Plan of action for repairing broken concrete steps.

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mgee76

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Hello. This is my first post here, resorting to asking for advice on how to approach crumbling concrete steps to the porch of my house. I"m attaching some photos that hopefully will explain what's going on.



The steps appear to have been patched before, but poorly. I can access the back of the steps under the porch from the basement in order to frame up and pour to fill, but will this work? Each step appears to be ready to fall apart. My thought was to clean out everything that is broken, completely fill all the gaps after framing, possibly with angle irons in the back or something of that nature, and then cover the steps with some kind of sealer or topcoat.

The complicated part is that the steps tie into the brick on either side, as well as the handrail. I'd really like to not have to smash it all out and start over, although I'm sure that would be the best method. I'm looking for the simplest fix that will get me a few more years before I'm ready to try and sell the place (plenty other fixes required in the meanwhile).

Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated! Thanks.
 
Those steps look beyond repair to me. Time to remove and start over.
 
Sorry if these images are too large. I can resize them if it's a problem.
 
JoeD said:
Those steps look beyond repair to me. Time to remove and start over.
Click to expand...
I believe you.
But why the replace, and not repair, option?
What are these pix telling you that a layperson like me is not seeing?
TIA.
 
The height of each step should be within 1/4" of all the rest including from the sidewalk to the first step and the last step up on the porch.
I think along with the rest, that is what Joe is looking at.
I think it is time to take them out, repair brick as required and maybe just build wood stairs out of treated lumber.
 
You might try a homemade concrete pump, it forces concrete into crevices.
Mine is a 1" ID, 1' long copper pipe for the cylinder and a wooden dowel with OD slightly less than the pipe ID, for the piston.

This piston slides easier if it's narrowed in the middle like a connecting rod for an engine, see
http://www.google.com/search?q=pist...pub.com%2F14037%2Fcss%2F14037_102.htm;296;320

Now you've got three options.
 
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Even if they are repaired they are not near code and when selling the house a sharp buyer will knock the peice down by a few to five grand to replace the stairs. They weren't done right and the last repair is about what you would get again. Not worth the effort.
 
Wuzzat? said:
I believe you.
But why the replace, and not repair, option?
What are these pix telling you that a layperson like me is not seeing?
TIA.
Click to expand...

I hope you are joking with that question. The concrete is totally disintegrated. I don't see anything there to save. You would be lucky to not fall through them just walking up them.
 
Well, the OP appears to be inclined in the 'repair' direction, and
"I can access the back of the steps under the porch from the basement in order to frame up and pour to fill"
 
Yeah I basically figured that this would be the consensus, but I'd still like to try and do a repair, if anybody thinks that's feasible. If I can get up under the stairs and brace them with angle irons or other types of support, take out everything that crumbles free, and then do a patch and seal job, would that not work for some reason?
 
I wouldn't send a dog to work under a ton of concrete that is falling apart.
But if you were to do that you would be under there drilling holes to attach rebar and your angle iron. And what would you drill into that you would know is strong enough. Any steel that will be in contact with concrete will want to be hot dipped galvenized and steel in the concrete wants to be covered with 2" of concrete otherwize it will rust, expand and explode the concrete.
And if you could do this successfully you still have stairs that are a hazard as they are not anywhere close to code.
 
Two thirds of the people who answered on this forum say "replace."

If 19 people out of 20 said replace I'd replace even if I didn't understand why.

I'd say you should decide ahead of time what percentage saying replace would make you replace, then do your survey. For you that percentage already seems to be above 67%. I hope it's less than 95%.

If you repair, what are the worst and best case outcomes? Same question for replace. Think "personal injury" vs money & labor spent.
 
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I say replace. In most peoples minds doing concrete steps like that is a huge undoable task. If you plan it out and get the proper tools and don't rush the job it can be very easy and you will have years and years of a quality product and that good feeling that comes along with doing the project. That and concrete is cheap and in most places is free to get rid of the old with a little research.


We do it right because we do it twice!
 
My own preference is to replace any failing concrete with a non-concrete alternative if possible. Cracked concrete is just bad news! For example, I replaced our cracked up walk with two rows of pavers - no more cracks and any adjustments/repairs take minutes, not days, and cost dollars not hundreds of dollars. Also, previous owner poured a pad under our back entry - and it heaved and tilted toward the house, giving us nice water problems galore! I busted up that garbage and replaced with stone over plastic with a nice slope away from the house. If I were the OP, I would rent a jackhammer and then build some steps out of treated wood.
 
So what is the current vote count? Count me as 'abstain'.

The wild card in all of this is having some very old or very young person get injured on steps repaired by you, and your having to defend your repair decision, even if you did everything right.
 
I still say replace but in reality just about anything can be repaired and repaired properly and in this case too it can be but it will likely cost more and take many more man hours to do so. That being said you can probably work section by section or step by step. Your best bet is to once you have all the loose pieces out is to drill into the existing concrete and epoxy in metal dowels and also use a concrete bonding solution to help the new stick to the old. That is how I do my patch work when I dig trenches and seems to hold up pretty good. When you are done you can buy a special concrete for an overlay to blend everything together and change the height of your steps if you need to but like I said it would probably be cheaper to buy a sledge hammer and bar then reform and pour.
 
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