How To Repair Or Restore Pitted Concrete Sidewalk

Our concrete walk has pits and seems to be aging. How can we fix information technology?

—Jace Laakso, Missoula, Mont.

Tom Silva replies: Spalling, the pits that form in concrete, happen when too much water is used in a concrete mix, weakening it.

In the past, when a concrete patio or driveway started to prove serious signs of aging, using a jackhammer or bringing in a bulldozer were the merely repair options. Today at that place are more applied alternatives.

As long as your walkway isn't cracked all the way through, you tin can coat the slab with a concrete resurfacer, a no-shrink blend of Portland cement, sand, and polymer additives that fills divots and makes a uniform finish. Its natural color is nighttime gray, so buy enough to embrace your entire walk. Ane 40-pound bag coats about 35 square feet. If you lot want a different colour, just add together a concrete tint.

What Temperature Should Y'all Cascade Concrete?

Before resurfacing, strip off any paint or sealers from your physical surface and watch the weather condition. Temperatures should remain in a higher place 50 degrees F for viii hours after the pour and higher up freezing for 24 hours later on that. For optimum results, work on a day with depression humidity, no pelting and an air temperature ranging betwixt 70° and 75°F. The surface temperature of the existing concrete must be at least 50°F.

How Long Does Resurfacing Have?

Resurfacing takes near of the solar day, but your walkway will be back in pristine shape once you're done.

How to Resurface Worn Concrete

Pace 1: Clean the Concrete

• For surface preparation, wear heavy boots and protective spectacles and blast off surface dirt with a gas-powered pressure washer that can reach at least three,500 psi.
• Fit the wand with a 25-degree fan tip, and agree information technology vi to 8 inches from the surface as y'all clean the concrete with wearisome, even sweeps.
• To remove mildew or algae, use a concrete wash.

Step ii: Patch Spalled Areas

Photo past Ryan Benyi

• While the concrete is damp, mix up plenty resurfacer to fill any divots. Combine 1 function water with 7 parts resurfacer in a 5-gallon saucepan; blend with a paddle mixer attached to a corded drill.
• Fill the recesses with resurfacer, and smooth with a finish trowel.
• Become to the next stride when yous can stand up on the patch without indenting it, in most 2 to 5 hours.

Step three: Spread the Resurfacer

Photo by Ryan Benyi

• Fill the walkway joints with peel-and-stick cream weatherstripping, and dampen the physical if necessary.
• The resurfacer is workable for about twenty minutes, so mix only half a handbag of pulverization with 5½ cups of water at a fourth dimension. That's plenty to cover two sidewalk slabs, or almost 17 square feet.
• Pour it on the walk.

Step 4: Trowel Out the Resurfacer

Photo by Ryan Benyi

• Spread the resurfacer until it's between 1/8 and ¼ inch thick.
• For a slip-resistant finish, wait 5 minutes, then sweep a nylon-bristle concrete broom across it, 90 degrees to the foot traffic.
• Remove the weatherstripping subsequently 20 minutes. Wait 6 hours before walking on information technology. Cover only if pelting threatens in the meantime.

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Tools

Source: https://www.thisoldhouse.com/sidewalks/21016787/how-to-resurface-worn-concrete

Posted by: baldwinaunity.blogspot.com

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