All,

Just had a nice new garage installed and now need to seal the bottom
of it where it meets the base. Fair enough.

Grarage installation bods suggested I made a mix of 3 parts River Sand
(due to it's water repellent properties) to 1 part cement.

River sand? I've never seen that in the local DIY whorehouse.

Any ideas or alternatives?

TIA

Steve

sharp sand

"Aidan" wrote in message
oups.com

sharp sand

There are 2 or 3 main grades of sand bricklaying sand is fine grained.

Plastering sand a little more coarse and flooring grade which is
slightly larger again.

River sand isn't a grade as it can be a mixture of sizes but it is
alledgedly more sharp edged than stuff that has been rolling around on a
beach or in a desert for decades. It is supposed to give a etter key or
grip to the other particles.

There is nothing to the water-proofing aspect.

Just had a nice new garage installed and now need to seal the bottom
of it where it meets the base. Fair enough.

How come the fitters never sealed it?



--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

In article lgate.org,
Michael Mcneil writes
"Aidan" wrote in message
roups.com

sharp sand

There are 2 or 3 main grades of sand bricklaying sand is fine grained.

Plastering sand a little more coarse and flooring grade which is
slightly larger again.

River sand isn't a grade as it can be a mixture of sizes but it is
alledgedly more sharp edged than stuff that has been rolling around on a
beach or in a desert for decades. It is supposed to give a etter key or
grip to the other particles.

There is nothing to the water-proofing aspect.

Just had a nice new garage installed and now need to seal the bottom
of it where it meets the base. Fair enough.

How come the fitters never sealed it?




Why do they use that soft sand sharp sand differentiation for, and ne1
know why?, I presume that for various reasons they are better for their
respective duties as such?. Anyone able to say why?....
--
Tony Sayer

Steve brought next idea :
Just had a nice new garage installed and now need to seal the bottom
of it where it meets the base. Fair enough.

If you will take my advice on doing this....

I assume you are putting a strip of cement in a triangular shape
between floor and garage wall of about 2"?

What I found was that the walls tend to move about a little due to
expansion and contraction. If the cement is stuck to both wall and
floor it will tend to crack and has to either part away from the floor
or wall. After repairing mine several times, I eventually settled on
doing it the following way and no problems since...

Put a narrow bit of thin ply/hardboard or similar against the wall, put
in the web of cement then when the cement is almost dry remove the ply.
It leaves a gap to allow the walls to move a little and the cement will
still remain solidly adhered to the floor. You can always fill the
small gap remaining with a flexible sealant.

The idea of the web of cement is simply to prevent water running in
along the concrete base.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.org

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
...
Steve brought next idea :
Just had a nice new garage installed and now need to seal the bottom
of it where it meets the base. Fair enough.

If you will take my advice on doing this....

I assume you are putting a strip of cement in a triangular shape
between floor and garage wall of about 2"?

What I found was that the walls tend to move about a little due to
expansion and contraction. If the cement is stuck to both wall and
floor it will tend to crack and has to either part away from the floor
or wall. After repairing mine several times, I eventually settled on
doing it the following way and no problems since...

Put a narrow bit of thin ply/hardboard or similar against the wall, put
in the web of cement then when the cement is almost dry remove the ply.
It leaves a gap to allow the walls to move a little and the cement will
still remain solidly adhered to the floor. You can always fill the
small gap remaining with a flexible sealant.

The idea of the web of cement is simply to prevent water running in
along the concrete base.


Why not just use silicon / mastic for the seal ?
imho cement seals look messy and perform poorly

Regards Jeff

Jeff formulated the question :
Why not just use silicon / mastic for the seal ?
imho cement seals look messy and perform poorly

Regards Jeff

I think the idea is to provide a 'dam' around the interior of the wall,
such that it prevents the water flowing in along the concrete base
slab. The idea is not to seal the wall to the slab, which would not
work for long. In my case the slab is a little below the general ground
level at the back and water would tend to build up. I had no problems
with water ingress once the web of cement was put around.

--

Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.org

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article lgate.org,
Michael Mcneil writes
"Aidan" wrote in message
roups.com

sharp sand

There are 2 or 3 main grades of sand bricklaying sand is fine grained.

Plastering sand a little more coarse and flooring grade which is
slightly larger again.

River sand isn't a grade as it can be a mixture of sizes but it is
alledgedly more sharp edged than stuff that has been rolling around on a
beach or in a desert for decades. It is supposed to give a etter key or
grip to the other particles.

There is nothing to the water-proofing aspect.

Just had a nice new garage installed and now need to seal the bottom
of it where it meets the base. Fair enough.

How come the fitters never sealed it?




Why do they use that soft sand sharp sand differentiation for, and ne1
know why?, I presume that for various reasons they are better for their
respective duties as such?. Anyone able to say why?....
--
Tony Sayer

Sharp sand is gritty to the touch, the grains are angular, in my neck of the
woods it is a light grey colour. I believe it gives a stronger mortar due to
the
angular nature of the grains. Builder's sand is also known as soft sand and
is usually a golden colour, soft to the touch, staining your fingers yellow,
and
made up of many different sizes of rounded particle, down to clay size. It
is
good for bricklaying etc because the rounded grains and wide variation of
grain sizes + clay gives the mortar very good workability. Sharp sand is
more
difficult to handle if used for bricklaying and it can be difficult to
position the
bricks correctly as the angular grains will lock together with far less
leeway
han soft sand. Adding lime or plasticiser ( pva or febmix or even squeezy
etc )
to a mortar also increases its workability. Such is my info anyway.

Andy.

Haven't a clue why the fitters didn't seal it.

However, due to the fact that the base isn't totally flat either, some
of the wall panels do have gaps underneath them, so they will have to
be filled.

Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.

Thanks

Steve

Why do they use that soft sand sharp sand differentiation for, and ne1
know why?, I presume that for various reasons they are better for their
respective duties as such?. Anyone able to say why?....
--
Tony Sayer

Sharp sand is gritty to the touch, the grains are angular, in my neck of the
woods it is a light grey colour. I believe it gives a stronger mortar due to
the
angular nature of the grains. Builder's sand is also known as soft sand and
is usually a golden colour, soft to the touch, staining your fingers yellow,
and
made up of many different sizes of rounded particle, down to clay size. It
is
good for bricklaying etc because the rounded grains and wide variation of
grain sizes + clay gives the mortar very good workability. Sharp sand is
more
difficult to handle if used for bricklaying and it can be difficult to
position the
bricks correctly as the angular grains will lock together with far less
leeway
han soft sand. Adding lime or plasticiser ( pva or febmix or even squeezy
etc )
to a mortar also increases its workability. Such is my info anyway.

Andy.




Thanks for that Andy.....
--
Tony Sayer