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A stiff brushing follwed by the application of a brickwork cleaner might help (try it out on a small area first).

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!

Cement setting is a chemical reaction so it slows down at low temperatures. Whilst cement will set at 2C it will not gain much strength and will be very susceptible to frost attack (the water in the mortar freezes and expands, in a weak mortar this leads to cracking). You will need to protect...

1:4 cement:sand is OK for a screed under rigid floors like stone tiling

You want enough water so that the screed material can be formed into a ball in your hands without crumbling or letting water out

The shelf life of cement is definitely related to mimimising the risk of allergic reactions (i.e the effective life of the reducing agent that converts soluble chromium (allergen) into insoluble chromium (safe). As Ronny Raygun says, if the cement in the bag has not gone hard or lumpy it...

If you are trying to match the colour of the old pointing, remember that mortar always dries lighter than it looks in the mixer. The colour of the sand will affect the colour of the mortar. Depends on how close you want the match to be. 1 cement : 5-6 sand (vol) is a good general purpose mix

Mastercrete Oiginal is simply a cement (no sand or ballast)so you could also get 4 bags of Mastercrete and 18 bags of Ballast

You need Natural Hydraulic Lime (NHL) not Hydrated Lime (yes the are different) The Lafarge mortar contains cement as well as 'hydrated'lime, its good for general purpose pointing but not for weaker bricks or stone

Sulfate attack (if thats what it is) wont 'spread' to your neighbours property. If the construction of the neighbours house is the same as yours, they may have the same problem, but it wont be caused by anything spreading from your house

Pre mixed bagged mortar and concretes are ideal for these applications, some are even available in tubs. Postcrete is definitely the best solution to fixing fence posts

Only absolute way to tell if it's sulphate attack is to get some of the concrete tested (measure sulphate content and get it looked at under a microscope)- Try Sandbergs ! If it is sulphate attack, the concrete needs to removed , a dpm put in place and new concrete put in. If you use...

Repeated brushing is the best way, but you also try a weak acid based brickwork cleaner when you are brushing. But as PVMS said, dont get it too wet. The white deposits are soluble salts which are drawn to the surface and dry out. If you saturate the bricks, all you do is provide more salts and...

Hi Fair enough, Portland cement (CEM I) and Portland-fly ash cement (CEM II/B-V) are usually OK but be careful with the cements that already contain air (sometimes called 'enhanced' cements), such as Lafarge Mastercrete Hope this helps

Make sure you check what type of cement you have bought, not all of them are comptible with Freeflo (see the back of the Freeflo tub)

Try this! =http://www.lafarge.co.uk/CementDatasheet/RTU%20High%20Strength.pdf 40N/mm2 should be strong enough

Try usin one of those post fixing products that you tip into water filled holes like Lafarge Postcrete Useful tips on www.diycement.com

The key is the colour of the sand, a yellow or buff sand will give the colour you want If you use Snowcrete white cement you will get a 'cleaner' colour than if you use grey cement. Same if you use a pigment

To make a sturdy base, use pre-bagged concrete, not just slabs Dig it out, make up some shuttering, a layer of hard core then a concrete slab Some useful tips on www.diycement.com

The main thing with rendering is matching the render with the materials used in the wall. Looking at the photos, it appears that even the mortar betwen the blocks has not bonded properly, suggesting that the blocks were too dry and sucked water out of the mortar. If the blockwork was not...