Third Generation LatiFamily Member

Click on photos to enlarge

Message from Simon Meadow:

"I spent a few days with tech services and in the lab. Here are some pictures of me getting to work:

Mixing up some adhesives, 
setting up pull off test samples, 
smashing epoxy and tile to remove pull off test samples, 
in hard hat and neon gear deep underground in the new underground public transportation project! 

I went to several job sites with Royce. We also went to lunch with an old Chinese contractor with silver white hair and some hoop earrings. I had a massive bowl of fish head curry finally which I had been looking forward to trying."

Some Guys Need To Test Things Themselves

"Henry, 254 applied over HydroBan on a regular concrete block. Cure time 2 days for the HydroBan then 5 days for the 254 . First pic is the chisel in between the block and the Cultured stone product . This is after I have hit it with a hammer 2 times."


"This is after 5 blows with the hammer and chisel. I am shocked with the bond of the Hydroban! The surface of the concrete block failed .
The aggregate on the piece of Cultured stone is bonded to the HydroBan, Truly amazing."

Jim Doane- Jimbo's Creative Masonry
http://www.jimboscreativemasonry.com/

Beware the dangerous (and useless) 'Screwdriver' test!

Over the years we've received reports from the field regarding contractors who tested mortars by "trying to pry a tile up with a screwdriver"

This is NOT a realistic or accurate test of the performance of a mortar!

We've had contractors comment that "... the tile come up easily ..." or "... the tile came up clean ..."

I REPEAT: This is NOT an accurate test of a mortars performance. The fact that the tile come up only shows the massive force that can be exerted with a "lever" You may remember from high school physics that Archimedes said " give me a long enough lever and a place to stand and I'll move the Earth!" And he was RIGHT!

The fact that the tile came up "clean" only indicates that the bond of the mortar to the subsurface and the INTERNAL strength of the mortar was stronger than the bond of the mortar to the tile. This in NOT necessarily bad! Remember that if you take a 5,000# strength chain and pull with 6,000# pounds of force the chain will break at one of the links. This DOES NOT mean that the broken link was weak or "bad"! It only means that it broke after its strength was exceeded!