Basic Masonry & Concrete Concrete and masonry are the oldest building technologies still in daily use, and they reward patience more than skill. A concrete slab poured by a careful beginner will outlast a deck built by a sloppy carpenter. The fundamentals haven't changed in a century: get your mix right, keep things level and plumb, and let it cure. Where people go wrong is adding too much water (weak concrete that crumbles), skipping the gravel base (frost heave cracks your slab), and rushing the cure (concrete reaches full strength at 28 days, not 2). This skill covers the projects most hom…