FEATURE: HOME IMPROVEMENT SPRING IN YOUR STEP: DIYers – and what retailers need to know to take advantage. T


he spring period always


fresh impetus


brings on


exterior projects and perhaps even more so this year, with


homeowners having spent so long indoors over the last 15 months and looking forward to the possibility of entertaining without restrictions in the summer.


Household spending on DIY continues to grow, with a near ten per cent growth in 2020 driven by the surge in spending after non-essential shops opened in June, according to data from Barclaycard reported in DIY Week in January. With no sign of that growth dying down, here are some of the most common RMI tasks that homeowners are set to take on in the coming months, including simple advice to support retailers in building trust to take advantage.


The brick barbeque


The classic brick barbeque is a firm favourite in the summertime. Easy to build and use, a brick barbeque can be an attractive addition to any patio area, without the added worry of rusting or breakage. Firstly, a solid concrete base is essential to reduce the risk of cracks appearing in the barbeque. Suggest a premixed concrete which is easy to use and contains a strong, hard wearing blend of cement, sand and 10mm course aggregate, such as Tarmac Blue Circle High Strength Concrete 40 Newton. Customers are simply required to add water, compact, finish and cure with a plastic sheet. With the


foundation laid and


brickwork area marked out, your customer will need to prepare a


16 DIY WEEK JUNE 2021


mortar to lay the bricks. For ease of use, suggest a pre-bagged, ready for use mortar mix, requiring only the addition of water.


After placing bricks on a bed of


mortar, they should establish the optimum length of time between laying the units and finishing the joints - for example, until the mortar has stiffened to the point of resisting an ‘easy thumbprint’. When five or six courses of bricks are laid and joints tooled, ensure your customers give the mortar time to cure.


Exterior brickwork Elsewhere, homeowners should look out for any areas of brickwork where mortar is missing or where it is loose and crumbly. These areas should be repaired by raking out the joint and re-pointing with a suitable mortar. A general purpose (designation iii) mortar is normally suitable for most houses and pre- mixed, bagged products are readily available. A mortar containing hydrated lime as well as cement, such as Blue Circle Quality Assured Mortar, is more cohesive and flexible and can accommodate slight movements in the brickwork. Your customers may also


be


checking ‘efflorescence’ on exterior brickwork and walls, which is the white chalky marks left when water leaves behind salt deposits on the masonry surface


or when migrates from cement. This


a ready to use mortar help overcome many potential problems relating to site mixing. These include the use of excess water and the addition of other inappropriate materials, which can result in reduced strength, increased permeability and reduced durability of the hardened mortar.


Fence posts The winter months often bring higher wind speeds, which means now is the ideal time for your customers to check for any damage that may have occurred during this time. If fence posts are unstable then they need to be reset with a quick setting, no mix concrete product, such as Blue Circle Postcrete. This can be used for fixing wooden, concrete and metal posts. As a general rule, around 25


lime can


appear over years and repointing the mortar will help. Your customer should start by cleaning the face of brickwork with a mild acid or brick cleaner and then repoint with mortar such as Tarmac Blue Circle Quality Assured Mortar.


The guaranteed mix proportions of


percent of the post should be buried below ground. Then simply fill the hole one third with clean water and pour in Blue Circle Postcrete evenly around the post until dry powder is visible on the surface. The Postcrete will set in as little as ten minutes.


Repairing damaged concrete paths


Another important job for a relaxed summer of outdoor entertainment is to repair any damaged concrete paths. It is not uncommon for homeowners to find unpleasant surface cracks or


spalling after the months but with good preparation, your customers can make repairs simply and efficiently. Once the damaged area has been identified and prepared and damped, they should use a dry quick repair mix, such as Tarmac Blue Circle Quick Repair Concrete if less than 50mm, or Tarmac Blue Circle Extra Rapid Cement used with a sharp sand or 10mm ballast for larger repairs. Using a straight-edged tool they then need to spread and level the cement before sprinkling the area with clean water. Suggest using a watering can with a rose attachment so excessive water doesn’t pond on the surface. They should then use their straight edge again to compact and smooth the concrete, then leave to set for thirty minutes. After two hours they can then give it a final sprinkling of water. A fast-setting cement is ideal for these types of applications since it sets quickly after placing and gains walk- on strength within the same day.


Guttering Finally, another essential check should be to review gutters and down- pipes for leakage, as water leaking onto brickwork walls for prolonged periods of time can cause leaching of soluble salts from the bricks and mortar and resulting in white staining. In extreme circumstances the bricks may become saturated with water which can freeze in the winter and ‘blow’ the face off the brick. Prevention is always better than cure and fixing the odd leak in a pipe is much simpler (and less costly) than repairing whole areas of brickwork.


For more information, please visit https://tarmac.com/products/ cement/


www.diyweek.net


HELPING CUSTOMERS PREPARE FOR OUTDOOR MAINTENANCE TASKS


With consumers preparing for a summer of outdoor entertaining, much of the focus on property improvements inevitably moves outside. Gareth Osborne at Tarmac Cement explores some of the most common exterior renovation, maintenance and improvement (RMI) projects for


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