LESLIE: Alright, now I’ve heard of the south making good barbecue but Pennsylvania’s not that far south and John’s looking to work on a barbecue pit. What can we help you with?
JOHN: Yes, I have a barbecue pit. It’s about 16-foot long and probably about 3-foot high and I have developed – it’s sort of cracked; about like an inch-and-a-half crack all the way down through it. I didn’t want to tear it apart and I was trying to figure out how I could fill that crack. It’s like a snake. And I was wondering what’s the best way to concrete it or what we have to do to it.
LESLIE: Is it all concrete?
JOHN: It’s decorative bricks from the outside and where the – I guess the decorative bricks come apart all the way through. It’s separated …
TOM: So the decorative bricks are not full-thickness bricks, John?
JOHN: Yeah, it’s a full brick and then it has a fancy, decorative brick on the front.
TOM: The inside is made of fire bricks?
JOHN: Yeah, it’s a regular brick that’s concrete block.
TOM: Alright, where’s the crack?
JOHN: It’s coming down – it’s like a snake – on both sides of the pit. I guess the pit has settled.
TOM: (overlapping voices) On the outside of it?
JOHN: Yeah, on the outside and on the …
TOM: Alright.
JOHN: It’s cracked all the way through.
TOM: Alright, what I would use is an epoxy patching compound. I would not try to use mortar because what’s going to happen is it’s going to freeze and crack and fall out again. I would use a good quality epoxy patching compound. There is a product called AboCast that is available online and I’m sure there are others. But the epoxies adhere very, very well to the concrete surfaces and they’re not going to fall out. And that’s how you fix that.
JOHN: OK. And that was – need a piece of paper here. What was the name of that one?
TOM: The product is called AboCast and it’s available online. I think their website is Abatron.com.
LESLIE: Mm-hmm.
TOM: John, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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