bheher

Hello,

The front porch of my house has cracking/separation between the concrete slab and the bricks beneath it. The porch is about 4'x10'. The separation can be seen in the pictures attached. It only occurs in the front right corner. The concrete feels sturdy except when I jump on the front edge, above the area where the cracking is. I am trying to determine what if any repairs are needed.

I am wondering if a footer would typically be placed under the concrete slab thus the bricks would be mainly for aesthetics. I am going to place a new step in the area where the previous owner "repaired" the porch. I am wondering if I could just fill these cracks in or if I should pull the bricks out and rebuild up to the bottom of the concrete slab. Or would these repairs just be temporary fixes and the ideal fix would be to replace the whole slab?

Thank You
IMG_1536 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
IMG_1540 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
IMG_1537 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

BridgeMan

I'm not sure I can see what/where you think a brick or concrete problem exists. There don't appear to be any structural issues with the slab and brickwork shown, unless I'm missing something. Cosmetically speaking, yes, a "tune-up" would improve the appearance of previous sloppy repairs. And you might want to address the placement of the pipe handrail's vertical members (embedded in the concrete steps)--as shown, there isn't enough clear concrete cover on the exterior edges to adequately support the pipe posts in the event of heavy lateral loading. Most codes require that railings and posts be able to resist horizontal point loads of 250 pounds, applied 3 ft. above walking surfaces. It appears your posts are too close to the concrete edges to comply with this requirement, unless there's some heavy anchorage below the surface, not visible in the pix.