Thomas Martinez

When you’re planning any construction project, you need to know the relationship between weight and volume. Volume is amount of space that something takes up. … Read more

Rapid set mortar does have that “panic” element. When you add water to powder, the clock begins ticking and it goes by much quicker then … Read more

There is a specific kind of heartbreak reserved for the homeowner who buys too much cement. That’s the problem if you purchase an excess amount … Read more

Problem: You’re standing over a fresh concrete pour and realize you didn’t quite get the math right on the tie wire. Crew’s waiting on another … Read more

Steel stretches well. Concrete doesn’t. Steel holds concrete in place. And concrete crack when under tension. Together this combination lets today’s buildings exist. We want … Read more

Now, if we build something like a pier: You dig a hole in the ground, you pour concrete into it, and then you let it … Read more

The floor of a shower is a water-moving device: it needs to have a consistant slope to direct water with maximum efficiency via gravity. There … Read more

The easy stuff is building a brick wall. The hard stuff starts when you stand in middle of the hardware store’s aisle. There is piles … Read more

On a job site, having the rebar delivered that’s the wrong size is a special kind of frustrating. It are twenty tons of steel. It … Read more

When you open up some structural drawings for a foundation the first time, the reinforcing bars look like abstract art on a grid. They is … Read more

But what if you realize the foundation you just poured might be slightly to small for the wall sitting on top of it? The concrete … Read more

Here’s one place to begin: Consider a plain old concrete block fence. It sounds like a durable solution that can’t be beat, right? That is … Read more

When most folks begin a concrete block step construction project they grab a tape measurer, get a general idea of how big the space is … Read more

When you cut reinforcing bar, you has to think about what’s actualy happening to the steel. In other words, steel bends both ways: It compresses … Read more