Ok never done caps before. Is it necessary to clean and or rinse the top course before installing caps? This wall was built in the Spring and the owner is just now ready to get it capped. Will brushing it off be sufficient? Not sure how anal i need to be about getting the glue to stick. Also, on glueing, should every inch be glued or will three or four dabs per cap be enough. How many tubes of glue (and what size tube) will be needed for 110 feet of cap? Best brand name(s)? Thanks! Ed
Read the manufacturers instructions. Each one is different. Some say wet the wall, others want you to brush and keep dry. Without a doubt, Sure Bond products are the best adhesives in my opinion. Stay far away from tie Bond, or any product made by Franklin Adhesives out of Ohio. We used some of their VOC compliant crap a couple years ago, then caps popped off stairs we did, and they started pointing fingers and blame rather than own up to the problem. Funny thing, 9 other contractors I know of in our area had similar problems, and Franklin has since removed the product that failed off the market. But just ask them, they never had any problems... In contrast, any time I have ever had a question pertaining to Surebond products, (sealers or adhesives) Peter Van Niekirk has been there to help and stand behind his product. With Surebond, we take a hand held broom and sweep the wall clean, then lay down two 3/8" beads, one in front, the other in back, slap the cap down, and let it sit. If you have to get the wall apart after 24 hours, the concrete will crack before the adhesive lets loose. Whatever you do, don't get any on the wall block because you will have a heck of a time removing it, assuming it comes out at all. We use 29 oz. tubes in our wall construction. Typically, 4 of them will handle 125' with no problem, or at least my records tell me..
I use Liquid Nails Heavy Duty. Personally, I always try to blow the block off after sweeping. There is always some fine particles left after sweeping. For steps, if it was really dirty, I might scrape it first, then wash it down with water, but it takes forever to dry out, although the blower will make it go faster. I usually do the one bead in front, one bead in back thing too, although on steps I'll do a square around the perimiter, with an X in the middle, or some sort of modified S pattern. Once the adhesive sets up, if you have to pull a cap up, the concrete will generally fail before the glue does.
In addition to glue on the top of the block, I find glueing the sides of the caps to be extremely effective as well. Espcially with Allan Block, where there isn't that much block surface due to the hollow core. I've had good success with SRW. Blocks and caps simply need to be brushed off. Will work if they're wet or cold.
i also use liquid nails heavy duty i have had to remove caps that we used this on, and the glue pulled the block apart..... there was a 1/2" ridge of concrete pulled out of the cap still on the glue on the wall.... we had to grind it off..
We aslo use Liquid nails. Get it at Home Depot. Sweep the blocks clead and glue away. Sometimes you might have to take the chisel and run across the top of the block to get little concrete pieces that stick up off. You can use your chisel to get glue off of cap that you have to take up. Works pretty well. Also a linoleum scraper, with the razor blades in it, have used one of those as well. Works better than a chisel.
