I was approached today by a repeat customer who needs a parge coat on a poured foundation wall repaired. The existing coat is about 1″ thick,with a brownish color, and has gravel, about 1/4″ in diameter worked into the parge coat as a decorative addition. There are areas of 1-3 sf, that have broken out which he wants patched. I have looked in the archives for this, and found several threads about parging, but non, that address my specific problem.
Could one use a Quickrete sand mix, with latex bonding additive, and a little brown morter dye, to do the patch, and then trowl in some washed gravel of the appropriate size? I’m afraid that anything is likley to look like a patch, but he does not want to take it all off and start over. The exposed height is about 18-20″.
Any hints would be appreciated. I don’t consider myself a mason, but work is slim around here. Thanks.
Replies
Don't use sand mix, use
Don't use sand mix, use mortar mix. Sand mix will not stick. It will slump down, and drive you nuts!
I've seen this done two ways:
Mix pebbles into the mortar and apply, let mostly set, then hose down & scrub.
Apply plain mortar, then pound pebbles into the face.
If you examine closely you can determine which way this job was done -- you should probably try to match the previous technique.
But I doubt that this is an easy job, either way. More than a little technique involved.