Repairing Concrete Walkways

 

JIM: My house was built in ’79 and I never had any problems with my sidewalk out front; my steps. And this is the first year I put ice melt [1] on and it was made in Salt Lake and so it said on it that this would not hurt your concrete, but it had breakfast, lunch and dinner on my concrete. (Tom laughs)

LESLIE: Sure did.

TOM: It was a big lie, huh? (chuckles)

JIM: It ate it really bad and it’s down to the rocks.

TOM: Oh, no.

JIM: And I patched up, you know, small patches before but this one, it’s down to the rocks and I know enough that you have to clear everything, all the loose concrete off, but I figured I’d just call the experts to find out what else to do.

TOM: Yeah, you know when it gets that bad you really can’t patch it; certainly not with any type of concrete. What we would recommend is a product called AboCrete [2]. It’s an epoxy patching compound.

LESLIE: Their website is Abatron.com [3] and they list all of the products that are available as well as where to find it because at this point you’re not going to get concrete to adhere to this at all.

JIM: Would I use a bonding agent?

TOM: Well, some of these have bonding agents and some of them don’t. You have to follow the manufacturer’s instructions on it. Wait for the right weather – you know a nice clear, dry day – and then you can go to it and I think you’ll be very happy with the result.

JIM: OK, well thank you very much.

TOM: You’re welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.