On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 9:16:23 PM UTC-5, TomR wrote:
"trader_4" wrote in message
...
On Tuesday, November 18, 2014 12:54:11 PM UTC-5, TomR wrote:
In ,
typed:
I have a gap in the side walk in front of my condo and I want to know
the best way to fix it. you can see where the previous owner had
used some type of calking material, but now the gap has opened up to
almost 2".
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...psab322e13.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...psad63b0a3.jpg
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ps7b693766.jpg
Good photos. Thanks. It looks to me like it is really a vertical gap
only -- meaning that the sidewalk dropped down over time and that caused
the
gap.
Given what you wrote, if it were me I would just buy a small bag of
concrete, scrape out the old caulk, dig out a little behind the sidewalk
below the sidewalk surface level, mix up the concrete, and use it to fill
in
the gap. When you smooth it off, trowel it so it forms a continuation
downward of the vertical front side of the concrete porch. And, if
needed,
trowel along the surface of the sidewalk so the new concrete looks
correct.
It should be pretty quick and easy to do.
You could also probably use mortar mix instead of concrete if you wanted
to
do that. The gap size is such that either would probably work fine for
what
you want to achieve. Look and see what they have at Home Depot or Lowes
etc. and pick one. You probably won't need much, and personally I don't
like lugging around big bags of concrete or mortar. So, even though it
would cost more, you could always buy a couple of small 10-pound bags of
the
stuff. One bag may do it and you can return the second bag if it is
unopened and you don't need it.
I think any of the regular concrete or mortar mixes will fairly closely
match the color of what is there now. I would avoid any of those special
concrete crack repair mixes etc. because they are often a darker gray
color
that won't look right, plus you don't need that.
Good luck.
Let us know how it turns out.
P.S. Since the job is so easy, I am with you and I would just skip even
contacting the condo association. I would just do the fix and forget
about
it.
For gaps that size, especially in differing structures, mortar rarely
is the best choice. Something flexible, like caulk designed for concrete
is more likely to last.
I couldn't quite tell for sure from the photos, but it looks to me that the
gap is not between the sidewalk and the porch. To me, it looks like what
happened is that the sidewalk just dropped down, but it is otherwise in the
same position relative to the porch that it always was, except that its
dropped down a couple of inches.
No, if you read his description, he clearly says the sidewalk has not
sunken down, there is just a horizontal gap. And I think what appears to
be an inch or two height difference is actually a lot bigger, ie a normal
step up height difference between sidewalk and porch.
I think that the exposed "gap" that we
see, which is really just the space UNDER the porch -- not a horizontal gap
between the porch and the sidewalk.
If that is the case, then to eliminate the visible "gap", I think that all
that is needed is to fill in under the porch which, in effect would just
hide the vertical gap. In fact, although I didn't mention it before, I
would probably drop a thin barrier (maybe even just a thin piece cardboard
like a pizza box) down to cover the end of the sidewalk. Then, I would put
the concrete or mortar under the porch to fill the gap, and the concrete or
mortar would adhere to and become a part of the bottom of the existing
concrete porch, but it would not bond with the sidewalk due to the barrier.
That way, there wouldn't be any expansion or contraction issues to worry
about.