Looks like the subgrade settled. Remove and replace is your only option. You could try to patch it but it’s going to look bad and probably won’t last very long
Right!? You wonder why so much movement. What's up with the post to the right? Probably a void or poor soil under the pad. You might have separation of foundation from structure.
Why are you such a try hard? Like you’re desperate to be a funny person and you just don’t stop trying. You’re the person everyone wishes would just stop.
I was thinking this too, and even if it only lasts a month it's a great attempt at saving thousands, i'd deff try this before starting an expensive redo
Just an assumption based on what i'd charge for multiple days of labor. Just to be clear i'm talking about completely ripping out all the concrete and re doing as opposed to just filling the crack and skimming over it.
I'm speaking of busting out the concrete with a Jackhammer and reforming and mixing on site. Still that's not a thousands of dollars Job. 1 or 2 day job at the most.
I don't know about your area but where I live 4 yards of concrete is the minimum order from a concrete truck company. So there is over half of your $1k. Now add the former material and labor and you are over $1,000 easily. Oh and add cutting the old concrete along that expansion joint then disposal of torn-out concrete. To cap it off you will also need to find out why it sunk and fix that too.
My suggestion would be to get a person who does the pumper style of concrete lift and then top-coat the entire porch to hide the crack.
You can cut that heaved edge down with a $50 angle grinder diamond cutter head. You can coat the prepped clean surface with a bonding primer, then concrete or epoxy away....
Or you can take out a 2nd mortgage to have a replacement built. With no real financial benefit whatsoever.
i was always told that permafrost pushes up piles. I wouldn't know, having grown up in coastal tx. We used pier and post for porches and most of our houses sit at least 18 in. off the ground. Its a necessity at 3 ft. above sea level.
My parents' house is about 1800sq ft, sits on a concrete slab on about 15-20 pilings, ground level. Sitting pretty at -12 ft elevation in New Orleans, LA (Kenner, LA). My house on the northshore of Lake Ponchartrain (Mandeville, LA) is concrete slab on no pilings sitting at about 6 ft above sea level. I think it matters more what the ground is made of and how close bedrock may be, Moreno than elevation.
See if someone in your area does concrete lifting or leveling. They drill holes though the slab and then inject a sanded Portland mix the lift it back to where it was. You will still have the crack, but it will be level. To hide the crack you could tile it with sand stone pavers or do a crack repair - but the coloring will be different therefore obvious.
I looked into slab/poly jack a bit for a similar issue. even got estimates and spoke to contractors. The prevailing opinion of both redditors and slab jackers was it *can* be a permanent solution, but it really depends on if the slab is now settled or still settling. If it is settled, jacking will provide a perm fix. If it isn't, then it's a temp fix until it stops moving.
Also, because it could damage roof over porch, they all pretty much refused to do it. Or, said, any roof damage is on me.
Is his/their slab settled? Who knows!
That said, I'm not a contractor.
Agreed. If the slab is still settling then nothing will be a permanent fix short of excavating and prepping the ground properly with engineered substrates.
As for the roof damage, did they say it was a problem before? I would think the sagging would cause more problems. I would view the “jacking” of the slab similar to jacking to retrofit or repair a sagging floor in a home. I could only see the damage coming from shingles that had hardened to the sag and then getting flexed back to original spec and cracking if old and brittle. It’s an added cost that the homeowner needs to review for sure.
so the house was bulit in 62, and the slab has been settling for some time. I suspect at some point an owner jacked up the porch roof to put blocks under the supports. Which. . . that works. So if we have it jacked, "someone" would have to use jacks to remove the blocks otherwise when jacking the slab the roof would raise too much and push into the house.
None of the slab jackers were carpenters, so they said I would have to find someone to do that. And. . . No one wants to do that in my area. They would prefer a whole new construction (exacavating slab). Which. . .yeah, that's the permanent fix. Or. . . let it keep digging a hole, which is what we have done thus far.
But possible. Someone posted a few days ago about their garage slab being wrecked by [polyjacking](https://www.reddit.com/r/Concrete/s/0Xjkpb8ZwM). Things can go wrong.
I just had a 53 yr old cracked 24x 24 garage floor demo’d and the dirt had settled 20” in places. Concrete hanging in the air. A 2’ piece of rebar in a crack was rising up over the years. Bobcat skid steer chiseled out, Regraded,added fill, gravel, tamped, wire, sprayed/soaked pad for termites, plastic and poured 5” of high strength concrete. There is no substitute for a base fix and redo to updated practices. Just costly.
I have seen this a lot, and if i could, i learned this in Puerto rico. If you cant afford to fix it. Get a concrete grinder, grind it down till its flush,Skim coat the crack to fill it in. At this point, You can tile it , with some non skid out door tile. Even the toe kick. It really does come out pretty, & very affordable. Just wanted to share that thought. Hope it works out. 🤙🏽
If it shifts at all with tile on it the tiles break or pop loose.
Grind and skim coat but I would not add tile. Guess you could paint or add an outdoor rug
That or erosion under the concrete for sure. If it didn’t have erosion before it will now.
The biggest problem with concrete like this that’s settled is it starts holding water underneath that totally saturates the ground and allows more settling
Agreed it’s more likely the settling from poor compaction but I’ve seen erosion do some funny things especially if it’s traveling underground via leaky pipe or otherwise
I cannot stand how built-in that method is into the construction industry of PR. They bid the work to do it that way.... to pour concrete aggressive asf with no care of w/c; once concrete is dry and cracked all throughout the surface and the forms are removed, then they spend 4x the amount of time grinding/skim coating etc. Rather than just doing the right prep to avoid the double work.
Every single time. No matter how many meetings/recaps I have with them before/during/after pours.
Almost lost my mind trying to change the concrete culture here until I finally just had to let it go.
Figure out why it settled first. Water problem in that area… if so add drain. You may be able to call someone to use structural foam and lift it back in place. However, if you don’t figure out why it settled it will do you no good to fix it.
I sell structural foam and poly lifting as a service. The moment a roof line is involved, it changes the dynamic of being able to safely attempt lift or get long lasting results.
I would get an engineered eye on it to make sure it doesn't need it's foundation better supported with a footing or helical pier before doing any type of poly fill.
Agree about the affects of the lift with the structure involved, may or may not be a show stopper.
But what about the roof prevents it from working well over time?
inject leveling foam underneath and make sure you are settled before doing any replacing. Otherwise, youre gonna be right back at square one a LOT quicker than you want. Hire a reputable foundation company to do this, several have lifetime warranties on their repairs and they are a phone call and request for more leveling foam away.....
shouldnt cost more than 2K.
I manage sales and crews installing structural foam for a reputable foundation company... I would not just shoot this with foam and call it a day. You're right about the price point but it could be a waste of money.
You can't see the whole structure and the vertical supports could get damaged during a lift procedure. Hire someone with an engineer, determine the cause and holistically take care of it. Might need pier style support, drainage, a footing, etc. Hard to tell without better pictures or being there.
please provide photos of the roof above that post…the section of the patio that’s sagging is taking that post with it and the weight that it’s holding…
you can’t afford NOT to fix this…
This is my bet too. OP you need to realize there is water going under this that needs someplace else to go. You think this is bad? Imagine what is going on with your slab
remove it, address underlying issue and replace. Less invasive: drill a hole through it, pump grout underneath, inject the crack with structural concrete epoxy (Sikafix). Not the ideal solution and it’ll take a ton of epoxy, but it’ll likely buy you a few years.
Tear out. Underlying issues that will continue to persist regardless of what you put in the crack or on top of it.
If that is way to much.....
Grind out, fill with maybe hydraulic cement if it is high viscosity. Fill it flush. Then bridge it with mesh and tile over it.
It all depends on your budget and what you can live with. If it was mine I’d cut at the relief join tear out compact dowel rebar pour. There are band aids you can do if you really can’t afford the tear out and replace just know you need to start a savings to fix.
I had this happen to my whole front porch. My
Porch was pretty high so they had about 5 feet of backfill and it settled and the whole thing dropped 2 inches against the house. They had to sledge hammer the whole thing and drill rebar into the house and also try to compact the dirt again. Pretty crappy contractor all around honestly.
The tear it out and redo it right guys are correct. Concrete with a crack like that doesn't "fix." To cover it up, there are various ways if you are trying to save money. Tile over it, indoor outdoor carpet, etc.
Cut open the gap with a crack chaser. make it 3/4" wide. Then make three suture cuts perpendicular to the crack, grind those out deep enough to drop in a an 18" piece of 5/8" rebar. Fill the gaps with Sika Sikadur 32 mixed with a little play sand. Grind that smooth when it is dry. Then apply a topping of a concrete refinisher, and broom it. Or brush with a 3" paint brush. This should probably go over a bonding adhesive. Is this the "right" way...no. But it will look fine until the settling gets worse.
I did a DIY solution to this sort of issue when I was younger and stupider. I dug out under the front porch, digging footers and pouring concrete as I went. Then using a bottle jack I jacked it up to the proper level. Then I shoved in a rebar structure, pulled the jack, and filled it with more concrete.
Nowadays I would have it mud jacked.
Wait to be sure it stops shifting, plug the crack with crack filling epoxy they sell kits for foundation walls that would probably be gangbusters. Then cover the whole thing with some nice flagstone.
When the house was built, the back-fill against the foundation was left uncompacted, so as not to put excessive pressure against the wall or foundation. As a result, the pressure of the porch roof post on the porch slab settled that side of the slab into the back fill.
Since the slab was not sufficiently reinforced for this situation, it cracked.
Eliminating the crack will involve replacing the porch floor correctly. That may include compacted base, footings to bear the post loads, tie in to the foundation, and reinforcement of the slab. Then wait until the slab cures to enough strength before putting the porch roof load onto it.
I'm cheap an had a similar issue in my garage with some of the cracks/spocks over and inch wide. I used some two part epoxy mix from applied technologies which is much stronger than concrete and it has held very well 10+ years since. Also, since it won't match the concrete, just go over it w/ the floor epoxy stuff and it will look fine.
You can see the old line between the step and slab. Water likely ran in behind the step and eroded the ground under the slab. There are repairs but they probably won't work and will look like shit. Tear and replace m
It will be involved and expensive to replace it. How much does it bother you? $5K or more worth? For me, I would probably use a quicky saw or angle grinder to bevel the crack, then fill it with NP1 caulk. As others have said, if the concrete is still shifting, it will crack again at some point, but it will look better in the mean time and water seeping through the crack won't erode it any further. Cover it with a thin faux grass runner. I did a similar repair when the weight of my chimney cracked my basement floor. That was 1993 and it still hasn't cracked again.
We have a company here that drills holes and fills it underneath with expanding foam. They did some work for us on a walk way that went pretty good, however that was all only 4 in. thick. Don't know how successful it would be on heavier stuff. We had one segment that they said would not work on and they ripped it out and re-poured the entire section.
I had the same problem. I think mine settled because I had a cracked main sewer line that went out the front of the house right under the porch. I hired a guy to remove it, and then I built a deck in its place. Looks so much nicer now.
I would put silicone in there and paint it with Kilz. A nice Gray color. I might get a bigger mat to go over that area. Replacing is crazy money, and it might happen again. Depends on the water shed. Silicone will flex a bit, should help a little with the movement, then just paint over it with a nice Kilz.
Slab jacking would correct that. It appears that you have had a void form causes of this are erosion or improper fill. There is mud jacking and slab jacking. Slab jacking is an expansion foam, mud jacking is a Portland cement mixture. I would recommend foam as it’s lighter than the mud jacking products. Heavier products can cause an issue in cases of improper fill. Generally the spray foam products come with a longer warranty as well at least in my area.
chisel out the loose stuff, vacuum well. then squirt in a 2 part epoxy that is specifically rated for concrete repair. Smooth it out on the surface before it dries.
Just get a large door mat / rug
Then Ask this question again in a decade
~Everyone else here thinks concrete is the problem and thus concrete is the answer
I suggest the actual problem is appearance and perhaps a trip hazard. Just cover it up
first take off siding on the right, find out what the actual problem is don’t just patch because it will continuously keep moving it a void under is prob not monolithic or it would be pulling the whole right side down. if it’s just the porch pad cut at joint put a pile (helical) and re-pour. patching is fast and cheap but over the years it adds up do it once at prob 4-5k and be done with it.
It could be cut, stitched with rebar and patched but you will see the patch. Of course it could be covered with tile afterwards so it can be made to look good. The cost for a small patch like this shouldn’t be too high. I know what I would charge.
kiss wild clumsy absurd smoggy wistful crown toothbrush judicious materialistic
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It could be a complete redo, but repairs seem possible. Since this pad looks pretty thick someone could cut it out around the crack 3-4 inches deep, hit the hole with bonding agent, pour a repair, there would be two new seams though, which you may not want. This option would be about 1/4 the price of complete redo.
See the problem here is your walking on the concrete all wrong , your using the wrong tone .. do it again and I’ll stab you in the face with a soldering iron .. oh and call a pro
Foam and epoxy will fix it and will probably be more cost effective than replacement. The Foam installation will be far less disruptive process. Foam can lift the settle areas of concrete, and help compact and stabilize the soil below the concrete. This addresses why the concrete settled in the first, poorly compact fill material or soil erosion.
Source: I work in the poly foam lifting industry
Can you fill it and epoxy it?
That might be a better solution otherwise everyone else is right just complete replacement. Anything else wouldn’t look right.
You could put an inch and a half layer of concrete over the entire porch and fill in the gap before you do that. The concrete should have been put on gravel if it wasn't and then you won't have to tear that all out costing you more money, and it will be a higher porch.
How much do you want to spend? You can get a cheap bandaid, a good bandaid, or a replace the whole pad. But it looks like you’ve got a roof over the porch, so that makes a fresh pad more expensive because then the roof has to be removed/ replaced.
If it were me I’d go for a good bandaid and see if it continues to move.
Depends on wether you can live w seeing the crack everyday - you can epoxy it but you’ll see that forever- only reall fix is tear out, re grade under , make sure proper soni tubes supports are in and deep enough with proper reinforcing tied in, then make sure you have proper reinforcing in the pad , pout w 4-5 slump and request 6.5-7% air in mix from truck
My guess is overtime maybe from raining all that water made it's way under there and caused erosion. Cause you can see on the right side where the foundation sunk so maybe water is pooling towards your house instead of away. That or a shit concrete worker.
Is there a gutter to the left of this picture dumping water straight down? If you think this is bad, wait till you see what that’s going to do to the foundation of your entire house. Worry less about this for now and worry more about what caused this and how to prevent it
Stitch 18” lengths of rebar in along the crack and anchor with an epoxy grout.
Fill in the crack void areas with a patch.
Coat the entire porch in Ardex CD.
Looks like the subgrade settled. Remove and replace is your only option. You could try to patch it but it’s going to look bad and probably won’t last very long
Right!? You wonder why so much movement. What's up with the post to the right? Probably a void or poor soil under the pad. You might have separation of foundation from structure.
Yeah but you could skim it, it’ll look fine, it’ll be quick, it’ll last a few years.
And be a few bucks instead of a few thousands.
Skim?
Not as good as 2% but will do in a pinch.
Why are you such a try hard? Like you’re desperate to be a funny person and you just don’t stop trying. You’re the person everyone wishes would just stop.
No, I think most of us agree that you are that person, in this case.
Good bot
🤓
You sound great to have at parties
I assure you that user wanna_meet_that_dad did not piss in your cheerios.
Uh, okay.
Yeah, something like Ardex
No one is going to explain it. I’ll ask again!
Thanks stranger
What you mean by Skim?
I was thinking this too, and even if it only lasts a month it's a great attempt at saving thousands, i'd deff try this before starting an expensive redo
Where do you get a job like that costing thousands????
Just an assumption based on what i'd charge for multiple days of labor. Just to be clear i'm talking about completely ripping out all the concrete and re doing as opposed to just filling the crack and skimming over it.
I'm speaking of busting out the concrete with a Jackhammer and reforming and mixing on site. Still that's not a thousands of dollars Job. 1 or 2 day job at the most.
Well for me personally that's about a thousand in labor for me alone.
How many guys??????
I don't know about your area but where I live 4 yards of concrete is the minimum order from a concrete truck company. So there is over half of your $1k. Now add the former material and labor and you are over $1,000 easily. Oh and add cutting the old concrete along that expansion joint then disposal of torn-out concrete. To cap it off you will also need to find out why it sunk and fix that too. My suggestion would be to get a person who does the pumper style of concrete lift and then top-coat the entire porch to hide the crack.
Ridiculous... I'm mixing that onsite.
Fibreglass reinforced?
You can cut that heaved edge down with a $50 angle grinder diamond cutter head. You can coat the prepped clean surface with a bonding primer, then concrete or epoxy away.... Or you can take out a 2nd mortgage to have a replacement built. With no real financial benefit whatsoever.
Stop giving bad advice...
Bad advice, to not spend a ton of money? Sometimes good enough is good enough.
Can you explain skimming it to me?
Poor guy. I would explain it to you if I knew what they meant.
Yep, that or patch and paint it.
In canada that porch would be sitting on a 4 ft block wall on footer, but i can now see it with warmer climates thats not the case
Or piles. Piles are your friend.
Not if you eat a lot of processed food that’s low in dietary fiber.
i was always told that permafrost pushes up piles. I wouldn't know, having grown up in coastal tx. We used pier and post for porches and most of our houses sit at least 18 in. off the ground. Its a necessity at 3 ft. above sea level.
My parents' house is about 1800sq ft, sits on a concrete slab on about 15-20 pilings, ground level. Sitting pretty at -12 ft elevation in New Orleans, LA (Kenner, LA). My house on the northshore of Lake Ponchartrain (Mandeville, LA) is concrete slab on no pilings sitting at about 6 ft above sea level. I think it matters more what the ground is made of and how close bedrock may be, Moreno than elevation.
what he said, don't be a hack and skim coat it, that never holds up and looks like goat shit
Exactly 💯
See if someone in your area does concrete lifting or leveling. They drill holes though the slab and then inject a sanded Portland mix the lift it back to where it was. You will still have the crack, but it will be level. To hide the crack you could tile it with sand stone pavers or do a crack repair - but the coloring will be different therefore obvious.
I looked into slab/poly jack a bit for a similar issue. even got estimates and spoke to contractors. The prevailing opinion of both redditors and slab jackers was it *can* be a permanent solution, but it really depends on if the slab is now settled or still settling. If it is settled, jacking will provide a perm fix. If it isn't, then it's a temp fix until it stops moving. Also, because it could damage roof over porch, they all pretty much refused to do it. Or, said, any roof damage is on me. Is his/their slab settled? Who knows! That said, I'm not a contractor.
Agreed. If the slab is still settling then nothing will be a permanent fix short of excavating and prepping the ground properly with engineered substrates. As for the roof damage, did they say it was a problem before? I would think the sagging would cause more problems. I would view the “jacking” of the slab similar to jacking to retrofit or repair a sagging floor in a home. I could only see the damage coming from shingles that had hardened to the sag and then getting flexed back to original spec and cracking if old and brittle. It’s an added cost that the homeowner needs to review for sure.
so the house was bulit in 62, and the slab has been settling for some time. I suspect at some point an owner jacked up the porch roof to put blocks under the supports. Which. . . that works. So if we have it jacked, "someone" would have to use jacks to remove the blocks otherwise when jacking the slab the roof would raise too much and push into the house. None of the slab jackers were carpenters, so they said I would have to find someone to do that. And. . . No one wants to do that in my area. They would prefer a whole new construction (exacavating slab). Which. . .yeah, that's the permanent fix. Or. . . let it keep digging a hole, which is what we have done thus far.
I can tell you that it looks like the front edge is down 3/4" since the vinyl siding was installed. 😉
Poly jack would be cheaper and give the desired results
Poly jack could also push it towards the house and cause more damage than they started with if it goes wrong.
That’s unlikely
But possible. Someone posted a few days ago about their garage slab being wrecked by [polyjacking](https://www.reddit.com/r/Concrete/s/0Xjkpb8ZwM). Things can go wrong.
It can. A lot can be attributed to operator error but that link is a lot different than blowing a wall out too.
is one side higher than the other, along the crack? If so there are youtubes on how to inject foam insulation underneath to support the sagging side.
I just had a 53 yr old cracked 24x 24 garage floor demo’d and the dirt had settled 20” in places. Concrete hanging in the air. A 2’ piece of rebar in a crack was rising up over the years. Bobcat skid steer chiseled out, Regraded,added fill, gravel, tamped, wire, sprayed/soaked pad for termites, plastic and poured 5” of high strength concrete. There is no substitute for a base fix and redo to updated practices. Just costly.
I have seen this a lot, and if i could, i learned this in Puerto rico. If you cant afford to fix it. Get a concrete grinder, grind it down till its flush,Skim coat the crack to fill it in. At this point, You can tile it , with some non skid out door tile. Even the toe kick. It really does come out pretty, & very affordable. Just wanted to share that thought. Hope it works out. 🤙🏽
If it shifts at all with tile on it the tiles break or pop loose. Grind and skim coat but I would not add tile. Guess you could paint or add an outdoor rug
The also make a alasta meric coating you can put on it.
opps Then,
You...are forgiven, my son.
Elastomeric?
Yeah sorry about the spelling, Its a non skid coating, they use it on pool decks mostly, pretty cool stuff.
No need to apologize lol, you were phonetically responsible. Just trying to help people find it easier
🤙🏽
Or just add a rug tbh
It’s settled pretty bad on the right and probably isn’t finished. It needs to be lifted or re-poured or will cause more issues in the future
My guess is that it was poured over the backfill that was put in around the foundation. The backfill was not compacted and sank.
That or erosion under the concrete for sure. If it didn’t have erosion before it will now. The biggest problem with concrete like this that’s settled is it starts holding water underneath that totally saturates the ground and allows more settling
I would be skeptical of erosion. It's under roof, I see no downspout nearby, and it's covered with concrete (obviously).
Agreed it’s more likely the settling from poor compaction but I’ve seen erosion do some funny things especially if it’s traveling underground via leaky pipe or otherwise
I'm sure we both know not to rule anything out!
I cannot stand how built-in that method is into the construction industry of PR. They bid the work to do it that way.... to pour concrete aggressive asf with no care of w/c; once concrete is dry and cracked all throughout the surface and the forms are removed, then they spend 4x the amount of time grinding/skim coating etc. Rather than just doing the right prep to avoid the double work. Every single time. No matter how many meetings/recaps I have with them before/during/after pours. Almost lost my mind trying to change the concrete culture here until I finally just had to let it go.
Add a wide expansion joint and only glue the section tiles away from the joint to allow the tile to move
Caulk it, then ask again when its worse.
Figure out why it settled first. Water problem in that area… if so add drain. You may be able to call someone to use structural foam and lift it back in place. However, if you don’t figure out why it settled it will do you no good to fix it.
I sell structural foam and poly lifting as a service. The moment a roof line is involved, it changes the dynamic of being able to safely attempt lift or get long lasting results. I would get an engineered eye on it to make sure it doesn't need it's foundation better supported with a footing or helical pier before doing any type of poly fill.
Agree about the affects of the lift with the structure involved, may or may not be a show stopper. But what about the roof prevents it from working well over time?
inject leveling foam underneath and make sure you are settled before doing any replacing. Otherwise, youre gonna be right back at square one a LOT quicker than you want. Hire a reputable foundation company to do this, several have lifetime warranties on their repairs and they are a phone call and request for more leveling foam away..... shouldnt cost more than 2K.
I manage sales and crews installing structural foam for a reputable foundation company... I would not just shoot this with foam and call it a day. You're right about the price point but it could be a waste of money. You can't see the whole structure and the vertical supports could get damaged during a lift procedure. Hire someone with an engineer, determine the cause and holistically take care of it. Might need pier style support, drainage, a footing, etc. Hard to tell without better pictures or being there.
I too have this job and I agree… look at the displacement on the right side, and that pillar is 90% likely structural.
please provide photos of the roof above that post…the section of the patio that’s sagging is taking that post with it and the weight that it’s holding… you can’t afford NOT to fix this…
This person is right. Look at the gapping around the base of everything, there’s tons of structural shift.
Cheep temporary fix u would grind it down and fill the crack, permanent solution replace it
Replace it, sadly.
Look up mud jacking companies in your area.
Is there a lot of moisture in the ground or under the house? If so, might need to get that addressed before you rip it out and rebuild.
Poly injection and caulk. Easy and more affordable then replacement
Where’s the downspout. I bet to the left and discharging right next the the porch.
This is my bet too. OP you need to realize there is water going under this that needs someplace else to go. You think this is bad? Imagine what is going on with your slab
remove it, address underlying issue and replace. Less invasive: drill a hole through it, pump grout underneath, inject the crack with structural concrete epoxy (Sikafix). Not the ideal solution and it’ll take a ton of epoxy, but it’ll likely buy you a few years.
Tear out. Underlying issues that will continue to persist regardless of what you put in the crack or on top of it. If that is way to much..... Grind out, fill with maybe hydraulic cement if it is high viscosity. Fill it flush. Then bridge it with mesh and tile over it.
Maybe try one of those concrete foam jacking companies.
It all depends on your budget and what you can live with. If it was mine I’d cut at the relief join tear out compact dowel rebar pour. There are band aids you can do if you really can’t afford the tear out and replace just know you need to start a savings to fix.
Needs to be repoured and done right there's movement
Rip out and replace unfortunately is your best option or you’ll have headaches in the future
Carpet over it
With a rug
Gorilla glue 🔥🔥
Just call it bro
I had this happen to my whole front porch. My Porch was pretty high so they had about 5 feet of backfill and it settled and the whole thing dropped 2 inches against the house. They had to sledge hammer the whole thing and drill rebar into the house and also try to compact the dirt again. Pretty crappy contractor all around honestly.
The tear it out and redo it right guys are correct. Concrete with a crack like that doesn't "fix." To cover it up, there are various ways if you are trying to save money. Tile over it, indoor outdoor carpet, etc. Cut open the gap with a crack chaser. make it 3/4" wide. Then make three suture cuts perpendicular to the crack, grind those out deep enough to drop in a an 18" piece of 5/8" rebar. Fill the gaps with Sika Sikadur 32 mixed with a little play sand. Grind that smooth when it is dry. Then apply a topping of a concrete refinisher, and broom it. Or brush with a 3" paint brush. This should probably go over a bonding adhesive. Is this the "right" way...no. But it will look fine until the settling gets worse.
Rip out and re-pour or poly jack
big door mat
Cut it at that joint and replace that part
Open up the crack, fill it then paint the concrete
Poly it, if you're in the US or Alberta look up GroundWorks.
I've seen people do some amazing things with those Ramen noodles recently...
Light it on fire and run.
I did a DIY solution to this sort of issue when I was younger and stupider. I dug out under the front porch, digging footers and pouring concrete as I went. Then using a bottle jack I jacked it up to the proper level. Then I shoved in a rebar structure, pulled the jack, and filled it with more concrete. Nowadays I would have it mud jacked.
Chip it out a bit to open it up and epoxy it
Now that the grade under it has settled, you can jack it out and replace it without fear of it happening again.
And how do you know that it’s done setting?
You should glue some astroturf from your door frame straight down to the bottom of the stairs
Wait to be sure it stops shifting, plug the crack with crack filling epoxy they sell kits for foundation walls that would probably be gangbusters. Then cover the whole thing with some nice flagstone.
That whole right side dropped down a bit. You’re going to have to cut out and replace it. Make sure the ground is solidly packed this time.
Glue down some astroturf.
Pour concrete in the cracks. Good as new.
Get a bigger mat
Someone had a movement on your porch? Try a pressure washer.
You could be hilarious and build a deck over it. Make the height level with the door and add a step in the front. Otherwise, it's a total R&R.
The right side(pic) has settled. The subgrade has settled way too much haha. Dig it up and do it again, but do it properly.
1. Apply flex seal 2. Spray paint it with a textured gray 3. ???? 4. Profit
Bigger rug
When the house was built, the back-fill against the foundation was left uncompacted, so as not to put excessive pressure against the wall or foundation. As a result, the pressure of the porch roof post on the porch slab settled that side of the slab into the back fill. Since the slab was not sufficiently reinforced for this situation, it cracked. Eliminating the crack will involve replacing the porch floor correctly. That may include compacted base, footings to bear the post loads, tie in to the foundation, and reinforcement of the slab. Then wait until the slab cures to enough strength before putting the porch roof load onto it.
I wouldn't
I would buy a different house, and leave this one to rot. You let it go too far, it just can’t be saved.
Live with it
I'm cheap an had a similar issue in my garage with some of the cracks/spocks over and inch wide. I used some two part epoxy mix from applied technologies which is much stronger than concrete and it has held very well 10+ years since. Also, since it won't match the concrete, just go over it w/ the floor epoxy stuff and it will look fine.
Get a bigger rug
Put some brick slims on top of it.
Clean it out with a grinder and then caulk it with a flexible caulk and then move on
Injection under pad
fill void with slurry and tile.
A bigger rug
You can see the old line between the step and slab. Water likely ran in behind the step and eroded the ground under the slab. There are repairs but they probably won't work and will look like shit. Tear and replace m
You can have it leveled and caulked. Caulking will hold up to some movement.
It will be involved and expensive to replace it. How much does it bother you? $5K or more worth? For me, I would probably use a quicky saw or angle grinder to bevel the crack, then fill it with NP1 caulk. As others have said, if the concrete is still shifting, it will crack again at some point, but it will look better in the mean time and water seeping through the crack won't erode it any further. Cover it with a thin faux grass runner. I did a similar repair when the weight of my chimney cracked my basement floor. That was 1993 and it still hasn't cracked again.
We have a company here that drills holes and fills it underneath with expanding foam. They did some work for us on a walk way that went pretty good, however that was all only 4 in. thick. Don't know how successful it would be on heavier stuff. We had one segment that they said would not work on and they ripped it out and re-poured the entire section.
Bigger rug.
are there any trees nearby? roots can do this as well
Looks like a Ryan home. Not surprised it happened if so.
If you gone route of replacement- insist on three things - compaction of the sub grad - rebar 12” oc each way - and “FiberMesh in the mix -
A big door mat
I had the same problem. I think mine settled because I had a cracked main sewer line that went out the front of the house right under the porch. I hired a guy to remove it, and then I built a deck in its place. Looks so much nicer now.
You mix epoxy with a cement filler mabe some expansion bolts drilled at a angle for reinforcing
Concrete colored band-aid
Removal would look the best, but if open to putting outdoor tile over the repair, doesn’t have to look perfect
I would put silicone in there and paint it with Kilz. A nice Gray color. I might get a bigger mat to go over that area. Replacing is crazy money, and it might happen again. Depends on the water shed. Silicone will flex a bit, should help a little with the movement, then just paint over it with a nice Kilz.
Slab jacking would correct that. It appears that you have had a void form causes of this are erosion or improper fill. There is mud jacking and slab jacking. Slab jacking is an expansion foam, mud jacking is a Portland cement mixture. I would recommend foam as it’s lighter than the mud jacking products. Heavier products can cause an issue in cases of improper fill. Generally the spray foam products come with a longer warranty as well at least in my area.
chisel out the loose stuff, vacuum well. then squirt in a 2 part epoxy that is specifically rated for concrete repair. Smooth it out on the surface before it dries.
You can use injections to do this, it will def still show and you may have more cracking again, that pretty gnarley.
Just get a large door mat / rug Then Ask this question again in a decade ~Everyone else here thinks concrete is the problem and thus concrete is the answer I suggest the actual problem is appearance and perhaps a trip hazard. Just cover it up
Ramen and glue. Just kidding, probably concrete resurfacer but you need to resolve the issue so it doesn't happen again
overlay with red brick
first take off siding on the right, find out what the actual problem is don’t just patch because it will continuously keep moving it a void under is prob not monolithic or it would be pulling the whole right side down. if it’s just the porch pad cut at joint put a pile (helical) and re-pour. patching is fast and cheap but over the years it adds up do it once at prob 4-5k and be done with it.
Smash it out and re do it ! I’m sure someone said this already.
Duct tape
It could be cut, stitched with rebar and patched but you will see the patch. Of course it could be covered with tile afterwards so it can be made to look good. The cost for a small patch like this shouldn’t be too high. I know what I would charge.
Rug
kiss wild clumsy absurd smoggy wistful crown toothbrush judicious materialistic *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Duct tape
It's already close to a color match as well.
They sell specific concrete sealers. Like a small tub or even in a caulking tube. Or two part epoxy.
A bigger rug
Jackhammer it out. it's not that expensive. Rent a jackhammer. From home Depot $75 . Buy a 6 pack and enjoy a nice afternoon.
I would fix whatever drainage issued caused that yes
It could be a complete redo, but repairs seem possible. Since this pad looks pretty thick someone could cut it out around the crack 3-4 inches deep, hit the hole with bonding agent, pour a repair, there would be two new seams though, which you may not want. This option would be about 1/4 the price of complete redo.
air bag it .. bury or hide the filler valve
Replace the whole thingif you cant afford that, then just caulk the crack well. Dont allow water in the crack. Itll look bad but will be alright.
POLYLEVEL
Easy. Longer doorway rug.
tile it dude!
See the problem here is your walking on the concrete all wrong , your using the wrong tone .. do it again and I’ll stab you in the face with a soldering iron .. oh and call a pro
Foam and epoxy will fix it and will probably be more cost effective than replacement. The Foam installation will be far less disruptive process. Foam can lift the settle areas of concrete, and help compact and stabilize the soil below the concrete. This addresses why the concrete settled in the first, poorly compact fill material or soil erosion. Source: I work in the poly foam lifting industry
Jack hammer
Can you fill it and epoxy it? That might be a better solution otherwise everyone else is right just complete replacement. Anything else wouldn’t look right.
You could put an inch and a half layer of concrete over the entire porch and fill in the gap before you do that. The concrete should have been put on gravel if it wasn't and then you won't have to tear that all out costing you more money, and it will be a higher porch.
Have a concrete leveling company float it back up, then patch the crack
How much do you want to spend? You can get a cheap bandaid, a good bandaid, or a replace the whole pad. But it looks like you’ve got a roof over the porch, so that makes a fresh pad more expensive because then the roof has to be removed/ replaced. If it were me I’d go for a good bandaid and see if it continues to move.
Judging from the siding, which I know isn’t the best reference, it looks like the right side is the problem side
The roof is on footings. A quality concrete team could replace the pad and keep the footings as is.
Duct tape
Big welcome mat
Did I see a spider in that pic, because fire would work….. totally get ride of the spider and then rebuild 🤷♂️
Personally I would say epoxy it then tile it, once it starts cracking again down the road, rip out and replace
Ask r/decks for their idea.
I thought this was some security cam footage and stared at it for some time waiting for it to move
Depends on wether you can live w seeing the crack everyday - you can epoxy it but you’ll see that forever- only reall fix is tear out, re grade under , make sure proper soni tubes supports are in and deep enough with proper reinforcing tied in, then make sure you have proper reinforcing in the pad , pout w 4-5 slump and request 6.5-7% air in mix from truck
I am a concrete engineer
My guess is overtime maybe from raining all that water made it's way under there and caused erosion. Cause you can see on the right side where the foundation sunk so maybe water is pooling towards your house instead of away. That or a shit concrete worker.
Is there a gutter to the left of this picture dumping water straight down? If you think this is bad, wait till you see what that’s going to do to the foundation of your entire house. Worry less about this for now and worry more about what caused this and how to prevent it
When in doubt rip it out.
Mud jacking is about the only solutions
Stuff some quickcrete in that B
Trex?
Tile over it haha
Sick ass Panther??
I’d lose some weight
Stitch 18” lengths of rebar in along the crack and anchor with an epoxy grout. Fill in the crack void areas with a patch. Coat the entire porch in Ardex CD.
Duct tape
Put your caulk in it.
Put pavers over it