What you think of as a lovely day turns out to be a disaster. You trip and fall over a crumbling sidewalk as you walk out of your house and to the street. Ouch!
Imagine if other people have gone through the same. A crumbling sidewalk must go away before someone goes crumbling down dangerous steps.
Make your property a safe place in and out with sidewalk repair Los Angeles. Here are steps on how to fix crumbling concrete steps by the edge of your properties.
Guide to Sidewalk Repair: The Essentials
There are two common sidewalk repairs that you have to know: patch and repair.
To know what fix to give your crumbling steps outdoors first, you need to identify the common issues that surface among sidewalks.
- Chipped surface
- Thin hair cracks
- Cracks with deep holes
- Pitted surface
- Crumbing on the edges
- Spalling
Patching The Sidewalk
You patch the sidewalk when you see the chipped surfaces or spalling cracks. These tiny cracks do not have to show you a pitted surface.
These types of cracks are eyesores and need patching, which you can do over the weekend. You can do this if the cracks are ¼ inch and less.
Here’s how to do concrete sidewalk patching:
- Wash the surface using pressurized water. Let it dry.
- Check or evaluate the size of the cracks. Use a chisel to knock on the surface. If crumbing does not persist, then you can go over patching.
- To patch the pitted or chipped surface, use a flexible concrete sealer. For sidewalks, a polyurethane-based sealer is the best product to use.
Benefits of Patching
- Patching prevents water from going down the soil below.
- It strengthens the surface from damaging natural causes like heat, water, and ground movement.
- Patching is quick. It won’t give any hassle to the people walking on the sidewalks.
Replacing Concrete Sidewalk
In some cases, there are damages on the sidewalks that patching cannot fix. This is the time that you might need to pour new concrete over the surfaces.
What you may see as an eyesore at first may bring danger. And you do not want these issues lingering near your homes. If the cracks or pits are more significant than ¼ inch, it tells you that severe damage exists. When this happens, you might want to consider replacing the concrete.
Things to Consider to Replace Concrete Sidewalk
The process to replace the sidewalk’s concrete is pretty much the same when you patch. It all starts with preparation. It’s an essential step. Then when pouring the new concrete, it is not enough to run the mix on the surface evenly. It would also be best to have an expert do the job to have a seamless concrete surface. The key to their expertise is that they make sure they achieve the right consistency of the concrete mix.
Lastly, keep the following things to consider in mind when replacing the slabs on the sidewalk:
- Does more than one person share the sidewalk?
- How stable are the slabs?
- Is the soil or ground beneath the slabs structurally sound?
- How far do the cracks go? Does it only affect one section of the sidewalk?
