Mike, I've watched a ton of your videos, many more than once. Thank you so much for 1. All the invaluable information you so generously share. 2. The way your convey your knowledge. You are unpretentious, non-intimidating and warm-hearted, like a cherished grandfather. You serve as a wonderful example, both as a steward of the trade and of how to approach life in general. You are a priceless national treasure.

Don't mess with Mike's throwig arm, decades of slinging mortar. Thank you for your wisdom and invaluable advice.

Some of the best videos on the internet.

Hello mike, your videos have helped me with building a foundation for an addition to fixing my basement. You have been a big help to me and my family, thank you.

Basements are naturally cool which saves a lot of cash during the summer months when it's incredibly hot outside. The knowledge about the land being pitched the wrong way and the position of the gutters is valuable to a newbie like myself. Thanks.

Grew up in a dry basement in Illinois . Thanks for the memory . PS - Have done more work with cement since retirering than ..... a long time . Inspirational !! Thanks .

Haha PERFECT!! I Found your channel a while ago to help my brother fix his foundation. Well that problem was fixed but I'm still watching.

It's like an interesting game when you do your works . And it's a profit to me to watch them. You turn the traditional work of masonry to a kind of game, it is great .

Thank you again Mike. Yes, VERY HELPFUL!

Another great series. Thanks Mike!

The basement looks great! Thanks for the tip on painting the walls with white portland. My basement walls has that on them. I didn't know what it was on there and some has fallen off, so I need to recoat it. Thanks again!

First thing I thought of when you said ' old school whitewash ' was Tom Sawyer on the fence. I'm no mason but I did a whole basement for a friend awhile ago just like you did that patch. I'm glad to see it was done right. As for Drylok, I've used that stuff a few times and I agree, it's good stuff. I never used the latex so I can't speak to that but with the oil the fumes can be pretty nasty so plenty of fresh air is a must.Thanks for the video Mike.

Thank you, Mike! I am learning so much and loving it

Mike, you're awesome. Your videos are informative and helpful.

Thank you for all the knowledge. And for making it simple to understand.

Thank you Mike. I really get alot out of each one of your videos. I look forward to seeing each new video you present. Thank you for what you are doing. I know it's time consuming, but it's a big deal to me to learn from you. Thanks man, I really appreciate you.

Great job Mike thanks for the honesty. Keep up the good work 👍

Thanks Mike love your videos, you gave me the confidence to build a retaining wall.

Thank you for all of the knowledge you have shared with us. I love learning about your techniques but even more the history behind it.

Perfect! I love it.

Always informative.....love the history lessons on old homes and the reasons why people did what they did. You are a true craftsman.

Another Great Video... Thank you SIR...

As always..a wealth of information....thanks again mike...enjoy your video's..john in Edinburgh Scotland

Hi Mike, greetings from Wales. Love the videos, love your attitude to work and life. Always really helpful and informative.... thank you for taking the time and trouble. God Bless.

Thanks again for a great video. Right now I'm helping redo a foundation in a house that's over 100 plus years. Amazing the size of boulders they used back then. Taking it all out was a task in itself. Well wishing you a safe and happy holiday season. And a better new year. 👍✌😀

The white wash looks great, thanks for doing this example.

I Love this Guy. "Don't make no big deal out of it" 🤣😂

Thanks Mike,learn something new every time I watch you ,Take care and be safe.

Thanks again Mike. You are very knowledgeable. Your videos help me a lot.

Thanks Mike for doing these videos. It is really educational to watch a pro like you. Pay it forward.

Mike Thanks for all this info! I love watching your videos they have helped me so much . My house is old and my pockets have lent in them. Your videos saved me so much. Thanks again!

Hi Mike ur videos r very informative.i love ur no nonsense vocab.( No big deal). Alot of great tips.(old school).

So glad i found this man!. Just bought an old Victorian house.. old school foundation thats needs minor repairs. I feel much better watching these videos. Thank you so much.

Mike's school of hard knocks!!! Finest at work! Pay attention people!!

Fantastic set of videos. They gave me the confidence to tackle my basement walls which look exactly like the ones you tackled and am very pleased with the result.

You are so awesome. Completely stifled my fears of fixing my old stone basement. Saved me 1000s of dollars of unnecessary contractors trying to sell all sorts of encapsulating products. Everything to cover the problem but not actually repair it. Thank. You .

Love your program. Information is very interesting.

That is a great trick with the brick. Thanks Mike for the videos.

Just recently stumbled on your channel. You're so right about terrain pitch and gutters/downspouts. I do whole house renovations, and have hauled in as much as 15 yards of dirt to correct the pitch around a foundation on a problem house. I've fixed many basement water problems just by getting all the gutters, downspouts and turnouts all ship-shape, and the terrain sloping away from the building. Great channel. Glad I found it.

I'm quite relieved to have stumbled across these videos because I've been doing a lot of this type work on my house and have done it the same way and have never seen these videos. It reinforces my thought process. It makes sense.

You’re the man brotha, thanks for the fantastic information!

I think many would have said you need a new foundation, nice job patching it up.

Love the videos Mike!

thank's for the video's mike, great tip's & information, love the old school way's, stay vertical.👍👍

Excellent work, Mike! Smooth, clean and no wasting money on New School phoney products that are over priced and of little incremental value!

Thanks Mike!

Thanks Mike I’m learning from your videos.Really very informative 😊😊

Huge help! I just bought a house with a cellar and Im learning about it! thanks!

Mike I am very grateful for you sharing all these videos you’ve saved me at least a thousand dollars already and more to come as I am armed with good information to fix some bricks!

You're the Grandad I never had. Thanks for the stories behind your work. I'm from Pittsburgh so I take all your advice seriously. "What works in Alaska will not work in Florida."

reminds me of the basement in our old house. You're right.. we spent a lot of time down there in the summer.. nice and cool :-)

Fantastic!

I enjoyed seeing a 'repair video' done in an older style.....and it was common sense also. I would not have thought of using the weak mix for the floor as you did....but again, common sense. More learning for me again! I just hope I never need to use that knowledge. If I do, I'll send them to your KZfaq site. Thanks for sharing. ....13

Super Mason Man , Thank you for your video , I love it , I'm doing the same jobs now in NE PA I using hydraulic and water proof cement , Most common problem is grade and gutter issue's , after watching you , I now have more confidence .

You are a master artist....Merry christmas to you

Yes I also find myself in several basements to correct various situations. Something I pretty much refuse to do is cover up natural stone foundations as I find it sacrilegious to cover up such natural beauty and I tuckpoint the rock. This whole concept of masonry paint made of Portland is pure genius. I was never taught that as a young mason, I'm 61 now. Then there is always the discussion of water getting into the basement. As Mike says, the conversation usually goes pretty much the same. The customer will point out the offending areas and the first thing out of my mouth is that I want to go outside and look around. The customers reaction is usually pretty standard and that's astonishment at me wanting to go outside and look around. They often say that the problem is here, not outdoors. Then as Mike says, the problem is usually painfully obvious to the customer once I explain gravity outdoors. Their faces are priceless.

Thank you, Mike. Your videos are very instructional and Super helpful. =)

"Prefect" Hahaha Great videos dude Really like the way you explain all the different old school ways. Keep up the great work!

Thank you Mike :)

love your videos, happy holidays Mike

Neat job. With my house, the original owners had their summer kitchen down in the basement where they did their canning and what not. I still use the 1940s Magic Chef range that is hooked up down there. It works well in the summer when cooking corned beef, canning, soup, etc.

thanks mike, my basement is just like that. It have some loose sand and holes, so watching your video I got some concrete with some bonding agent, wet down the area, but first I sweep off some of the loose debris. Then I put on some concrete. After putting on the concrete and filling in the holes, I painted it down with some extreme dry lock.

Mike, thank you for your videos, just found your site and subscribed. I live in South Texas, west of San Antonio, and about 40 miles from the Texas -Mexico border. My great grandfather's house is a 2 story sandstone /brownstone house that is 106 years old. Same story similar to what you have mentioned, I also as a young boy got to meet one of the stone haulers who was in his 80's who told us of a " typical" day.. His wife would make his breakfast, he would hitch his team and wagon, go to the quarry, get a load of stone which was cut at the quarry, deliver it to the Big House as it is known, and get back in time for dinner at dark... the trip was two miles round trip. The stone treads for the front steps are solid pieces, 7 inches thick, by 13 inches deep by 12 feet long, all hand cut sawn sandstone, about 9 treads total, just for one set of stairs. Took 4 years to build the house. Only problem we have now is that where repairs were done 70 years ago, the repairman used straight portland cement and the instead of the mortar joint breaking, the stone is breaking due to shifts from drought and soil changes. Thanks again for a common sense channel that shows why and how to do masonry repairs. Oh, the house also has a basement, with a coal fired furnace, with stacked sandstone, they would bring in coal from the north from the railroad that was used to fire the train, and would use a wagon to deliver the coal from the depot to the house. In the winter, which aren't bad down here, one man's job was to keep the furnace going....

Thanks Mike, Once again you don't have to go crazy, just do what works, keep it up old timer and Merry Christmas to you and yours...

Intriguing. This guy is a master of his trade. I started doing epoxy garage floor coatings and Specialty concrete repair several years ago and consistently run into Old homes that don't have garage floors but have deteriorated concrete foundations that are on the Historical Society registry and no one knows how to fix it. One of the jobs in bidding on next week got a bid from some Basement foundation repair company they heard about on the radio who quoted them $50,000 basically to put panels which I would describe as office cubicles to veneer the problem which won't work because it'll still have that stinky musty smell. I'm going to use Mike's Masonry to repair the entire problem and then they can later sheetrock finish the basement.

Great videos! I knew you were from northeast pa when you said trow it! Very good information about the land pitching.

Thank you so much.

40,000 people care about you and your videos. Have a Merry Christmas and God bless you Mike.

great vid. good tips, pro

Great info mike as always. Happy christmas

Sir, I love your videos and your work. Nice makeup done in this one but that was what the owner wanted

I love how you say it's no big deal. I've been stressing out about my stone foundation and water leaking in. Your videos are helping me to stress a bit less and feel a little more like it's doable.

09:43 __ The thunderous sound of a moving storage cabinet, then . . . . "Perfect!" :o))

Perfect!!!

Happy New Year! Mike :)

You have given me even more things to do in the spring! Thank you so much for such great videos! I had no idea that's what white wash meant! When you first started removing the loose stuff on the wall I wouldn't have been able to stop! Lol

Damn Mike that wall is straight up Old old school! Looks like it's just stone and earth and not concrete. 😝😝😝

Nice vid Mike

Awesome

i swear mike is the bob ross of masonry

Mike you're wise fella, I had to kind of laugh, I'll brush down to where it's solid as it just kept coming. But you held her back together with cement, optimism, hard work.

No big deal 😎great videos pro knows

This is what I was looking for. Your own "white washing" which I think is wonderful. There are thousands of walls which look terrible and a simple whitewashing could improve it's appearance. For me it improves the "dignity" of space, and if you want to rent or sell the property, customers feel more attracted!

Mike, thanks for sharing your expertise. Could you make a video on repairing concrete window sills? I just bought an Ozark Giraffe rock house in Little Rock and have to DIY stuff. Thanks for your video on repointing.

Having the right grade to keep water from a foundation is especially important with stone foundations. Where I live, older houses were built with limestone foundations. They have sand between the stone and a little putty just on the outer edges. Rain water can cause this sand to wash out from between the limestone and cause major foundation problems.

Thank you for posting these videos of old school techniques. I always find them informative and helpful. Where I live there are a lot of glacial erratics aka "field stones" . They tend to be a lot rounder than the stones I see in the videos from the east or southwest. But, since no one seems to post how to fix a "Michigan basement", as they call the old stone foundations here, I try to use similar techniques to what these videos show and adapt it to what I have. The oldest part of my house is about 95 years old and the old cement between the stones just crumbles to powder when you touch it. Someone previously did some "repairs" using high strength mortar and caused some cracking in the stone. Do you have a video about what can be done to strengthen the wall when that has happened?

Guy should lite that place up!

Nice Mike, glad to see another video! Have a great holiday! JOHN. SV DIJAN

had a preacher once tell me there's a difference in being white washed and washed white... great video.

THANK 😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😃😁😁😁😁😁😁😁😁👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼✌🏼

Hi Mike, thanks for this great video! I have a question: what is the white we are seeing that is already on the wall that you are whitewashing over? Is that an old Portland whitewash coat, or is that a paint like a dry lock? (My basement has blue paint and it’s starting to peel off.)

Drylok is a great product!! I used 5 gallons in my basement and it’s dry as a bone!

"Perfect" I actually laughed out loud at that.

lmao if its not wet its not gonna stick! i love it

Mike, I sure wish you worked in Kansas! I got a project for you 😊

Mike, I watch your videos a lot. Excellent information you bring to the table. My question is can you white wash over a latex paint? Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.

"We're going to get down to where it's solid". As he busts through to the other side. 😄

When you repair a crumbling foundation like that, how thick can you make your lift before you risk the repair work slumping? Have you ever used Quikwall to repair a foundation? I get a lot out of your videos and appreciate how you take the time to explain the steps.

HI Mike, Thank you for your advice on this channel. You are so knowledgeable and practical! :) Question - I read that we are not supposed to paint stone foundation with waterproof paint as it prevents stones from breathing. I saw you mentioned Drylok, so should we or should we not waterproof stone foundation inside the basement?

Mike what product do you recommend for smoothing out basement walls that's a stone foundation. I had a handyman tell me to use masonry cement mixed with lime. Any suggestions would really help.