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My stairs on the back porch were getting crumbly on the bottom steps due to people throwing salt. Im pretty sure its a pre formed piece due to it being hollow. The house is from the 40's but I couldn't tell you how old it is. I just bought this house about a year ago and after the winter the repair job that the previous owner did pretty much fell apart. There's no holes or anything but the corner is gone and a decent chunk missing on the top of the bottom stairs.
Its pretty ugly I know most will say demo or build wood stairs over it...
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This past week I attempted to repair them to buy me some time. I did make forms but only to help create a corner not to pour an entire top coat or anything.
The attempt
I chipped away the loose stuff and got it clean. I used Quikrete bonding adhesive because I was putting new concrete on old stuff and also the thickness was over 1.5". I drilled in some tapcons in the solid areas and also put in some chicken wire as well to hopefully act as rebar. I used a few planks to act as a forms when I was repairing the corner not to do an entire skim coat. We used 1 quikrete high strength 80 lb bag which seemed to cover most of the repairs. I covered it up with plastic to retain the moisture.
However (again im a rookie here)....as far as slapping the concrete on the vertical areas on the riser the concrete was not exactly staying in it, maybe I need to make it thicker next time or use something different or maybe forms are the only way? I was trying to fill in some voids with a trowel on the riser not re do the entire thing.
This concrete I had gotten did have small rocks and what-not in it from the bag, i'm assuming to give it strength? The only hangup I had with that was making it blend in with the existing stairs. So its been 3 days I left it covered and its pretty hard but im left with some areas that need touching up and also my patch jobs on the lower step are noticeable higher that the stair by around a half inch.
So after this stuff is fully cured up I want to touch it up or possibly do an entire skim coat to blend in my patch job. Do you guys have any suggestions either way?
Can I use the fast set red bag or bucket of Quikrete over the high strength stuff for a patch job or en entire skim coat?
I know im a bit all over the place just trying to learn lol. If it only lasts a few years its still better than what it was. Eventually well be building a wood deck and stairs over it.
Its pretty ugly I know most will say demo or build wood stairs over it...
This past week I attempted to repair them to buy me some time. I did make forms but only to help create a corner not to pour an entire top coat or anything.
The attempt
I chipped away the loose stuff and got it clean. I used Quikrete bonding adhesive because I was putting new concrete on old stuff and also the thickness was over 1.5". I drilled in some tapcons in the solid areas and also put in some chicken wire as well to hopefully act as rebar. I used a few planks to act as a forms when I was repairing the corner not to do an entire skim coat. We used 1 quikrete high strength 80 lb bag which seemed to cover most of the repairs. I covered it up with plastic to retain the moisture.
However (again im a rookie here)....as far as slapping the concrete on the vertical areas on the riser the concrete was not exactly staying in it, maybe I need to make it thicker next time or use something different or maybe forms are the only way? I was trying to fill in some voids with a trowel on the riser not re do the entire thing.
This concrete I had gotten did have small rocks and what-not in it from the bag, i'm assuming to give it strength? The only hangup I had with that was making it blend in with the existing stairs. So its been 3 days I left it covered and its pretty hard but im left with some areas that need touching up and also my patch jobs on the lower step are noticeable higher that the stair by around a half inch.
So after this stuff is fully cured up I want to touch it up or possibly do an entire skim coat to blend in my patch job. Do you guys have any suggestions either way?
Can I use the fast set red bag or bucket of Quikrete over the high strength stuff for a patch job or en entire skim coat?
I know im a bit all over the place just trying to learn lol. If it only lasts a few years its still better than what it was. Eventually well be building a wood deck and stairs over it.
