On Feb 25, 5:56*am, wrote:
The front "steps" to our house is a poured concrete thing. *(Don't
know what to call it---it's really not so much steps (though there are
two of those) and more of a raised concrete rectangle a few feet on a
side.)

Inside on the basement, where this thing intersects the exterior wall,
there are bricks, cinder blocks, etc, which aren't square and protrude
from the wall.

A handy friend said what happens is that when people make the front
steps thing, they use some kind of fill, and the cluttered masonry is
just them doing a crappy job of organizing the fill.

It's fine functionally, but it looks like crap. *Instead of just
smoothing it out with cement or whatever, he suggested first trimming
it with some kind of small jack hammer-like thing (I think he said a
"hammer drill"). *Is that a reasonable idea? *Or is there a better way
to repair it?

Hammer drill is too slow. Get a 'zip gun' or air hammer with a small
spade bit. Harbor Freight has them for $7 and up and they will eat
away the offending masonry (if you must) very well. Rent an air
compressor if you don't have one, and get one with some muscle. The
zip guns use quite a lot of air and will overpower a little portable
pancake type in a hurry. Wear safety goggles, too.

Joe