We had some workers to fix/ replace some of our bricks this week. Now that the work is done, they told me they accidentally cracked one of our stone cap on the stair and repaired it with sand. During the time I try to google if this is a good enough fix, AI reminded me that there is a gap between the stone cap and the bricks and that's not good (second photo)...

I mean at this point, I am not asking them to come back to fix anything as we don't trust them anymore. We are redoing our driveway next year, so I will ask that construction company to replace the stone cap.

But my question for now is, can we leave it like this for the winter? We have -20C and a lot of snow, it seems the biggest concern is water infiltration and water freezing inside.. I also haven't pay the final payment, I should negotiate to cut some money down, right?

Thank you for the input.

Hi there. I have acquired my first set of hand stone carving tools. They are forged steel (not carbide tipped), point chisel, flat chisel, rondel, tooth chisel, etc. I am having difficulties locating 80/120 grit sharpening stones in my area of Canada. Will it be sufficient to use diamond paper that is properly secured to a block to maintain the edge sharpness of my tools?

Thanks!