Hi, guys,
I’m counting on your expertise yet again. We’re widening our front steps because they’re too narrow for the scale of the house. I told my husband that when he originally installed them but he was in the mood to do it his way. Now, he thinks that the steps are too narrow for the house 🙂
The problem is that the cement apron or whatever it’s called, will have to be widened but he does not plan to tear it out and repour. He wants to just make another pour to widen it…he says that I won’t even notice the seam.
I think I will.
Is there some kind of new miracle substance that we don’t know about that could be applied to maybe skim over the whole thing and hide that seam?
Please say yes….
Judy
Replies
drill into the sides, grout in rebar extending out the sides to tie in the new concrete, form the sides about an inch higher than the current elevations and pour so that no seams are seen. Paint entire thing with bonding agent before hand ..
.."bonding agent?" Yay!Thanks, Wane..Judy
yea, you willsee the seam, put tile on it
bonding agent?"
http://www.cgmbuildingproducts.com/pd2_h.htm
Just one of many. Home depot and Lowes both carry them.
Chances are even an inch pour over and a pinned addition will eventually end up with a crack at the cold joint.
Not picking on your DH, but cutting corners won't save you anything in the long run. If you don't want to look at a cold joint or see it show up as a crack later, take out the existing apron or approach to the steps and repour it as one piece.
Describe what you have or post a picture of it and someone here can give you the "down and dirty advice" to get what you want. A 4" thick slab on grade is pretty easy to demo if not very large. I've taken out some good size patios with nothing more than a long wrecking bar and a sledge hammer.
"Is there some kind of new miracle substance that we don't know about that could be applied to maybe skim over the whole thing and hide that seam?"
some of us call that miracle thing a divorce.
After that you don't notice these little things any more.
;)
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Glue down a piece of Astroturf! It will hide everything and never needs mowing!
I don't know what your layout is, but maybe you could widen your apron evenly on BOTH sides. Then you could color or stamp or do something (tile or brick?) to make it look more like a planned decorative element. Then the exposed joint is no longer an issue.
-t
The seam will always show no matter what you do. Even covering it in some type of topping you'll get a crack along the joint.
If it were me I'd do the rebar thing mentioned above, but tool the joint to look like a joint.
You could also make the flares with another paving material, such as brick.
Edited 5/20/2009 6:17 pm ET by WayneL5
Thanks to all of you.As for me, it's either dig the whole thing out and re-pour or cover the whole thing with tile. Do you think that the tile would also crack with time?Honestly, Wayne thinks that having that seam show would be fine with him. At our age and stage, it won't be a big deal with me if he insists on it. It might have caused me some heartburn in my younger years but our priorities change, don't they :)Thanks again,
Judy
why not cut a joint at the seam and then cut another joint equal on the other side, that way it would look uniform