Hi all, first post. Glad I found this forum! I am trying to identify a technique for brick finishing and am coming up with deadends. It is essentially a simple brick and mortor installation where the mortar is set flush to the brick surface and then the entire wall is coated with a light wash of mortar. It gives you a somwhat smooth surface in which you can see some of the brick and mortar joint texture through the "wash" coat of mortar. Here is a picture. [URL=http://home.comcast.net/~mjanowak111/archive015.JPG[/URL] I have not been able to identify the technique and it is somewhat new to our area (Michigan), or at least as far as I can tell. We plan to use this on our home that is starting construction very soon.

I have a 40 ft. flagstone walkway thru my garden. It was laid 19 years ago with a small size blueish gravel as joint filler. The gravel is now washing out and I need to replace the areas that are open. I would appreciate any advice that would allow me to do this without making a major project out of it, ie, I don't want to tear up the walk and rebuild it, etc. What kind of materials should I use? sand? gravel? - Where can I get it? I heard once that mixing a small amount (low ratio) of dry Portland cement with the filler material will cause it to "set" a bit and help keep it in place. If this is a good idea, can anyone give me advice on the ratio of cement to filler material? Thanks for any help.... [email]schillings@enter.net[/email]