Fixing a loose coping stone

[Sam Nelson]

About three years ago, a local builder put some slabs of sawn sandstone along the top of a garden wall for me. At one end, where the wall slopes down at about 20deg, the last slab (about 1m x 0.5m x 40mm) has come loose. Some day soon, it's just going to slide off, I should think, especially now the weather can get under it. Can anyone suggest a method I could use to put it back and secure it there for myself, or should I just give in and have the builder back for another shot at it? Would it do any good to acquire a fairly large quantity of some sort of adhesive, or is that a stupid idea?

Thanks for any hints,

[david lang]

Get a bag of brick laying mortar and a trowel. Follow instructions on bag, remove old motar first.

Dave

[80/20]

Done just that - bag of mortar £3.50 - trowel £1.50 from Do It All.

20 minutes work yesterday and coping stone taken off, cleaned and repositioned.

Bag says do not overwet the mix - heed the words and you will have a fine job.

Steve

[Sam Nelson]

Does that mean I can expect to have to do this about every three years or so, or does the time the original job has lasted here suggest that it was poorly done? The builder did about 56m of wall for me, in total, and the rest of it still looks as-new.

[Rob Morley]

While you shouldn't make the mix sloppy, you should thoroughly wet the surfaces to be joined and wait for them to soak through, otherwise the mortar can dry out before it has a chance to set properly.