[Hemingway]

What causes this? Standing water? What is the flaking? Bad cement mixture? or did the previous owner lay a veneer of cement over a previous walkway?

 

[joed]

common causes are
1. Too much water when trowelling the finish surface.
2. Using salt on the walk during winter.

 

[Bob Mariani]

That was what I say also. Just need to remove all loose cement and apply a thin coat to patch. Also applying a concrete sealer will help prevent this decay. What you see is called spalling.

 

[Hemingway]

All you had to say was Spalling. You guys are great for giving me a pointer in the right direction. I see there's lots of info out there on resurfacing, acrylic latex concrete-repair caulk, masking the expansion joint, brooming, etc.

Rust-Oleum has a resurfacing product EpoxyShield. "A 2-part cementitious microtopping that uses a liquid polymer instead of water to create a bond stronger than concrete."

The Quikrete version is about half that price.

2. Using salt on the walk during winter.

Totally. So when I resurface instead of including their Anti-Skid Additive, I think I'll just sprinkle a little sand over the drying coat.

 

[747]

yep i have that happening at the end of my garage driveway. I consider the cause salt. Those snowplows come around plowing and salting.

 

[yesitsconcrete]

note there's no expansion jnt mtl showing so whatever repairs're finally done should consider the eventual movement & re-spalling.

too bad things aren't as easy as they look / seem :yes:

 

[Hemingway]

Bumped - cold snap

note there's no expansion jnt mtl showing so whatever repairs're finally done should consider the eventual movement & re-spalling.

I had filled the cracks with Vinyl Concrete Filler (in the tubes) and then coated the walk with a thin coat of Patcher mix. After the January cold snap, I noticed the darned cracks have reappeared. Evidently the cracks expanded and contracted, but the concrete patch over the top had nowhere to go.

Come spring, I'll need to repair this again before it starts flaking. I'm NOT gonna install an expansion joint. I guess I'll fill the cracks with vinyl filler and hope that no spalling occurs. I'll just need to be satisfied with that.

 

[jomama45]

I had filled the cracks with Vinyl Concrete Filler (in the tubes) and then coated the walk with a thin coat of Patcher mix. After the January cold snap, I noticed the darned cracks have reappeared. Evidently the cracks expanded and contracted, but the concrete patch over the top had nowhere to go.

Come spring, I'll need to repair this again before it starts flaking. I'm NOT gonna install an expansion joint. I guess I'll fill the cracks with vinyl filler and hope that no spalling occurs. I'll just need to be satisfied with that.

That's the key right there, you'll just need to be satisfiead with it. Nothing short of replacing this section will fix the cracks & shifting. Any re-surfacign product is going to have a short lifespan in a strong freeze-thaw environment like NJ.

Best of luck.

 

[concretemasonry]

The cracks will always telegraph through any coating. The slab shrinks in the winter, so cracks can open.

The spalling is different than the cracks. I would guess that salt was used and it drained back to the house and accumulated, wich also caused the spalling on the vertical concrete.

Dick

 

[stadry]

unless cracks're treated correctly PRIOR to placing a repair on top, crks'll usually ' reflect ' thru any resurfacing,,, the repairs weren't done properly unfortunately :furious: replacement's the best choice imn-s-hfo

 

[Hemingway]

Three years later

Yes here it is three years later and I'm going to have to re-do this project. The acrylic latex concrete-repair caulk had shrunk up so the cracks have cracks and small trees growing up in between.

The re-coat held up pretty well, only some sections have seen spalling.