Ex stone mason here, product called CT1 (like a grab adhesive ) We tested this product by sticking two stone samples together and left it in a bucket of water outside for a year and they were still bonded after the 1 year. We used it to stick all types of stone to brick, concrete, wood, other stones and metal. Fantastic product, no faffing about.
Great idea thanks for posting! I have an old Scottish stone wall. The stones are naturally quite dusty. Would you recommend painting on a dilute PVA mixture before using the CT1 to counteract the dust?
Thanks Stuart, did this today and I’m delighted to say that the two wobbly pavers wobble no more. This saved me heaps of time, thankyou so much for this idea!
Thanks Stuart, what's great with this video is that you show two different ways, the PU glue is a quick fix and time will tell how effective it is, but often a quick fix is what is required ahead of a family get together or such, at the end of the day the alternatives are there to choose from ! Plus its generated a load of useful comments to expand on these methods !
Well done. I used expanding foam to replace mortar in a dodgy brick wall near a gate. Constant Bang Bang when the gate closes, shaking out the mortar. Expanding foam worked great. Slightly flexible, absorbs shock, sticky as hell, and can cut off any drips and runs.
I was watching road repair crews inject PU expanding foam to raise and support pavments besides roads (east anglia UK) a few months back I was amazed at how well it worked and its still good after all the rain aka liquid sunshine we've had this 'summer'....I suspect others have mentioned CT1 which is normally my go to for stuff like this
Fixed a big lump of render that fell off my garden wall with gorilla glue as a temporary bodge around 5 years ago. It’s still on the wall and after a couple of coats of sealer and masonry paint you wouldn’t even know. Proper DIY 👍
PU Glue has been around for decades. Buy it from a woodwork supplier in 1kg at 1/20th price of Gorilla!! Always used by boat builders and window manufacturers. No need for lots of water…. Spray bottle is best to moisten, not wet areas. Stripy zig zags are always better than dots and dabs. Also… get a can of PU cleaner 😉. Würth do a great range
Interesting idea and experiment! I normally use SBR mixed with cement to create a thick slurry (same as what I used for priming slabs before laying), and bonding them back on the existing mortar bed (when it's found to be solid). Would be interesting to see if you can break 2 pieces apart as easily when done with the SBR and cement method. Cheers
One of my favorite DIY channels on youtube. Stuart many thanks for the videos and knowledge. Really has helped me transform my garden and house. My Mrs thinks I'm some kind of guru and that i know everything! 🤣😂
I was about to tackle my front natural stone slabs this week and was dreading it. Going to try this method instead. Hopefully it works out as I park a 16 seater bus and a transporter van on it 😅
I've used this stuff before, and it was well worth the money. We had a baby gate that the kids kept swinging on and pulling out of the wall. I couldn't use bigger wall plugs and screws as they wouldn't fit through the baby gate fixings, so squirted the glue and some water into the hole in the wall, pushed the wall plug in and screwed it up tight. When the glue went off and expanded, there was no way that fixing was coming out of the wall!
Thanks for this. I had a line of pavers under a glass balustrade that had all come loose after high winds. I thought I was in for a load of work chipping out the old mortar bedding, gave this a go and it worked brilliantly. Using the glue meant I could realign the balustrade post mounting bolt holes in the slabs to screw through to the supporting blocks below.
RUclips IS daytime TV in 2024. My wife and I threw out our many TVs in late spring 2020. Watched no Tell-Lie-Vision since & still roll my eyes at the realisation of how easily & comprehensively we were misled. They never give up nor miss an opportunity to propagandise anyone unfortunate enough to watch it, if they’ve no suspicion that they’re being lied to.
First off thanks for a great video! If you ask 10 builders how to do something you'll get the 10 best ways to do it!! So here's mine. I'm a landscaping professional of 15 years. I have fixed countless wobbly slabs! The hard way: grind out the old pug and start again. The advantage being that there will be no level difference. The easy way: as here glue it down, but be careful you lay the slab back down in its exact original configuration and that the bed is entirely clean. I'm not entirely convinced with the product shown as it seems to peel away easily later in the video. I would recommend cement and SBR slurry (super cheap if you have that lying around anyway) or, as others have said, CT1. Incredible stuff! I have used to stick everything to anything! and performs in the wet. I'd say the issue here is not how you stick it, but how you remove it.
Brilliant job. I used the exact same method to stabilise some loose floor tiles. I didn't want to risk cracking the tiles by lifting them so scrapped and vacuumed the old grout out. A quick misting with water and dribbled in the PU glue. Top tip : I used a block of wood and a sander to gently vibrate the tiles to get the glue to sink in. Result - a perfect tiled floor again. Thanks for a great video
Just wanted to say, I look forward to the videos every week and am thrilled when I see them! It's been a while since you did a video that was relevant to me personally as a "how-to" but that's inevitable as you've already covered so much content, and yet I still tune in every week religiously because the content is so good regardless if it's a job I need to do. You've definitely helped improve my DIY confidence and now 1 year on from moving into my first house I've done every job myself except roofing and Part-P restricted electrics, including plumbing fixes, painting, installing spur sockets and fused spurs, installing Cat5e home networking, decking refurbishment, loft boarding, fixing boiler wiring issue etc. So thanks!
I did this using this type of glue (not Gorilla) with some crazy paving that I had taken up to replace a broken edge piece. An iron hard bed or mortar was left behind so I glued the paving down to the mortar bed and after repointing the result was perfect. Still solid a year later! Great stuff Stewart!
I build both structural and decorative retaining walls out of concrete wall block products, I always use extremebond adhesive. It’s a pu construction adhesive but not the expanding foam type like the one you used more similar to PL premium. I stand by it 100% because I had a customer who didn’t like the natural stone coping after it had been installed and when chiseling it off it was more common to have the concrete in the wall block fail and break off than have the glue joint fail. After that experience I was completely sold on extremebond and have stopped using any other construction adhesives
Great tip. I've also used epoxy resin cartridges (as for wall ties) which goes off quickly and doesn't slump. You can get PU wood adhesive in cartridges which is more convenient to apply with a gun.
@@GeordiLaForgery A good trick with adhesive bottles and tubes is to seal the cap after use with vaseline. You can also do this with the screw tops. It just makes them airtight so prevents the glue setting inside.
@@streetlegal008 Sounds good but with monkeyglue as soon as it makes contact with air it'll start that expansion process and eventually create a hard blockage in the bottle, at least that's my experience and I've had to cut old bottles in half to get at some usable glue.
Nice video, love some good ol' bodging lol. Drilling the perimeter of the slab base to avoid the rest de-laminating is a great idea! I'd say try CT1 for the ghetto method as well, specifically "CT1 Grab 'n' Bond", it tacks incredibly fast so no worry about it unsticking while setting, and sets underwater no bother. Whole tube is about £10 which could easily do 3 or 4 slabs with full coverage. I've stuck walls back together with this, and saw it last years before moving away from that property. Another viable option is wet-room tile adhesive ("Ultra Trade S1 Rapid"). You can buy in dry bags (£13/20kg bag) and mix it or can buy it pre-mixed in tubs, this would fully bond the slab to the mortar but will have the longevity of stone (unlike the PU which will degrade over the years with UV and oxygen). It's also super easy to use, just smear it on both surfaces, use it to fill any holes also, and stick the two together. It has some grain to it though, so a super thin layer would be all that's needed. You could re-stick the entire patio with a single £13 bag, this would be the cheapest option if having to do a lot of slabs.
Proper job. Actually, I've used CT1 quite successfully too. 2 years in a high use spot in wet Cornwall and counting ... CT1's not cheap but I found I can use the ends of tubes that are going to go off before I use them again anyway.
We had a weathered stone Buddha in the garden and by accident I knocked his head off (head roughly the size of a football). The little statue was very important to my wife, so I had to fix it. I used Gorilla Glue to bond the head back. There was a lot of squeeze out which I had to trim with a knife, and then tone in with soil and moss until the join disappeared. Still in one piece 5 years later, and she hasn’t noticed. I’m trying your method on the loose slabs tomorrow. Thanks.
fixed some loose bricks in a couple of plinths 15 years ago, and a thick concrete tile on the roof a decade ago, all still stuck fast. Swedish summers and winters of +30°/-15° fail to budge it. Great stuff.
The algorithm is alive… I’ve literally had this same issue arise today. Superb timing. Do you plan on doing a segment on the paving Joints and fixing those?
Thanks Stuart. I will use the first approach to try and correct cowboy workmanship I had 4 years ago. They did the classic dot and dab and not slab prep.
Another great short-cut , and well explained . It did look as though the glue pealed off quite easily from your test piece . Wonder what it would be like after a year or two . Also how does it compare against the mastic type PU products such as Bond-it PU18 . I used this to stick coping stones around my pond , and it worked a treat . Also cheaper than gorilla glue . Keep up the good work !
Just did this and it worked brilliantly as I needed a quick fix. Appreciate it is not the ‘proper’ way, but my paving slab is secure and no longer an unsafe trip hazard. Only downside is a bit of leakage of the Gorilla glue at the edge of the slab
I use 'Sticks Like Sh*t' from Evo-Stik. It's water proof and frost proof and can be used in damp conditions. It doesn't expand so you don't need to weigh it down and is slightly flexible. I've used it on paving slabs and it works a treat.
Great video as usual. I’ve been doing the same ever since I had my patio laid with Indian sandstone. I use the gorilla external grab that works perfectly.
Interesting- I will give it a go. I am a chemist and work with PUs and we have made them for slab raising where a concrete slab has sunk there we use the expansion of the PU to raise a slab that has dropped. If done correctly it can be a really quick and cheap way of fixing a tricky problem (the amount of PU injected is critical though)
I have quite a few slabs that I need to fix. Thanks for this video, super useful, I'm now happy to start fixing them. I didn't even know this glue existed. 👍🏻
I use that same Gorilla PU Glue. It can absorb moisture from the air but better to moisten anything if it doesn’t have direct access to the humid air. I also used a similar PU glue in cartridge form to re-stick tiles in my swimming pool. (In Australia) under water. I use black as my pool mortar is black but the Gorilla PU Glue works too. Gorilla glue also stuck some render back on my house where I touched it with my car bumper. You wouldn’t know there was a repair. Great info videos. I watch all of them even if I don’t need the ideas immediately. 👍
Brilliant solution to loose slabs. A good bit of the glue came up in the cracks. What the best and tidiest way to remove the dried glue from the gaps between the slabs? Multi tool?
try PGB adhesive. needed to stick concrete slab to bricks in garden. thinked to use CT1, but been advised in store to try pgb. what a great product. quicker will smash brick itself as glued joint😆
I glued a wooden garden gate with PU Gorilla Glue - it set very quickly, so position parts well. But don't buy a larger bottle than you need, the contents in the bottle set, probably in about 6 months after I used it.
I've done it with expanding foam in a low traffic area, it's worked a treat, I wouldn't drive a car over it, but it's fine to walk on, been down about 3 years now.
This is an excellent handy fix supper quick and slick on yuor own property or as a handyman deal. CT1 would do it too as stated. However the purist will always pop the mortar out and lay n fresh cement or adhesive with 100 % coverage as is proper for exterior tiling (in theoy)
Where I live in East Sussex there are lots of roads around Hailsham that were made in concrete sections. After many years some sections have moved up or down so they don't align with each other. I believe the highways department use a type of expanding foam injected through the slabs to realign them. I don't know if this is standard practice or just a trial.
This is incredibly prescient! I have very similar slabs - and a 300mm one has just debonded while I was working on the raised bed it abuts! I had no idea I could do this. Thank you!
Similar experience, spent an eternity fixing a loose large slate slab by breaking up and relaying the mortar bed. The original bed was solid, I had to buy a breaker to clean out the old mortar bed. The penny dropped afterwards, why destroy a perfectly good mortar bed when it's only the adhesion between the slab and base that's broken down. I experimented using Nonsense x8 hybrid adhesive from Screwfix, it's weather proof and can be used in a damp environment, on other de-bonded slabs. The fix took 1/10th of the time and was a lot less messy. After 2 years the glued slabs are still firmly attached. If I'd paid someone and they had done this I'd have called them a charlatan, just goes to show how wrong one can be. PU glue or hybrid adhesive, think they will both save time and money if the mortar bed is sound, dont hesitate it will be a proper job!
I was thinking a good idea would be to place planks over the slab and then put the weight on the planks. That way if it is strong enough to push the slab, by putting the planks across it it should still keep it's level with the other slabs.
Get it in a cartridge why not. PU expands yes. If compared to normal glue or cartridge gloop it's kinda messy, on the way to pu foam. However once you get the measure of it, it's terrific. Yes it expands and fills, but also the open time is in a couple of stages. It first grips the joint as stated, but then there is a sweet spot of getting any residue removed. After a few hours of even a day it can be scraped with relative ease. However after a week or two it gets seriously hard. If not contained it get everywhere sticks to everything so start slowly. I have it in stock at all times though because it's great for all manner of jobs.
I use this exact same glue to repair dowels in the teak deck on my boat. It’s great stuff. I will give this a go on a couple of loose slabs in our garden.
I've found that a thin slurry of cement powder & water is very good, and costs considerably less than gorilla glue. Spread it out & put the slab back in place & it hydraulics itself to the slurry.
There are a few composite silicone/acrylic sealants that bond under water. Also I can't help but think expanding PU foam would be cheaper and better than the Gorilla glue. But all are far less work than starting again. Reminds me of when a fence post rotted leaving a perfect square hole in the concrete. I got another post, part filled the hole with silicone putting sealant and set a new post in it - sealed nicely from moisture!
I fixed two rocky slabs two years ago (they are still fine) by injecting the corner with an expanding foam gun, wait until the slab rises up to the required level then place a couple of overlapping slabs or heavy weight on top for an hour or two.......works every time and will last.
Chem fix/resin anchor if you want something really quick and easy. Just brush away any dust first. Rock solid in 30 mins. I use it for fixing the odd coping stone on a wall that has come loose
Gorilla PU glue is expensive and I have found that you need to warm it to get it to flow. Paving slabs should normally be bedded on mortar dabs or as I prefer to specify, on a bed of dry(ish) sand cement mix. The mix need only be quite weak as its just to stabilise the bed, anything up to 1:6 would be fine. The old mortar that is likely to be unstable and hardly fit for reuse, should be broken out and the dry bed laid. The bed is easy to level and gives a solid base for the paving. This bed is very durable but in the event that the slab does need taking up the bedding mix is weak enough to be removed without any effort.
I'm not certain that Gorilla PU glue is better than anyone else's. I use PU in the wood workshop for any jobs that are going to be out in the rain and for which normal wood glue won't hold. So you can get much the same thing for ,much less money if you shop around. Gorilla glues cover all types of glue and it's always expensive. They've made a niche for themselves at the top of the range. Shop around!
@@RO8s I think in the non-trade world the advantage of Gorilla PU glue is the small size, the perceived reliability and the general availability. Most of us don't need 750ml of PU glue even if its the same or less cost than Gorilla Glue's 250ml. Gorilla Glue is widely available and known quality, whereas other PU glues are less available and often of unrecognised brands.
@@clivewilliams3661 Yes, that's true. But that's what I said, more or less - Gorilla have made their name with a lot of advertising, and now you can find it almost anywhere. But my local DIY store has the same thing in small bottles a bit cheaper. It's a bitch to work with on wood! You have to clamp it every which way and it still covers everything in sticky... I prefer two-mix resin, but it wouldn't work for that!
used this glue to fix creaking stairs, from underneath so took plasterboards off and it worked like a charm. pretty sure it said it can be sanded down and painted if needs be. id personally fill the bigger gaps with sand as if you drop anything on that slab it would most likely crack
I recently bought CT1 to fix some gutter leaks and just saw this video about loose slabs, still need to do both jobs. Does CT1 expand, would you use it on dry slabs where possible or do you wet it like the PU products in the video and discussions. Many thanks.
Seems to peel quite easily off the slabs in your test, Stuart... Maybe not suited to porous materials? It'll probably be fine under the patio as there's no wedge driving it apart, but seems likely that it could come loose further down the line with regular foot traffic. Have you considered something like Rawlplug R-KEM II? More suited to stone/concrete, and probably cheaper...
@@keblawben Your mileage may vary, I guess... But I think the video speaks for itself - the PU glue peeled off very easily by hand. Probably acting as a flexible spacer with light adhesion. Fine for a heavy slab that's rocking around, but I would bet that 3-5 years of weather cycles and foot traffic will remove all of the adhesion. You probably won't notice unless you try to lift the slab, though. Have you tried lifting yours?
Yes peeled pretty easy.. was 100% sold until then. Having said this I if the glue fills all the gaps/spaces and is dense enough it wouldn't matter as it would eliminate the rock?
Good solution.. Expensive stuff that though considering the small amount you get. You can buy polyurethane commercially in bigger packs which might be easier if you had a significant amount to do. Like it 😉.. You've just also given me an idea for fixing a broken bathroom tile in the shower!
I managed to break a corner off a slab that had been used to top a brick pillar. Stuck the 4”x4” corner back on with gorilla glue, left it a day with a ratchet strap holding it in place, then scraped the excess off. 8 years later you would never know it had been broken!
I use sticks like sh*t. I am glad I am not the only one who uses unorthodox methods. Thank you. After watching your videos I've fitted an outdoor socket and built a garden gate. That's over 2 weeks.
There more a tile and not a slab, slabs that i laid were 2 inch thick and weighed a ton, they were bedded on a sand, cement screed, and the trouble when lifting them is you tend to make a mess of the sand unless you could lift them straight up, so i dont thick the glue would do any good, especially when your trying to get the slabs perfectly flush with each other.
Interesting video! My patio was laid on sand/cement mix. Because of ground movement, I removed and repointed twice. All the slabs are now all wobbly, as I am now not prepared to keep repointing. Any suggestions please? Many thanks. Terry Davis
The water you have left in the large cavity under the first slab will expand when it 'll froze. Better to prevent water to come in there and to accumulate by pouring glue in the gangways? Thank you anyhow for the good idea.
You can buy various PU glues in 310ml tubes for more like £7-£10. Much easier application with a silicone gun so you can easily run a bead, or blobs, much cheaper than Gorilla Glue. Wickes do one called Mega Strength Adhesive (currently £8.95) and there are several others available online, one off the top of my head called Super Fastgrip, sold for sticking down carpet grippers to concrete floors but it’s the same stuff!
By the way, I used this to stick broken bricks back together which I then used to rebuild a knackered front wall, which is still looking the same 6 years on. And to reattach coping stones to the rear garden wall that had popped off their mortar bed. Again, still there 5 years later 👍
Great video. My concern is how easily the Gorilla glue peeled off when you seperated the 2 slabs. It came off easily & didnt appear to be bonded at all. I would love an update on the longevity of the quick fix.
Hi Stuart on a separate note what drills do you recommend as im looking for a new one dont know weather to go brushless or not advise please. Mid price range i dont have silly money to spend Thank you. Mark
I've used it many times, for myself and friends, to refit garden wall coping stones. Once I open a pack of it, I try to use it all that same hour or so, as it goes off in the bottle very quickly.
i accidentally split some of this on my slabs while building a summer house, my brother knocked some gravel on to it by and we all wondered why the gravel wouldn't brush away lol .... this was 4 years ago most of that gravel is still there and its right by the back side of a pool so its wet most of the year, so i used to stick all my coping stones down around the edge of pool which also haven't budged, its also great for filling cracks in concrete pools,
I'm 82, and a Diy'er for 60yrs. I've never seen slabs that thin and 'light' before, Wish mine were, one side of my long garden path slabs, have tilted to one side. At 2 ft square x 2 inch concrete thick ,each , I'll have to get some young muscle in to deal with it.
Use a foam gun in the effected corner, when it rises to the required level put a couple of overlapping slabs on top. leave for two hours....mine have lasted two years so far.
These slabs are INDIAN natural stone , the problem from the start is who ever laid that paving in the first place never done it right , for a start the mix hasn’t been wet enough plus you shld be using GEOFIX or equivalent for the joints this will keep them in place much better , these glues and bonding products are just in my opinion are a waste of time , if the job gets done right in the first place you wouldn’t get this problem in the first place , there is definitely water getting underneath the slabs and it the winter when it’s frosty the water is expanding with in return starts to lift them , if the job was do f right in the first place none of these problems would occur,
Stuart, do you have any thoughts on the mortar used between slabs. Stronger mix with more cement? Additives? Maybe add PVA (or gorilla glue). or something else entirely, like mastic or silicon. I'm seeing the mortar crumbling, and weeds growing through, even though the slabs aren't moving and its a continuous bed under the slabs - does anyone trust the "5 dabs" technique these days? I guess seeds land in the cracks and eventually start growing.
Ex stone mason here, product called CT1 (like a grab adhesive ) We tested this product by sticking two stone samples together and left it in a bucket of water outside for a year and they were still bonded after the 1 year. We used it to stick all types of stone to brick, concrete, wood, other stones and metal. Fantastic product, no faffing about.
Thank you for the information sir 👍
I was thinking about CT1. Thanks for confirming my thoughts 👍🏻
Literally just done this job ( the long way) 🙈
Thank you for that info. I think you have just saved my patio wall.
Great idea thanks for posting! I have an old Scottish stone wall. The stones are naturally quite dusty. Would you recommend painting on a dilute PVA mixture before using the CT1 to counteract the dust?
Thanks Stuart, did this today and I’m delighted to say that the two wobbly pavers wobble no more. This saved me heaps of time, thankyou so much for this idea!
Thanks Stuart, what's great with this video is that you show two different ways, the PU glue is a quick fix and time will tell how effective it is, but often a quick fix is what is required ahead of a family get together or such, at the end of the day the alternatives are there to choose from ! Plus its generated a load of useful comments to expand on these methods !
Well done. I used expanding foam to replace mortar in a dodgy brick wall near a gate. Constant Bang Bang when the gate closes, shaking out the mortar. Expanding foam worked great. Slightly flexible, absorbs shock, sticky as hell, and can cut off any drips and runs.
I was watching road repair crews inject PU expanding foam to raise and support pavments besides roads (east anglia UK) a few months back I was amazed at how well it worked and its still good after all the rain aka liquid sunshine we've had this 'summer'....I suspect others have mentioned CT1 which is normally my go to for stuff like this
Fixed a big lump of render that fell off my garden wall with gorilla glue as a temporary bodge around 5 years ago.
It’s still on the wall and after a couple of coats of sealer and masonry paint you wouldn’t even know. Proper DIY 👍
Yeah, proper.
PU Glue has been around for decades. Buy it from a woodwork supplier in 1kg at 1/20th price of Gorilla!! Always used by boat builders and window manufacturers. No need for lots of water…. Spray bottle is best to moisten, not wet areas. Stripy zig zags are always better than dots and dabs. Also… get a can of PU cleaner 😉. Würth do a great range
Interesting idea and experiment! I normally use SBR mixed with cement to create a thick slurry (same as what I used for priming slabs before laying), and bonding them back on the existing mortar bed (when it's found to be solid). Would be interesting to see if you can break 2 pieces apart as easily when done with the SBR and cement method. Cheers
SBR and cement will be bullet proof. Hope you never need to get it off.
I have just used this method to fix a loose coping stone. Worked even better than I expected, rock solid!
I've just fixed a loose patio slab using this polyurethane glue just as he advised. Used most of a small bottle.arvellous result. Thank you very much.
One of my favorite DIY channels on youtube. Stuart many thanks for the videos and knowledge. Really has helped me transform my garden and house. My Mrs thinks I'm some kind of guru and that i know everything! 🤣😂
I was about to tackle my front natural stone slabs this week and was dreading it. Going to try this method instead. Hopefully it works out as I park a 16 seater bus and a transporter van on it 😅
I've used this stuff before, and it was well worth the money. We had a baby gate that the kids kept swinging on and pulling out of the wall. I couldn't use bigger wall plugs and screws as they wouldn't fit through the baby gate fixings, so squirted the glue and some water into the hole in the wall, pushed the wall plug in and screwed it up tight. When the glue went off and expanded, there was no way that fixing was coming out of the wall!
Thought you were gonna say you stuck the kids down
@@jimjamjee3220 It's tempting some days!
I used polyurethane glue on my indian sandstone 4 years ago and its not failed, this is a great tip .
Thanks for this. I had a line of pavers under a glass balustrade that had all come loose after high winds. I thought I was in for a load of work chipping out the old mortar bedding, gave this a go and it worked brilliantly. Using the glue meant I could realign the balustrade post mounting bolt holes in the slabs to screw through to the supporting blocks below.
This guy would be a natural for a daytime TV show. Someone sign him up.
RUclips IS daytime TV in 2024.
My wife and I threw out our many TVs in late spring 2020.
Watched no Tell-Lie-Vision since & still roll my eyes at the realisation of how easily & comprehensively we were misled. They never give up nor miss an opportunity to propagandise anyone unfortunate enough to watch it, if they’ve no suspicion that they’re being lied to.
First off thanks for a great video! If you ask 10 builders how to do something you'll get the 10 best ways to do it!! So here's mine. I'm a landscaping professional of 15 years. I have fixed countless wobbly slabs! The hard way: grind out the old pug and start again. The advantage being that there will be no level difference. The easy way: as here glue it down, but be careful you lay the slab back down in its exact original configuration and that the bed is entirely clean. I'm not entirely convinced with the product shown as it seems to peel away easily later in the video. I would recommend cement and SBR slurry (super cheap if you have that lying around anyway) or, as others have said, CT1. Incredible stuff! I have used to stick everything to anything! and performs in the wet. I'd say the issue here is not how you stick it, but how you remove it.
Brilliant job. I used the exact same method to stabilise some loose floor tiles. I didn't want to risk cracking the tiles by lifting them so scrapped and vacuumed the old grout out. A quick misting with water and dribbled in the PU glue. Top tip : I used a block of wood and a sander to gently vibrate the tiles to get the glue to sink in. Result - a perfect tiled floor again. Thanks for a great video
Just wanted to say, I look forward to the videos every week and am thrilled when I see them!
It's been a while since you did a video that was relevant to me personally as a "how-to" but that's inevitable as you've already covered so much content, and yet I still tune in every week religiously because the content is so good regardless if it's a job I need to do.
You've definitely helped improve my DIY confidence and now 1 year on from moving into my first house I've done every job myself except roofing and Part-P restricted electrics, including plumbing fixes, painting, installing spur sockets and fused spurs, installing Cat5e home networking, decking refurbishment, loft boarding, fixing boiler wiring issue etc.
So thanks!
I did this using this type of glue (not Gorilla) with some crazy paving that I had taken up to replace a broken edge piece. An iron hard bed or mortar was left behind so I glued the paving down to the mortar bed and after repointing the result was perfect. Still solid a year later! Great stuff Stewart!
I build both structural and decorative retaining walls out of concrete wall block products, I always use extremebond adhesive. It’s a pu construction adhesive but not the expanding foam type like the one you used more similar to PL premium. I stand by it 100% because I had a customer who didn’t like the natural stone coping after it had been installed and when chiseling it off it was more common to have the concrete in the wall block fail and break off than have the glue joint fail. After that experience I was completely sold on extremebond and have stopped using any other construction adhesives
Even before the video had ended I had ordered a bottle as I have this exact problem. Thanks
Great tip. I've also used epoxy resin cartridges (as for wall ties) which goes off quickly and doesn't slump.
You can get PU wood adhesive in cartridges which is more convenient to apply with a gun.
If you put the bottle in a cup of hot water first, it makes it easier to squeeze out.
With monkeyglue i found the glue near the lid goes hard after a while so no amount of hot water will undo that.
@@GeordiLaForgery A good trick with adhesive bottles and tubes is to seal the cap after use with vaseline. You can also do this with the screw tops. It just makes them airtight so prevents the glue setting inside.
@@streetlegal008 Sounds good but with monkeyglue as soon as it makes contact with air it'll start that expansion process and eventually create a hard blockage in the bottle, at least that's my experience and I've had to cut old bottles in half to get at some usable glue.
Nice video, love some good ol' bodging lol. Drilling the perimeter of the slab base to avoid the rest de-laminating is a great idea!
I'd say try CT1 for the ghetto method as well, specifically "CT1 Grab 'n' Bond", it tacks incredibly fast so no worry about it unsticking while setting, and sets underwater no bother. Whole tube is about £10 which could easily do 3 or 4 slabs with full coverage. I've stuck walls back together with this, and saw it last years before moving away from that property.
Another viable option is wet-room tile adhesive ("Ultra Trade S1 Rapid"). You can buy in dry bags (£13/20kg bag) and mix it or can buy it pre-mixed in tubs, this would fully bond the slab to the mortar but will have the longevity of stone (unlike the PU which will degrade over the years with UV and oxygen). It's also super easy to use, just smear it on both surfaces, use it to fill any holes also, and stick the two together. It has some grain to it though, so a super thin layer would be all that's needed. You could re-stick the entire patio with a single £13 bag, this would be the cheapest option if having to do a lot of slabs.
Proper job. Actually, I've used CT1 quite successfully too. 2 years in a high use spot in wet Cornwall and counting ... CT1's not cheap but I found I can use the ends of tubes that are going to go off before I use them again anyway.
We had a weathered stone Buddha in the garden and by accident I knocked his head off (head roughly the size of a football). The little statue was very important to my wife, so I had to fix it. I used Gorilla Glue to bond the head back. There was a lot of squeeze out which I had to trim with a knife, and then tone in with soil and moss until the join disappeared. Still in one piece 5 years later, and she hasn’t noticed. I’m trying your method on the loose slabs tomorrow. Thanks.
fixed some loose bricks in a couple of plinths 15 years ago, and a thick concrete tile on the roof a decade ago, all still stuck fast. Swedish summers and winters of +30°/-15° fail to budge it. Great stuff.
The algorithm is alive… I’ve literally had this same issue arise today. Superb timing.
Do you plan on doing a segment on the paving Joints and fixing those?
Thanks Stuart. I will use the first approach to try and correct cowboy workmanship I had 4 years ago. They did the classic dot and dab and not slab prep.
Another great short-cut , and well explained . It did look as though the glue pealed off quite easily from your test piece . Wonder what it would be like after a year or two . Also how does it compare against the mastic type PU products such as Bond-it PU18 . I used this to stick coping stones around my pond , and it worked a treat . Also cheaper than gorilla glue . Keep up the good work !
Used this myself to rebond slabs 4 years ago and still rock solid. The stuff will bond anything
Just did this and it worked brilliantly as I needed a quick fix. Appreciate it is not the ‘proper’ way, but my paving slab is secure and no longer an unsafe trip hazard. Only downside is a bit of leakage of the Gorilla glue at the edge of the slab
I use 'Sticks Like Sh*t' from Evo-Stik. It's water proof and frost proof and can be used in damp conditions. It doesn't expand so you don't need to weigh it down and is slightly flexible. I've used it on paving slabs and it works a treat.
Same here -.and still holding three years later
Another vote for this, works a treat.
Just done the same today .Can't beat that stuff.Just the same as CT1 if not better.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.. I have been putting off this job for a while and you made it look easy! Works a treat!!
Great video as usual. I’ve been doing the same ever since I had my patio laid with Indian sandstone. I use the gorilla external grab that works perfectly.
Interesting- I will give it a go. I am a chemist and work with PUs and we have made them for slab raising where a concrete slab has sunk there we use the expansion of the PU to raise a slab that has dropped. If done correctly it can be a really quick and cheap way of fixing a tricky problem (the amount of PU injected is critical though)
I have quite a few slabs that I need to fix. Thanks for this video, super useful, I'm now happy to start fixing them. I didn't even know this glue existed. 👍🏻
I use that same Gorilla PU Glue. It can absorb moisture from the air but better to moisten anything if it doesn’t have direct access to the humid air. I also used a similar PU glue in cartridge form to re-stick tiles in my swimming pool. (In Australia) under water. I use black as my pool mortar is black but the Gorilla PU Glue works too. Gorilla glue also stuck some render back on my house where I touched it with my car bumper. You wouldn’t know there was a repair.
Great info videos. I watch all of them even if I don’t need the ideas immediately. 👍
Many thanks, followed your idea of using Gorilla glue to refix slab. Idea worked 100%, job done quickly and easily.
Brilliant solution to loose slabs. A good bit of the glue came up in the cracks. What the best and tidiest way to remove the dried glue from the gaps between the slabs? Multi tool?
Great video. I have a couple that are annoying me! Interesting to read the comments too. It seems CT1 is a good solution too.
a neat cement slurry works in the same way. no expansion but you can get a really tight joint so no need to remove the old bed
What a find. Got some stone slabs lifting and this looks like the perfect solution and I don’t have to wait for a dry day!
try PGB adhesive. needed to stick concrete slab to bricks in garden. thinked to use CT1, but been advised in store to try pgb. what a great product. quicker will smash brick itself as glued joint😆
I tried this on some stone steps. Brilliant.
I glued a wooden garden gate with PU Gorilla Glue - it set very quickly, so position parts well. But don't buy a larger bottle than you need, the contents in the bottle set, probably in about 6 months after I used it.
I've done it with expanding foam in a low traffic area, it's worked a treat, I wouldn't drive a car over it, but it's fine to walk on, been down about 3 years now.
I’ve seen this done before. I reckon the pu foam will be good for a long time.
This is an excellent handy fix supper quick and slick on yuor own property or as a handyman deal. CT1 would do it too as stated. However the purist will always pop the mortar out and lay n fresh cement or adhesive with 100 % coverage as is proper for exterior tiling (in theoy)
Neat cement mixed so it’s like self levelling works just as good, dampen slab and pour a bit on existing slab bed and weigh it down 👍
Where I live in East Sussex there are lots of roads around Hailsham that were made in concrete sections. After many years some sections have moved up or down so they don't align with each other.
I believe the highways department use a type of expanding foam injected through the slabs to realign them.
I don't know if this is standard practice or just a trial.
Exactly what I need for my steps which have de-bonded. Will try it out and report back. Thanks.
This is incredibly prescient! I have very similar slabs - and a 300mm one has just debonded while I was working on the raised bed it abuts! I had no idea I could do this. Thank you!
Similar experience, spent an eternity fixing a loose large slate slab by breaking up and relaying the mortar bed. The original bed was solid, I had to buy a breaker to clean out the old mortar bed. The penny dropped afterwards, why destroy a perfectly good mortar bed when it's only the adhesion between the slab and base that's broken down. I experimented using Nonsense x8 hybrid adhesive from Screwfix, it's weather proof and can be used in a damp environment, on other de-bonded slabs. The fix took 1/10th of the time and was a lot less messy. After 2 years the glued slabs are still firmly attached. If I'd paid someone and they had done this I'd have called them a charlatan, just goes to show how wrong one can be. PU glue or hybrid adhesive, think they will both save time and money if the mortar bed is sound, dont hesitate it will be a proper job!
Just ordered my bottle to give my diy skills a much needed boost lol
I was thinking a good idea would be to place planks over the slab and then put the weight on the planks.
That way if it is strong enough to push the slab, by putting the planks across it it should still keep it's level with the other slabs.
Great idea! I've have this issue on a couple wobbly slabs. So I will be buying some gorrila pu glue tommorow! Thankyou!
Get it in a cartridge why not. PU expands yes. If compared to normal glue or cartridge gloop it's kinda messy, on the way to pu foam. However once you get the measure of it, it's terrific. Yes it expands and fills, but also the open time is in a couple of stages. It first grips the joint as stated, but then there is a sweet spot of getting any residue removed. After a few hours of even a day it can be scraped with relative ease. However after a week or two it gets seriously hard. If not contained it get everywhere sticks to everything so start slowly. I have it in stock at all times though because it's great for all manner of jobs.
I use this exact same glue to repair dowels in the teak deck on my boat. It’s great stuff. I will give this a go on a couple of loose slabs in our garden.
I've found that a thin slurry of cement powder & water is very good, and costs considerably less than gorilla glue. Spread it out & put the slab back in place & it hydraulics itself to the slurry.
There are a few composite silicone/acrylic sealants that bond under water. Also I can't help but think expanding PU foam would be cheaper and better than the Gorilla glue. But all are far less work than starting again.
Reminds me of when a fence post rotted leaving a perfect square hole in the concrete. I got another post, part filled the hole with silicone putting sealant and set a new post in it - sealed nicely from moisture!
Looks brilliant, I’m in the process of grouting my patio and have two or three loose slabs so will give it a go, why does your patio have no grout???
I fixed two rocky slabs two years ago (they are still fine) by injecting the corner with an expanding foam gun, wait until the slab rises up to the required level then place a couple of overlapping slabs or heavy weight on top for an hour or two.......works every time and will last.
Great stuff. I’ll give this a go and see if it makes it through the winter. Do you have any hacks for pointing this all up?
Chem fix/resin anchor if you want something really quick and easy. Just brush away any dust first. Rock solid in 30 mins. I use it for fixing the odd coping stone on a wall that has come loose
First fill the voids with cement or whatever to prevent frost expansion and then use a smear of external grade tile adhesive on the back of the slab.
Seems like the slab was badly laid in the first instance. Was always going to rock sometime.
Good idea, can I use this to refix slabs in the metal inspection cover trays that have come loose ?
Gorilla PU glue is expensive and I have found that you need to warm it to get it to flow.
Paving slabs should normally be bedded on mortar dabs or as I prefer to specify, on a bed of dry(ish) sand cement mix. The mix need only be quite weak as its just to stabilise the bed, anything up to 1:6 would be fine. The old mortar that is likely to be unstable and hardly fit for reuse, should be broken out and the dry bed laid. The bed is easy to level and gives a solid base for the paving. This bed is very durable but in the event that the slab does need taking up the bedding mix is weak enough to be removed without any effort.
I'm not certain that Gorilla PU glue is better than anyone else's. I use PU in the wood workshop for any jobs that are going to be out in the rain and for which normal wood glue won't hold. So you can get much the same thing for ,much less money if you shop around. Gorilla glues cover all types of glue and it's always expensive. They've made a niche for themselves at the top of the range. Shop around!
@@RO8s I think in the non-trade world the advantage of Gorilla PU glue is the small size, the perceived reliability and the general availability. Most of us don't need 750ml of PU glue even if its the same or less cost than Gorilla Glue's 250ml. Gorilla Glue is widely available and known quality, whereas other PU glues are less available and often of unrecognised brands.
@@clivewilliams3661 Yes, that's true. But that's what I said, more or less - Gorilla have made their name with a lot of advertising, and now you can find it almost anywhere. But my local DIY store has the same thing in small bottles a bit cheaper. It's a bitch to work with on wood! You have to clamp it every which way and it still covers everything in sticky... I prefer two-mix resin, but it wouldn't work for that!
used this glue to fix creaking stairs, from underneath so took plasterboards off and it worked like a charm. pretty sure it said it can be sanded down and painted if needs be. id personally fill the bigger gaps with sand as if you drop anything on that slab it would most likely crack
Stuart been watching your videos from the start and i must say i do look forward to them! Great Work
I've used GG and it works well, but it does go hard at the top in the bottle. Then the fun starts as you try to break through.
I've successfully used CT1 on a few of my slabs. No problems a few years thereafter.
I recently bought CT1 to fix some gutter leaks and just saw this video about loose slabs, still need to do both jobs. Does CT1 expand, would you use it on dry slabs where possible or do you wet it like the PU products in the video and discussions. Many thanks.
@leonflack5673 CT1 does not expand so use a lot of it so as to compress it. No need to wet it, but it can be used in damp conditions
@@AndrewLumsden OK that's great, thank you very much for the advice.
@@leonflack5673
Try adiseal. Bit cheaper than CT1 and suitable for natural stone.
Seems to peel quite easily off the slabs in your test, Stuart... Maybe not suited to porous materials? It'll probably be fine under the patio as there's no wedge driving it apart, but seems likely that it could come loose further down the line with regular foot traffic. Have you considered something like Rawlplug R-KEM II? More suited to stone/concrete, and probably cheaper...
I fixed large slate paving slabs on heavy traffic steps with this 7 years ago. They are still solid.
@@keblawben Your mileage may vary, I guess... But I think the video speaks for itself - the PU glue peeled off very easily by hand. Probably acting as a flexible spacer with light adhesion. Fine for a heavy slab that's rocking around, but I would bet that 3-5 years of weather cycles and foot traffic will remove all of the adhesion. You probably won't notice unless you try to lift the slab, though. Have you tried lifting yours?
Yes peeled pretty easy.. was 100% sold until then. Having said this I if the glue fills all the gaps/spaces and is dense enough it wouldn't matter as it would eliminate the rock?
Peel strength is typically lower than straight pull strength or shear strength. Not really a problem on a slab, they are pretty hard to peel!
@@ferrumignis I know that, but I'm not sure how relevant it is when the bond strength is this low!
Good solution.. Expensive stuff that though considering the small amount you get. You can buy polyurethane commercially in bigger packs which might be easier if you had a significant amount to do. Like it 😉.. You've just also given me an idea for fixing a broken bathroom tile in the shower!
I was thinking the exact same!
Thanks for the advice I'll try it out on the few that are loose on my patio
I managed to break a corner off a slab that had been used to top a brick pillar. Stuck the 4”x4” corner back on with gorilla glue, left it a day with a ratchet strap holding it in place, then scraped the excess off. 8 years later you would never know it had been broken!
I use sticks like sh*t. I am glad I am not the only one who uses unorthodox methods. Thank you. After watching your videos I've fitted an outdoor socket and built a garden gate. That's over 2 weeks.
I do exactly the same, great stuff.
“If you’ve got something of weight….best to use it”….i was waiting for a gag with you standing in the middle of your slab 😂😂😂😂
Or sat on a stool with a cuppa
I thought he was going to call Keith Brown 🤣🤣🤣
There more a tile and not a slab, slabs that i laid were 2 inch thick and weighed a ton, they were bedded on a sand, cement screed, and the trouble when lifting them is you tend to make a mess of the sand unless you could lift them straight up, so i dont thick the glue would do any good, especially when your trying to get the slabs perfectly flush with each other.
Interesting video! My patio was laid on sand/cement mix. Because of ground movement, I removed and repointed twice. All the slabs are now all wobbly, as I am now not prepared to keep repointing. Any suggestions please? Many thanks. Terry Davis
I've used Multistick from Toolstation on jobs like these. Works a treat and lasts years. CT1 is also excellent, but now £££.
Nice video. Gorilla make some great stuff.
Be doing this end of the year.
The water you have left in the large cavity under the first slab will expand when it 'll froze. Better to prevent water to come in there and to accumulate by pouring glue in the gangways? Thank you anyhow for the good idea.
Absolutely thanks saved me a lot of headaches
You can buy various PU glues in 310ml tubes for more like £7-£10. Much easier application with a silicone gun so you can easily run a bead, or blobs, much cheaper than Gorilla Glue.
Wickes do one called Mega Strength Adhesive (currently £8.95) and there are several others available online, one off the top of my head called Super Fastgrip, sold for sticking down carpet grippers to concrete floors but it’s the same stuff!
By the way, I used this to stick broken bricks back together which I then used to rebuild a knackered front wall, which is still looking the same 6 years on. And to reattach coping stones to the rear garden wall that had popped off their mortar bed. Again, still there 5 years later 👍
Great video. My concern is how easily the Gorilla glue peeled off when you seperated the 2 slabs. It came off easily & didnt appear to be bonded at all.
I would love an update on the longevity of the quick fix.
I've used expanding foam for wobbly slabs. Pretty similar result and it's generally cheaper.
Sika SikaBond SBR+ and Cement did the trick for me when I fixed around 15 slabs in my garden
Hi Stuart on a separate note what drills do you recommend as im looking for a new one dont know weather to go brushless or not advise please. Mid price range i dont have silly money to spend Thank you. Mark
You just reminded me to fix the loose floorboards 👍
Anchor resin plus prime back of slab with SBR / cement slurry mix .Works
I've used it many times, for myself and friends, to refit garden wall coping stones. Once I open a pack of it, I try to use it all that same hour or so, as it goes off in the bottle very quickly.
Used Gorilla many times to relay loose slabs. I do use an SBR slurry 1st though.
I tried that glue, I had a hell of a job actually squeezing it out
Garden envy, ours is a mess at the minute - hoping to get some hard landscaping done soon
i found that mixing sbr with cement will stick it back as well
i accidentally split some of this on my slabs while building a summer house, my brother knocked some gravel on to it by and we all wondered why the gravel wouldn't brush away lol .... this was 4 years ago most of that gravel is still there and its right by the back side of a pool so its wet most of the year, so i used to stick all my coping stones down around the edge of pool which also haven't budged, its also great for filling cracks in concrete pools,
thanks for the Video....was just gonna say a tube of OB1 or CT1 from Screwfix should also do the job...GG is good
I'm 82, and a Diy'er for 60yrs. I've never seen slabs that thin and 'light' before, Wish mine were, one side of my long garden path slabs, have tilted to one side. At 2 ft square x 2 inch concrete thick ,each , I'll have to get some young muscle in to deal with it.
Use a foam gun in the effected corner, when it rises to the required level put a couple of overlapping slabs on top. leave for two hours....mine have lasted two years so far.
These slabs are INDIAN natural stone , the problem from the start is who ever laid that paving in the first place never done it right , for a start the mix hasn’t been wet enough plus you shld be using GEOFIX or equivalent for the joints this will keep them in place much better , these glues and bonding products are just in my opinion are a waste of time , if the job gets done right in the first place you wouldn’t get this problem in the first place , there is definitely water getting underneath the slabs and it the winter when it’s frosty the water is expanding with in return starts to lift them , if the job was do f right in the first place none of these problems would occur,
I use tile adhesive works a treat
Stuart, do you have any thoughts on the mortar used between slabs. Stronger mix with more cement? Additives? Maybe add PVA (or gorilla glue). or something else entirely, like mastic or silicon. I'm seeing the mortar crumbling, and weeds growing through, even though the slabs aren't moving and its a continuous bed under the slabs - does anyone trust the "5 dabs" technique these days? I guess seeds land in the cracks and eventually start growing.
PVA wast of time water soluble
I use Stick Like S--- and it worked really well thats was two years ago