot weather the moisture will be pulled right out of the material your trying to add. Flash drying the material. The worst thing for concrete is to dry fast the longer it takes the better it is.

as far as cutting open loose areas . if you can tap on the area and it sounds hollow that's a sign more attention is probably needed. loose, dry, crumbly dusty areas must be removed.

Yeah it did say to thoroughly wet your substrate and not let it flash dry, but I sprayed it down pretty good and then it took about an hour or two to completely dry and that's when I started. But now after giving it a go it seems extremely obvious that it has to be kind of wet even though the thoroseal spec sheet says that wetness induces a kind of slippage that you don't want if you're replying something to the substrate which does kind of make sense but it's still wrong. I'm waiting on the reps to get back to me I'm hopefully they can just buy me the extra thorough seal and binder that I need for this project, I mean I already bought it but hopefully they can reimburse me since the spec sheet is wrong and it's instructions

 

[GBBUDD]

Yeah it did say to thoroughly wet your substrate and not let it flash dry, but I sprayed it down pretty good and then it took about an hour or two to completely dry and that's when I started. But now after giving it a go it seems extremely obvious that it has to be kind of wet even though the thoroseal spec sheet says that wetness induces a kind of slippage that you don't want if you're replying something to the substrate which does kind of make sense but it's still wrong. I'm waiting on the reps to get back to me I'm hopefully they can just buy me the extra thorough seal and binder that I need for this project, I mean I already bought it but hopefully they can reimburse me since the spec sheet is wrong and it's instructions

Good luck with that. You need to talk the talk in order to even think about a credit. You are doing whats called parging you tube it. You apply a peanut butter consistency then as it Starts to dry Sprinkle water with a large paint brush. then you just work the surface CREAM that you just created and that is how you get a smooth finish. it is an art. but one anyone can do with plenty of practice.

 

[Tbirkey]

Good luck with that. You need to talk the talk in order to even think about a credit. You are doing whats called parging you tube it. You apply a peanut butter consistency then as it Starts to dry Sprinkle water with a large paint brush. then you just work the surface CREAM that you just created and that is how you get a smooth finish. it is an art. but one anyone can do with plenty of practice.

 

[Tbirkey]

Yeah I mean you're kind of right but then also the instructions should be pretty clear I mean I talked to reps for so f****** long that I should have a pretty good idea that I know what I'm doing but I also get the flip side of it. If the spec sheet instructions are not simple for the average guy to use or are not clear enough or missing information then that is 100% definitely on the company, regarding whether or not I get anything out of it I highly doubt it but I'll always fight the good fight f*** that. On the second coat it did go a hell of a lot better, but there was some areas where I could see almost like bubbles coming out like holes and it seemed like those areas were only like that when I had a little bit too much water down, so I'm going to go back tomorrow with the quarterback that I have and I don't know I guess just poke at him and go over it again.

One thing that I have tried to get across to this guy that I don't think that he's understanding and, I mean the homeowner is that I don't think he really respects the trades and what goes into learning stuff cuz I told this dude I don't know what the hell I'm doing I'll read the instructions and do it and you can pay me $15 an hour just because I want to have some kind of experience with it but I think I can tell now we both kind of made a mistake but I'm going to try to do the best I can and if I have to lose my ass on this job then I guess just how it is life is short so try to do as much living as we can I guess without getting too f*****. Party on

 

[GBBUDD]

Not knowing where you are but around here finding a handy man is going to run a min of 50 to 75 bucks an hour and that's if your lucky. So he's ahead of the game a small pond like that in rubber would run 7 k with Aquascapes add concrete to the number and it would be10 k

 

[Tbirkey]

Not knowing where you are but around here finding a handy man is going to run a min of 50 to 75 bucks an hour and that's if your lucky. So he's ahead of the game a small pond like that in rubber would run 7 k with Aquascapes add concrete to the number and it would be10 k

I'm doing this for 20 bucks an hour because I wanted some experience, and with the caviat that can only afford to spend 2 days a week on this project. I'm also installing irrigation and fence poles for a bamboo wall and this dummy is starting to freak out on how long it takes.

He thought I was lying when I said it took 6 hours total to apply two coats of Masterseal and do all the prep. This job was a mistake, but I have learned a ton.

 

[Lisak1]

The biggest lesson might be to listen to yourself when you know it's going to be a mistake!

To be honest, I would never pay someone by the hour for a job - for the very reason you said. Now he wants you to finish fast so he saves money. If he got a job quote up front, he may not have wanted to pay for it at all. You're a trooper for hanging in there with this guy - he has no guarantee you'll even show up tomorrow on an hourly agreement.

 

[combatwombat]

Well, I guess you're getting your experience. Think you'll get a referral?

 

[GBBUDD]

I'm doing this for 20 bucks an hour because I wanted some experience, and with the caviat that can only afford to spend 2 days a week on this project. I'm also installing irrigation and fence poles for a bamboo wall and this dummy is starting to freak out on how long it takes.

He thought I was lying when I said it took 6 hours total to apply two coats of Masterseal and do all the prep. This job was a mistake, but I have learned a ton.

I was self employed starting in my teens for twenty five years . trust me your not the first to chose to do a job that ended up being a nightmare. And they usually end up BEING THE PROJECT WHAT WE THOUGHT WOULD BE EASY. But take my word for it you'll remember those jobs more than any other.
if you are getting more jobs then you are not then you need to up your prices. Right now a decent handy man should be pulling close to 200 k a year. Pay your help your tools truck insurance and then pay your self.

This project says your not afraid to try learn and fail or succeed.
All too many who hire you consider them selves experts in the fields even myself, but theres so many new products that come out and other products they take off the market.

If you want your work to look as good as possible you can also take whats called a cup grinder. its a grinding wheel that looks like an upside down cup, And you place that on a standard grinder and it basicly sands the concrete rough spots. They also make scarifiers much faster and more expensive but they eat up stone like it is butter.

 

[Tbirkey]

The biggest lesson might be to listen to yourself when you know it's going to be a mistake!

To be honest, I would never pay someone by the hour for a job - for the very reason you said. Now he wants you to finish fast so he saves money. If he got a job quote up front, he may not have wanted to pay for it at all. You're a trooper for hanging in there with this guy - he has no guarantee you'll even show up tomorrow on an hourly agreement.

Thank you, he did get a very rough estimate on how long and how much money it would take and we're still pretty close to that

 

[Tbirkey]

Well, I guess you're getting your experience. Think you'll get a referral?

Yeah I mean this is going to look very nice when it's done, we're doing quite a bit of stuff all over the place. I also just put in some bamboo fencing around this area and it's starting to look really cool. I don't know I was going to do a bunch of other stuff for this guy, and I didn't know how things are going to ramp up in the summer with my landscaping business, so I was going to help another guy he has working on stuff who is an incredible Carpenter, and be his guys help her a couple days out of every week for a guest house he once built. But once this job is over I'm going to tell him that he is not a good fit for me and I will be moving on.

 

[Tbirkey]

I was self employed starting in my teens for twenty five years . trust me your not the first to chose to do a job that ended up being a nightmare. And they usually end up BEING THE PROJECT WHAT WE THOUGHT WOULD BE EASY. But take my word for it you'll remember those jobs more than any other.
if you are getting more jobs then you are not then you need to up your prices. Right now a decent handy man should be pulling close to 200 k a year. Pay your help your tools truck insurance and then pay your self.

This project says your not afraid to try learn and fail or succeed.
All too many who hire you consider them selves experts in the fields even myself, but theres so many new products that come out and other products they take off the market.

If you want your work to look as good as possible you can also take whats called a cup grinder. its a grinding wheel that looks like an upside down cup, And you place that on a standard grinder and it basicly sands the concrete rough spots. They also make scarifiers much faster and more expensive but they eat up stone like it is butter.

Thanks for that, I work for other couple guys who had some smaller businesses and I saw all of the nightmares that they had to go through to get to where they were and I know that this sucks but it's almost inevitable to run into. I mean I'm a firm believer that everybody learns the hard way, and if I only have to learn the hard way half of the time, or on half of the things that I would have learned the hard way then that still better than living a nightmare all the f****** time

Yeah I don't know any masonry stuff but the cup thing sounds real interesting, I think the two guys that did the concrete job didn't know what they were doing, the more reading into manipulating the cream of the concrete the more I look back on this project and see that the several guys that worked on the pond pouring itself we're absolute bozos. I went back and did a little fencing for this job so I can hurry up and try to get the hell out of here and get it done as fast as possible and just blasted some David goggins YouTube stuff for five or six hours and now I kind of don't really care I'm just going to blast through this and tough it out and learn the lessons that most people probably end up learning anyway. Rock and roll baby