Fixing a sunken porch: part 4/6

Welcome back! In this 6 part series of fixing my sunken porch, we are at part 4! This part took some trial and error. Lots of error. I poured my own cement step. Failed a ton, and ended up tearing it out and re-doing it all. I learned a lot, and with the help of my friend, who does concrete professionally, we did it. I couldn’t have done it without him though… He saved this porch step!

Here is what the porch looked like before the step

And after!

Doesn’t it make a HUGE difference? I can’t believe this is even the same space.

The whole goal with pouring this step was to try and fix the huge gap from the settling that had happened from years and years of the steps sinking. Raising the entire front step was not an option. So Fixing this gap was all we could think of. I think this is a pretty common issue for most old houses. The total cost was much lower than it would have been to replace these stairs, and I think it elevated this space so much. If this is a project you think you want to tackle for your porch, I’ll walk you through every step I took, and hopefully it will help you too!

Lets go!

Materials:

So….. background.

Overall this project was interesting. I ended up doing it two times actually, not because I wanted to, but because I didn’t know what I was doing, and it ended up being a huge learning curve.

I thought that I had prepped the area pretty well and done my research. I bought the tools I knew that I would need, and reviewed what I knew about cement. (I had poured some cement counter tops in my last house, and used forms, regular bag cement, and had great success. )

I watched a bunch of youtube videos about pouring a cement step over existing concrete, and felt pretty good about it when I started.

I had been waiting for a clear forecast to pour and the weather had been pretty unpredictable all week. I bought 5 bags of cement for this step, and had them sitting in my carport for about a week before I had good enough weather to even consider pulling them out.

A tarp came in handy here through several rainstorms in keeping them dry. I finally had a clear day, and decided to just go for it. It was about 1:00pm when I was finally able to start. It ended up being pretty warm that day, and in hindsight it was TOO HOT. It resulted in a really fast cure time and I wasn’t able to work it to the smooth finish I needed.

Another red flag I should have noticed is when I started mixing the cement. The cement I chose was a higher PSI rated cement. I went with a really strong mix thinking the stronger the better. That was not the case with this one.

The cement that I originally poured with was FULL of aggregate, and was like working with a bag of gravel that had barely any sand mix in it. When I followed the recommendations on the bag, with how much water to add, it still seemed too dry. I even added a little bit more than was recommended, but it was VERY ROCKY. I learned later that this bag of cement was rated for things like fence posts, or flag poles… It is not meant for finish grade steps, or paving stones.

So although this cement didn’t work for my project, it could still be a great product for something else.

I wasn’t enough though. After 5 full bags of cement, the form was not full to the top, which meant that I couldn’t skreed the top area to be smooth using the edge. of the form like I had planned to. I was moving my trowel over the top trying to get the aggreagate. tosettle lower for awhile, and it just wasn’t working. It wouldn’t smooth out, and I didn’t have enough cement in the form. So in a panic I ran to my local hardware store trying to buy just one more bag of cement.

Note. I live in a smaller town. There are no big box stores. Although we have 3 hardware stores ( why does this seem like a common thing in small towns?) They all carry small versions of things, and rarely have very many in stock.

So I was able to get a small 10 pound bag of patching concrete. It was all they had. I hoped it would be enough.

I ran back home, and mixed it. I was shot at this point, moving 5 – 50lbs bags from my carport to my porch. Then, mixing and carrying 5- 50 lbs. things of cement up 6 stairs alone. So my emotions were at the surface and I was so done.

I added the smaller 10 lb. bag to the top, and the consistency was VERY different from the other ones. I had already mixed. It still didn’t fill the form, and I decided there was nothing I could do about that at this point, and that I would instead focus on getting the top as level and smooth as I could. I tried edging it with the edger tool I bought, and it wasn’t working great, so I decided to just round the edge a little with a sponge later after I removed the form. I worked the top for a bit, and actually felt ‘ok’ about how it looked.

THEN I took off the form.

This is when it went downhill fast.

Despite tapping, and trying to release air bubbles the edge was full of holes. There were tons of rocks on the edge and no amount of smoothing with a trowel or any other tool would have smoothed it out. I tried and the trowel would just pick up a rock, and pull it through the rest of it. The top edge was CRUMBLING just touching it.

I was devastated. I had worked all day, and new that this step was not going to last long, and especially not through a harsh Idaho winter.

I was in the process of trying to decide what to do. I felt emotional and exhausted. I felt like I had wasted time and money.

I decided to patch the front with some quick patch cement mix, since I knew I would be painting it in the future anyways. I had my husband grab some at the store on his way home from work, and the second he got home I went to work. The patch material was reinforced with fiberglass and had an elastic property to it.

It was at this point that my friend and her husband went by on bikes. They said hello.

Note: This friend’s Husband does concrete FOR A LIVING.

I felt immediate shame. I didn’t want anyone to see how bad of a job I had done. He was so kind, and joked about how he would have helped me in the first place if I had asked for it.

BUT. I knew it was bad.

We ended up tearing the whole thing out that night. It was an emotional night for sure, and not on my favorites list for projects I have done, but I learned so much.

In the next steps I will be detailing what I did the SECOND time around, and all of the things I learned from my concrete friend. Here we go.

Step 1: Prepping the area

This step definitely took the longest to do. Although it was the most important step. Since I had so much crumbling on the step in the space between the house and the sunken porch, I really needed to make sure to clean it up the most that I could before doing more. I pressure washed the area, and removed any cracked and broken chunks under the step ledge. I also used some expanding foam in the larger gaps, since some spots had at least a 3 inch gap that had pulled away from the house.

After I failed the first step, I cleared away all of the debris from the first pour, and vacuumed everything.

Step 2: Make the Form

For making the form, I decided to use some leftover underlayment material from the bathroom leveling floor project I did. I thought about how tall I wanted the step to be in relation to the settling of the porch, and went with 3″. I used my table saw, to cut the larger piece of underlayment that I had down to a 3 inch strip. I then took it to the front porch, and bent it to meet the corners where I wanted to the step to meet, and cut it to the length I needed as well.

I pulled a bunch of bricks out I had laying around ( yes my yard is a disaster) and put them on the outside of the form to hold it in place.*

*If I was pouring cement fresh with nothing under it, there would be many more steps involving pit run, gravel, or other ground support to lessen the chance of cracking etc. It would also have stakes into the ground, with wood and other things against them to create the edges…

Since I was pouring cement over cement though, this small piece of underlayment with some bricks to support it was just right.

I did try opening the screen door with the form in place before going any further, and Im glad I did. I cut it too tall…

So I took it back to the table saw, and re- cut it down but 1/4″ to get it to be just right.

I took it back to the front step, and tried again, and the door opened! Now time for rebar.

Step 3: Rebar

This is not something I did the first time around. I had watched several videos with people pouring cement over cement, and they had not done this step, so I didn’t really think much of it. I had included a wire mesh in the step to try and create more structure, but it was just floating in the new cement, and not attached to any of the old.

After talking to my husband, and my cement friend, they said sometimes ‘lifting’ can happen after curing. The new cement will pull away from the old cement causing a gap.

So he brought some rebar over, and a hammer drill. I had a hammer drill, but all of the masonry bits I had were too small. It takes a large bit, the same diameter as the rebar for this to work.

He drilled right into the top step of the porch. It was loud, and created SOOO much dust.

He did several vertical posts along the edge, and middle, and then took a longer piece of rebar and bent it around those posts. Normally on bigger jobs involving rebar, they create a grid type pattern, and ‘tie’ off each cross section. Since he wove the larger piece throughout the smaller vertical posts, it was in there pretty tight and we decided it was good enough.

He then used an angle grinder, to remove the top part of each piece of rebar so that they sat just below the height of the wooden edge form. This created TONS of sparks, and was fun to watch.

All of this took about 30 min. He was so fast it blew my mind.

Step 4: Pouring the cement

After having a major fail with the first brand of cement that I used, I decided to go with cement that said it was for steps, and finish work. This is what I got.

I bought 5 bags of it, and these ones were actually bigger than the other ones. I used a bucket at first, and then noticed it was hard to get the powder at the bottom. So I switched to a old tin bucket I had. A wheelbarrow would work too, I just wanted something I could carry up the stairs, so this metal bucket/ basin with handles was perfect for that.

We ended up adding just SLIGHTLY more water than what the bag said to do. He said adding too much makes it more likely to crack, but you need it to be a good smooth consistency. He suggests eyeballing the water a little. It takes a little bit more than you think. The best way to test of the consistency is to use your trowel on top of the mixed cement and shake it around to see if it settles and water comes to the top. This is the perfect consistency.

We carried each bucket load up the steps, and poured it into the form. We did this 4 times until it was pretty full. I ended up not needing the 5th bag. Which was different than. the first time for sure.

As we were pouring each bucket in, we started at the back and then used a smaller trowel, and a pointed regular shovel to move the extra cement to the front edge little bit by little bit. It is best to get it all in there, while making sure to shake it down with the trowel as you go. You move the trowel back and forth pushing the cement down and compressing the material downwards.

Step 5: Smoothing/ tapping

This part was the part I was most excited about.

We used a hammer and tapped the front edge of the form over and over and over. When the form gently starts to pull away from the cement you know that you have gotten all of the air bubbles up and out away. Small water amounts may come up to the surface where air bubbles pop. That’s OK. You will know that everything is settled as soon as the very top edge of the cement next to the form creates a small gap when you tap on it

He ended up tapping it WAYYY longer than I had for the first form. You could actually see the air bubbles coming up all over the place. Small amounts of water started coming our of the bottom of the form by the cement, but it was pretty minimal. He said it could be cleaned up after with a wet sponge so it wasn’t a big deal.

Usually when pouring large cement areas its best to try and screed. We didn’t screed it. As there was not a back part of the form on both sides to lay a board. But using the MAG tool we were able to shake down all of the aggregate to the bottom and bring the creamier part of the cement and water to the surface.

He then used a tool called a ‘MAG’. This is what the cool kids call it. It’s short for magnesium float. I had previously just used a trowel I had. The difference about this tool is it is rounded on the bottom like a boat. The edges on this one were also rounded. This means no sharp edges, or corners to ruin the finish. The magnesium actually helps bring the water to the surface, allowing for a little more ‘cream’ on the top and a smoother top result.

We made sure that the front door could still open and that the step just barely angled away from the house so that no water would pool back into the house when it rains or snows. I thought I needed to wait to edge it until we took the form off. You use the edging tool after you get it all the way filled and compressed down. You do not need to wait until later.

You can steal cream from the top surface of the cement and use it while pulling the edge away with the edger. To fill in any gaps bubbles or voids that may happen. When pulling the edger across, a lot of people try to keep the back edge lift it up so that they don’t create a line but you want the line.

You want to actually apply very little pressure as you edge, because that prevents your whole step from being rounded around the front too much. Too much pressure will create a step to dip on the front edge and slope too much.

He got it mostly smooth and then we let it sit for about 60 minutes. I thought that you only had so much time to work with it, and then you just left it. There was way more working time than I realized.

A rain storm cam out of nowhere. It was a pretty big one. I frantically hung a tarp with some zip ties, and prayed that all of the hard work wouldn’t be ruined. I didn’t think. I could handle another failure on the same step.

Luckily the tarp worked. I couldn’t believe it. It was an insane storm.

Once the cement has sat for about an hour or until you squish it with your fingers and it seems dense enough, you can remove the form by gently wiggling it up and out. Then you continue to use the mag to smooth out the edge by rubbing it back-and-forth on the creamy part of the cement edge. He did this without lifting it between strokes. This will fill in any gaps in air bubbles while you go back-and-forth. You can also use the mag to go up over the edge and round it even more where the edge puller stopped.

He really worked the same area a lot. I didn’t realize the working time was that long. Occasionally he would steal a little cream off the top of step, and use it to fill any voids that were on the front. He really tapped the form well though and there wasn’t many voids.

Something interesting he did, was he kept setting his mag down on top of the concrete step right in the wet cement when he wasn’t using it. He would just leave it there, and keep working on the edge with the edging tool while it sat. I thought this was weird since he had to fix the surface each time he did that. I asked, and he said it keep the cement from drying on your tool. When it dries on your tool it can make smoothing impossible without cleaning it off. The dried crumbs will leave marks in the concrete, and drag marks when moved. These are things you just don’t know unless you do it forever.

Once you have smoothed it all out with the MAG go in with a brush to give it a final coat texture.

You can do a variety of different movements to get the texture that you want you can keep doing it until you have the desired effect.

Then.Do not walk on it for 24 hours keep it covered in case of rain.

Caring for your new cement

Salt actually weakens the surface texture and durability of cement. You should never use salt on your cement for thawing snow. If you live in a area that has harsh winters like me and get lots of ice, the best way to preserve your cement is to make sure the ice never happens in the first place. By removing any snow as quickly as it has fallen with a brush or shovel, you can prevent it from melting during the warmer parts of the day, and then freezing again every night.

When this happens, that snow that thaws during the day, seeps into the top porous layer of the cement, and then freezes there. This creates cracking, flaking, and blistering to the surface layer of your cement.

If you plan on painting your cement, wait the recommended time on the paint brand. Mine says 60 days. So painting it is on the schedule.

Here is the cost breakdown.

MaterialsCost#Have Y/N
Bucket$51Y
Paddle Mixer$17.871Y
Cement of choice$5.895N
trowel$16.881Y
MAG float$29.991Y
large brush for dry brushing the texture$10.891Y
Subfloor to make the form
& a cutting tool to cut the wood		$20.48 ea.1Y
Bricks or other things to hold form$1-54Y
Rebar for structure$151Y
Hammer Drill and bit to place the rebar$169.001Y
Angle grinder to cut the rebar$79.631Y
Cement edger$15.101Y
Drill for mixing the cement$99.001Y
a tarp just in case it rains before the cement cures!$21.991Y
Total approximate Costs ( buying all tools):$511.72
My total costs ( plus failed cement step, patch stuff, etc):$89.00

My costs would have been half since I have these tools etc. but the fail cost me double the project amount….

Thanks! Stay tuned for the next post about the porch 5/6

-Amanda

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