Any concrete guys on the forum?

tryrrthg

The concrete steps to the front of my house are old and crumbling at the corners. We don’t plan on living there more than a year or two more so I don’t want to shell out the cash to get them replaced. I would just like to patch them (and probably use a concrete overlay to make color consistent). The corner of the first step is nearly completely gone and the patch would be around 8” deep at the thickest part of the step. The rest of the patch would scale/ramp up to as little as ¼” deep.

What is the best way to go about doing the patch? What concrete product should I use?

My plan right now is to chip away all the loose concrete, drill some holes in the places that will be patched and put some tapcon screws or rebar/pins in to help the patch adhere to the old concrete. (along with some bonding agent)

I’m just not sure what the best way or product to use to go about patching them is…

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

ShinAce

Bonding agent is the bomb.

I've done a few concrete jobs around the house and I'd do the same as you. Wire brush it clean, tap some pins in, apply a bonding agent, make a form around the step, and pour.

For two years worth of living, it's overkill, but at least it won't screw over the next owner.

Systems

Clean the hell out of the steps. Use a bonding agent like the one from Quickrete. Apply to the steps and add to the mortar/concrete mix. Add color if you like. Mix your mortar/concrete a little on the thick side mixing only as much as you can spread and begin to finish at any given area. Pay attention to your color mix ratio and duplicate each batch. As the mortar/concrete hardens you can shape the rounded corners to your liking. I say mortar/concrete because you want to use a concrete topping mix or a portland mortar mix so you don't have to deal with the aggregate in the mix as most concrete mixes add.

BTW to aid in the patches you can drive some pins in the concrete as stated above.

tryrrthg

Any specific concrete product?

right now I was looking at this: LINK from what I can tell it mixes up like modeling clay so I don't know that I would need forms...

However I'm leaning toward wanting to use forms since I'm not very good at working with a trowel... and I don't have a lot of experience working with concrete. I've set fence posts and I made a concrete countertop for a recent half bath addition, but both of those projects seem easy compared to this.

cnh

Good Luck tryrrthg!

I have the same problem; am meeting with a concrete man soon who does this stuff for a living, I also need to have my chimney repaired and I'm not going to climb onto the second story of my house and try that myself. I've seen Quickrete in places like Home Depot...seem like 187 says that will do the trick!

cnh

tryrrthg

cnh wrote: »

Good Luck tryrrthg!

I have the same problem; am meeting with a concrete man soon who does this stuff for a living, I also need to have my chimney repaired and I'm not going to climb onto the second story of my house and try that myself. I've seen Quickrete in places like Home Depot...seem like 187 says that will do the trick!

cnh

Thanks! and good luck to you! We got an estimate to have the steps re-done last fall. They wanted like $1500. Since we were already paying $1200 to have a new sidewalk and driveway approach done I passed. I figured I could patch the steps myself for next to nothing and they would look MUCH better and last long enough to sell the house (with increased curb appeal).

BigMac

Here ya go. Uses the Quickrete mentioned in 187CAM's post. Good luck.

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tryrrthg

BigMac wrote: »

Here ya go. Uses the Quickrete mentioned in 187CAM's post. Good luck.

Can't see the video at work, what is it?

BigMac

tryrrthg wrote: »

Can't see the video at work, what is it?

A video showing a step by step on how to repair the steps. In the video the guy uses Quickrete products as well (you can see which ones to buy). The video is only a minute and a half long but explains everything. Basically it's 187CAM's post in video form.

tryrrthg

BigMac wrote: »

A video showing a step by step on how to repair the steps. In the video the guy uses Quickrete products as well (you can see which ones to buy). The video is only a minute and a half long but explains everything. Basically it's 187CAM's post in video form.

could you tell me which products he uses? I'm doing my research on this project while at work instead of doing work work.

BigMac

Here are some screens from the video since you cannot see the video at work.


A large screw with an expansion anchor



A pointing trowel to apply the quick dry cement



A margin trowel to build up the layers of cement


A damp rubber float to blend everything together to look like the old steps


Quikrete concrete bonding adhesive


Quikrete quick setting cement

tryrrthg

COOL! Thanks for taking the time to do that. That looks like the product I linked above. I guess I was on the right track.

Although my patch is MUCH bigger than that one...

BigMac

tryrrthg wrote: »

COOL! Thanks for taking the time to do that. That looks like the product I linked above. I guess I was on the right track.

Although my patch is MUCH bigger than that one...

No problem. I am off today and bored so it gave me something to do while listening to some good tunes. I ripped just the audio part of the video as well, but figured since you cannot see video you probably cannot hear audio but I will link to it just in case you can.

http://www.zshare.net/audio/59926557a94e17c0/

Here is a part I forgot to add the first time around. The guy used a hammer drill to make the holes.

tryrrthg

Nope, no luck there either. but thanks for trying!