soft cement for temporary roof repairs?

[dicegeorge]

the cement between my ridge tiles, and at the top of some walls and chimneys is missing and worn away, water is getting in between the bricks and tiles..

maybe next summer i'l get builders and surveyers and scaffolding but before the winter frosts get to work i was thinking of slapping in some soft cement or plaster or mastic so no more water gets in, {but not super strong portland cement} so that when a skilled cementer gets up there with scaffold to do a proper job they can scrape my doings away easily.

is this a good idea?

and what shall i use for my 'soft cement'

george

thanks...

[<me9]

For similar reasons I used something in the region of 8:1 to bed a few gable tiles and a ridge tile. That was 6 years ago. Under the ridge tile the cement has eroded by about an inch. I must get round to finishing the job off one of these days.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Id simply use proper muckite meself. However a 6:1 sand:cement mix is pretty damn weak. Its probably what they used anyway..

[Dave Baker]

If you're going to the trouble of climbing up there anyway you might as well do it yourself properly with a normal sand cement mix. Anyway I can't see it making any difference to a roofer what you actually use in terms of how hard it will be for him to chip it away. He spends his life chipping away the remains of proper cement mixes anyway.

[adder1969]

It's going to be a damn site easier knocking off a 6:1 mix than chipping away at a 3:1. However, I'm lead to believe that are there some adhesives/mastics than can be used.

[dicegeorge]

what is proper muckite? i googled it...

Yes, Muckite was the standard word for that Zinc alloy casting metal. I used Muckite diecast boxes by the bucketload. The early types had a fearsome taper on them though, and there was one mfr who used muckite with a lead?

i cant do a proper job because ive never done roofing before or cementing and i havnt got scaffold or time or experience or slates etc...

[george]

ps i think its lime cement in the building..

[The Natural Philosopher]

The appopriate standard hard setting sludge. 6:1 sand/cement.

That's pot metal or Mezac. Never heard it called muckite befre. To me its a generic slang term for cheap poor quality and very anonymous 'stuff' that fills gaps and sets more or less hard.

Which is a superset of what you describe.

Get up on a ladder with a bucket of 6:1 muck and squidge it in the cracks with your hands and wash off the surplus from the roof, your clothes and your hands, and relax.

[Bob Mannix]

Monkey metal round our way

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Any of them. Although the generic name in the UK is Mazak as I think they produced the majority of the castings for the motor trade using this 'orrible stuff.

[adder1969]

6:1 is not particulary hard setting is it? A roofing guide I read recently said to use 4:1 sharp sand to cement.

To the OP - "cement" is an ingredient in mortar and it's mortar you use with bricks to build walls etc.

[adder1969]

was able to do my roof recently after removing a chimney stack by removing some tiles from inside the attic to create an access hole.

[John]

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

befre.

I think they

using this

Does anyone know if its possible to weld this stuff I have a bracket on some garden furniture that looks like monkey metal which has snapped in half as I was putting it in the shed for the winter.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've had some success with superglue. The material itself is so weak the glue is likely stronger. Make sure it's clean and free from grease.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Aplogies. 6:1 is the soft setting.

U R Right ;-0

[The Natural Philosopher]

Basically no.

Drill and use a steel stud and epoxy, or bandage with fibreglass for an ugly but effective repair.

[Mark]

Yes you can with this

have to say this is the trickiest bit of welding you will ever do (on monkey metal) There only seems to be a 5deg difference between the rod melting and the whole job following it. If you do manage it the repair is probably stronger then original, I have done a few with about 80% successful so far.

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