I have an older home, circa 1957. The builder made window wells for
the basement windows out of cinder blocks stacked & cemented on top of
each other. The tops of some of the blocks has worn away and
occasionally lets rain water get up over the worn/broken edges.
I'd like to repair the tops of these blocks or at least just cover and
level off the entire multi-block surface with cement or similar.

The blocks, being old, are a fairly dark gray color so I suppose I
could go with a mix of portland cement / sand / gravel.

Any thoughts on the correct materials to use and ratios of those
materials?

Thanks!
Walt

On May 29, 3:26*pm, Wally wrote:
I have an older home, circa 1957. *The builder made window wells for
the basement windows out of cinder blocks stacked & cemented on top of
each other. *The tops of some of the blocks has worn away and
occasionally lets rain water get up over the worn/broken edges.
I'd like to repair the tops of these blocks or at least just cover and
level off the entire multi-block surface with cement or similar.

The blocks, being old, are a fairly dark gray color so I suppose I
could go with a mix of portland cement / sand / gravel.

Any thoughts on the correct materials to use and ratios of those
materials?

Thanks!
Walt

I'm assuming the blocks were set open side facing up?

Can you put caps on the existing blocks to both raise the top of the
wall and protect the blocks from further damage?

Try a landscaping yard for different style caps, like these:

http://www.rcpblock.com/wallcaps.html

Mortar them in place.

If need be, you could build a form to hold the mortar in place if you
need to build up sections to get it all level.

On Tue, 29 May 2012 12:26:13 -0700 (PDT), Wally
wrote:

Any thoughts on the correct materials to use and ratios of those
materials?

Caps on the blocks.

Looks like (photo):

http://tigerstonemasonry.com/wp-content/gallery/concrete-block-work-e45/e45_04.jpg

"Wally" wrote in message
...
I have an older home, circa 1957. The builder made window wells for
the basement windows out of cinder blocks stacked & cemented on top of
each other. The tops of some of the blocks has worn away and
occasionally lets rain water get up over the worn/broken edges.
I'd like to repair the tops of these blocks or at least just cover and
level off the entire multi-block surface with cement or similar.

The blocks, being old, are a fairly dark gray color so I suppose I
could go with a mix of portland cement / sand / gravel.

Any thoughts on the correct materials to use and ratios of those
materials?

An old formula for concrete is 1:2:3, easy to remember.

1 part Portland cement
2 part sand
3 parts gravel

Adjustments can be made according to the materials used and if it is a
sand/gravel mix. Use stones small enough to work in the dimensions of the
pour but large enough to be strong.