We have had a lot of rain lately, and after landscaping, the drainage was right beside the driveway, and the dirt started sinking. Not properly compacted, I think. It got an enormous CAVE under it.
I had to get some "mud" men to come, drill little holes in it, and pump mud under it to raise the driveway up again and to hopefully assure that it won't sink again. they told me I would have to "seal" off the seams so water wouldn't get back in again to cause more damage.
Saturday I went to Home Depot and bought sand to fill the seam first, and then Sikaflex to cover the said, plus caulking gun (cost me over $100). I went out after that to try and start filling the holes. First I put the clean sand in the wheelbarrow (it was 50 pounds worth), and then used paper cups to fill up the seam with sand. Then I swept over it with a broom so it was nice and even. Next came the Sikaflex. The tubes of Sikaflex went into the gun, but first you had to clip off the top with this neat little clipper thing that came on the caulking gun. I clipped it off, put it in the gun, and then started squeezing the trigger. Nothing happened. I squeezed harder. Nothing happened. I thought, if you had to squeeze this hard to get something out, this will be a really hard job! Then I read the instructions. The instructions said that you had to puncture a hole in the seal over the stuff. Since the Sikaflex was already in the gun, I went inside to find something small enough and long enough to reach into the tube nozzle and punch a hole. I couldn’t find something long enough. Then I decided that if I cut off more of the nozzle, maybe this nail that I found would reach it to punch a hole in it. So I laid the tube on the counter and sawed off some more of the nozzle with a butcher knife. Then it was not too far down inside, so I used a long nail and punched a little hole into the Sikaflex. Surprise, surprise! As soon as I had the hole in the tube, the Sikaflex started gushing out (because of the squeezing I had done!), and gushing and gushing. I couldn’t make it stop. It got all over the granite counter top. I tried not to get it into the sink, but before it would stop, it was all over the counter, all over my hands, and in the sink. I used paper towels to try and get it off the granite, and luckily I think I got it all off. Then I tried to get it out of the sink without scratching the stainless. But it was too late for my hands. I tried washing, but it did nothing.
I went outside and started to squeeze the stuff along the crack. It was harder than it sounds, as when you got to the end of the squeeze, you had to leg go to squeeze again, and while you did, it was easy to wobble a little, so the sticky stuff was outside the crack area. Anyway, I finally got one whole seam done. But then I thought I better try to get my hands cleaned. My hands were sticky on the fronts and the backs. Soap and water didn’t touch it. Had some stuff I bought the other day for getting adhesive off things. It didn’t work.
I had to go get my hair cut in an hour or so, so I went to Home Depot and asked them to help me figure out how to clean off my hands. They tried every cleaning agent they could find, and none of it worked. Then they found some WD-40, and it seemed to do a little. So I bought some WD-40 and went home. Well, the WD-40 didn’t work either. I scrubbed and scrubbed, and it didn’t come off. I went and got my hair cut, and then went back to another Home Depot and asked them what to use. They sold me some other cleaner that is supposed to clean ANYTHING. It’s called Goof Off. But it didn’t work either.
In the shower this morning, I scrubbed and scrubbed, and some of it came off, but I’m afraid I will just have to wait to let it “naturally” wear away. They are looking MUCH better today than they did yesterday.
But the house looks nice!
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