LESLIE: Now we’ve got Kay in North Carolina who is dealing with a cracking, concrete porch. Tell us what happened.
KAY: Well, back in the wintertime, of course, we had it and last summer, we had it repoured. And during this wintertime, of course, it snowed and we had ice put down on it and the ice had salt put down on it, to melt it and not knowing that it would crack it. Now, I know it does that with the highways but I wasn’t thinking about my front porch at the time.
And so when the snow all thawed off, I saw the damage. And I didn’t think much about it but here it is springtime and I was out sweeping the leaves off of it the other week and the more I swept, the more the crumbles came off.
TOM: Right. Right, right.
KAY: And I just wondered, what could I do? Do I need to repour the whole thing again or what do I need to do?
TOM: No. The deterioration on the surface of the concrete or the cracks can be repaired with something called an epoxy patching compound. Now, this is a product that’s designed specifically to stick to a deteriorated concrete surface.
Essentially, you get rid of all the loose stuff, you trowel this patching compound on, let it dry and it really does adhere quite well. You will have, perhaps, some color issues where it, you know, doesn’t match exactly what was there before. But you could fix the cracks and then you could use an epoxy paint over the rest of the surface and make it all look even again.
KAY: OK. OK. Well, good, because I didn’t know. It was so nice and smooth at first and then I – all the damage came about and it made me sick to my stomach.
TOM: Yeah. Well, it was a rough winter, so these things happen.
KAY: Oh but thank you so much. I appreciate all your help.
TOM: You’re welcome, Kay. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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