Covering Old Steps
Bart Flegg on January 5, 2011, 11:18 am

Driving down the street I often see the classic concrete steps courtesy of the original home builder. When concrete ages it does something called spalling. Spalling is when flakes or chunks of concrete break off from the main body of concrete. In old neighborhoods, houses with concrete steps are often spalling and falling apart. Hiring a landscape contractor and veneering your old or new concrete steps is an easy, somewhat inexpensive way to dramatically enhance the curb appeal of your home.

The reason that covering your old concrete steps it such an easy process is because the base is already there. There is no demolition, no excavation, and no pouring of concrete. There is however important prep work to make sure that the new masonry bonds properly to the old. Old concrete that is spalling normally has dust, chips and cervices where dirt can hide and become a problem later. It’s important to clean the concrete very thoroughly and then apply a latex based masonry adhesive to make sure that the new mortar sticks to the old concrete. If you are not using an adhesive then another option it to wet the concrete before continuing to mortar the stones down. This is to slow the wick of water from the new masonry to the dry old concrete to slow the drying and curing of the new mortar. The slower the mortar dries the stronger it will become.

After cleaning and preparing the concrete it is time to lay the stone. The stones should be set on a mortar bed  sloped at 1” for every 8’. This means for every 8’ of patio it must drop 1”. They should also be paid with uniform joints either at ½” or 5/8” depending on the application. There should be no cross-joints in the patio. A cross-joint it where 4 joints arrive at one point, this not only is unappealing to the eye but also not as strong.

Joints are then filled and your old spalling concrete steps are now a beautiful enhancement to the front of your home. One important thing to note is that if the concrete has more than surface cracks or is heaving in any place the concrete isn’t a good base for new concrete.

Toronto, Natural Stone, Landscapers, Landscape Design, Flagstone, Joints, Curb Appeal
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