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Concrete Porch moving

3K views 2 replies 3 participants last post by  Daniel Holzman 
#1 ·
My small concrete porch is moving away from the wall due to ground settling. This is leaving a gap that allows blowing rain to get behind the steps and the water seems to be leaking into the bricks in the basement. Any suggestions how to fill the space? or Repair without tearing down the porch?
 
#2 ·
My small concrete porch is moving away from the wall due to ground settling. This is leaving a gap that allows blowing rain to get behind the steps and the water seems to be leaking into the bricks in the basement. Any suggestions how to fill the space? or Repair without tearing down the porch?
Very hard to repair an inadequate base. Is this house in a clay soil area with drought conditions?
How big is the gap?
Has the porch stopped moving?
Look at a product from the Sika company. There are others, but this is the one I use.
 
#3 ·
You have two essentially separate issue. First, your porch is settling unevenly, else the house is settling making it look like the porch is settling. Solving that problem is complex, and would require you to completely remove the porch, properly prepare the base, then rebuild the porch. There are expensive alternatives such as mud jacking, minipiles, or helical anchors, but these are expensive solutions not appropriate for a small porch.

The second problem is simpler to address. You need a flexible sealant between the porch and the house to prevent water from draining between the porch and the house, and getting into your basement. This should have been handled by proper flashing of the gap between the porch and the house when the porch was installed, but I have seen many installations with no flashing, which could be your problem. Installing flashing without removing the porch is likely to be impossible, so the next best option is to seal the gap annually using a polybutyl sealant. Flexible, tough, waterproof, adheres well to concrete. Since your porch is likely to continue settling, you will need to reseal annually at least, but much less expensive than tearing out the porch and starting over.

If you do rebuild the porch, make sure you properly flash the house where it meets the porch.
 
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