Your Questions About Brick Siding Repair

HELP!!!! How do I repair my damaged alloy ???????

I’ve scrapped my alloy on a low brick wall, it has very deep scratching all round one side. I need to repair it asap before my husband sees it (the car is 2 months old) !!!
Please help!!!Is there anything I can just rub on rather than using a kit or sanding it??
Quick and cheap ideas please !!

HOA will not clean gutters… flooding?

Long story short:

I purchased a townhouse in Feb. The HOA packet says specifically that “The {neighborhood name} home owners association shall take full responsibility for exterior maintenance of the townhomes including roof maintenance, gutter maintenance and cleaning, siding and shutter maintenance, brick repair, landscaping, trash removal, snow removal…” etc.

The gutters over my home have been clogged for a few weeks now. Every time it rains, water pours over the brim of the gutters in bucketfulls. About 3 weeks ago, we had a storm and the water eroded a ditch into my flowerbed about a foot wide and 4 inches deep. This wouldn’t have happened if the gutters had been maintained. I e-mailed the HOA secretary and she e-mailed me back apologizing and said she’d have the roofer come out and clean out the gutters. Well… it’s been 3 weeks and every time it rains it causes more damage. It’s making water come all the way up to my front door and we’ve been having to shove towels behind the door in case our house floods. Then they expect me to clean up the mud and mulch that gets washed all over the sidewalk. This means I have cleaned up the sidewalk about 5 times now and she won’t have someone come out and fix the problem.

I hate being annoying and pestering them to death about it. But this really needs to be fixed before it floods my house or causes damage to the roof. What should I do?

crack in fireplace insert. what can i use to repair it?

i have a fireplace insert in my house. i am uncertain of exactly what is it made of, but it definitely isn’t brick (although it looks like brick). I think they are called firebricks, but it is one full sheet and has seams where the sides meet.

i noticed that i developed a crack that runs vertically down the back wall of the insert. it is about 1/4″ to 1/2″ wide and runs for a good 12″-14″ (pretty much the entire length of the insert). when cool, i pressed my fire poker against it, just to see if it flexed or not…and it certainly did.

i went to home depot and i dont think they understood exactly what i have b/c they recommended for me to use one of the following 3:

PL: concrete crack and masonry sealant

Bondo: concrete, brick and stucco repair compound

Pre-mixed concrete patch.

I don’t think any of these are a proper solution b/c none of them say anything about being rated for high-heat. how can i go about repairing this or do i have to replace the entire insert? should i call in a pro or is this a DIY project with the proper material?

Lakefront property foundation repair question?

I found a very nice property. The foundation (on a not so properly licensed extension) is messed up. The state did some work on the lakefront and it caused the foundation to drop down and out a bit.

The foundation itself is just brick walls. The state braced the wall with huge pylons on one side. So as for now, the wall can’t / won’t push out anymore. However, it has sunk some. I think like 4mm out and 4-5mm down within last several years.

I talked to the realty agent today (during home tour). They said it would take a COMPLETE foundation reinstall to fix the “problem”. I imagine this would include floor bracing and new walls. The cost they gave for a front 8′x25′ wall then smaller side walls was about $40,000.

I am wondering if this sounds right. I understand the floor will need bracing to lift the floor and get a new foundation under there. And access for debris removal is not all that “good”. But it really isn’t ” that much foundation “. Any ideas?

Who is responsible to repair the fence?

I just bought a foreclosed house, and since I’m doing some upgrades, my neighbor came and wants me to repair the fence. She was nice, and I don’t mind fixing it, but I just want to find out what is fair, since it will cost quite a bit. The house has concrete/brick fence walls on either side. Our houses are on a slope, and her house is a bit higher than ours, so her backyard grass lawn’s soil actually goes up about half of the height of my fence, which is holding up that dirt. The roots of the grass and some plants have penetrated the wall, hence the damage. I wonder whose responsibility is this? I have read that people are responsible about fences which posts are on your property’s side? But my fence doesn’t have posts, it’s stone. Also, I wasn’t sure if the right side fence rule meant “facing the house right” or “facing the street right”.

Shall I call city hall and find out?