All cracks are not the same, and many have no bearing on the stability of the wall.

First the holes. Holes are either places where material has fallen out or they were intentionally made during or after construction. If material has fallen out, we will consider those as part of the cracks, otherwise, someone made a hole for which you don’t know the reason.

Cracks. Any crack that you cannot put a fingernail into isn’t an issue. All this means is that the grout dried quicker than expected or the grout was too wet when used. Neither creates a problem with the wall strength.

The expectation for the small cracks above is if the brick is cracked. One brick, no problem. If two or more bricks next to each other have cracks that line up; you need to call someone for more help.

For cracks you can stick a fingernail into we are only concerned about cracks that are longer than two bricks in length. They generally come in two types: straight side-to-side type cracks and stair-step cracks that go over one brick then down one and so on. You need to have someone take a look to determine what is going on.

Most cracks will show up gradually, so can check once a month to see if it has stopped or continued to grow. For stopped cracks you need to make a judgement call, growing cracks are a concern and you need to call someone.

I know someone will state that some cracks happen quick enough that you would need to check more frequently than once a month, but in most situations involving fast forming cracks, you discover them as a result of whatever failure is ongoing. Your chance of finding those ahead of time is hosting due to luck and even then you may not be able to resolve them if the cracking is occurring right there.

Hopefully, that will give you some guidelines to determine if you’re okay or need to get a professional to check things out.

I do hope that turns out to be former and not the later.

Liability!

You need to have a clear understanding of who has access to what.

Do you trust this person?

By becoming a partner you gain a lot of access to the other partners. In a good relationship, they can take care of things on behalf with only limited knowledge on your part.

In a bad relationship, they can do things with your consent with only a limited knowledge on your part.

It goes both ways at the same time. Discuss limits of control, knowledge and anything else that could affect each other. A Partnership gives similar access to each other as a marriage does. So, make a contract to define things ahead of time rather than wondering about them later on.

And register that contract with the county, so if things do go bad you have a legal tool to go off of.

Your contract should cover each person’s responsibilities, ownership, where does money come from, how is it divided, spent and saved, what happens if the company breaks up because of disagreement, death, someone just wants to leave. What did each of you bring to the company (including knowledge and experience)? Put everything in there you can think of, especially if it is over things you don’t want to think of.

If you ever get into a bad spot the judge will go with:

• First: Anything illegal will be addressed.
• Second: Anything not covered by the first is covered by the Partnership agreement.
• Third: Anything not covered by the first two is covered by the judge’s understanding of general practice.
• Fourth: Anything not covered by the first three items is covered by the judge’s opinion.

If you take anything away from this post. MAKE A PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT/CONTRACT and REGISTER IT WITH THE COUNTY.

We use them for decorative walls.

Second class bricks are slightly deformed, mostly without sharp edges.

Third class bricks are lumpy. These are great for old style walls with curves and scrollwork patterns in the walls. They also work well for brick and rubble walls.

Foundations provide two general conditions for buildings:

1. A transition or interface with the ground upon which the building sits or touches.
2. A stable and uniform structure in which the building can be constructed upon or within.

Generally for two reasons.

• Better drainage at joints/cracks
• Larger surface so quicker evaporation

Type V, also called sulphate resistant cement, along with Type IV, also called low heat concrete.

You will get a thin layer of asphalt or epoxy (if it is an epoxy type sealer) on top of your concrete.

I wouldn’t expect a great finish as most asphalt sealers expect asphalt beneath them. It will probably grab well in some places but not in others. Also, it will probably stain your concrete badly.

Imagine burnt marshmallow smeared over your concrete. You have a 50% chance of facing that scenario.

Yes, but it isn’t your best choice.

Using solid concrete blocks is very much like using stone walls as a foundation. Either the ground or the blocks will need to be shaped to meet the needs of the building.

Mostly nowadays we use either reinforced concrete or reinforced concrete masonry units (CMU). Both of these can be built much stronger than solid blocks or stone, and in the case of concrete can be shaped very easily when compared solid blocks or stone.

Just so we are clear; the problem with solid block and stone is that unless you build rather large walls or footings the joints will crack with relatively little pressure from the building.

If you were imagining the same walls or footings without mortaring them you need to make them even larger and with tapering sides. Otherwise, the weight of the building can make your footings move or crumble.

So, unless you are big historical construction buff, I highly recommend you stick with modern concrete or CMU.

Yes, provided that the existing plywood is in serviceable or good condition.

But, remember that you still want to nail it into the joists, not just the plywood below.

Rather as several others have mentioned the Earth would have ignited as star under the force of gravity. Due to the “surface” temperatures, you’d get to experience travel as a plasma or a gas cloud.

As you moved along an essentially turbulent ocean of similar material you would notice (if somehow you retained consciousness) that while being jumbled along that the surrounding photons were constantly blowing little bits of yourself away into the space around your star. Things would be very bright and very warm. You would continue this way until you were blown away or caught in solar flare where the same would occur, only more explosively.