We’ve all come to fall in love with our homes over extended lockdown periods, and many of us took the opportunity to work on improving our shared spaces and personal spaces in our homes. This has led to an increase in families choosing to stay home together instead of head out all the time. We work from home now, too, so – let’s get our homes ready for entertaining.
Remember that our hospitality industry needs to recover, so don’t stop supporting your local restaurants or entertainment venues. As it happens, we’re rather enjoying the fact that we’re beginning to spend more time together as a family, in our home spaces again.
This trend has seen an increase in the number of home improvement projects, with many homeowners taking on improvement projects for the first time.
Now, one of the most significant issues that homemakers are going to be facing, certainly in areas where there tend to be extreme weather fluctuations, is repairing cracked or damaged concrete, and that’s where we have a few tips for you in this post.
So let’s take a look at the repair process step by step. You could probably handle basic repairs yourself, but you want to get a professional in to carry out concrete leveling in St Louis if it’s more serious. They cost less than you expect but will save you a tremendous amount of money in the future. (Especially if you get it wrong!)
First things first: clean the floor. Sweep the concrete floor clean and if it’s necessary, wash the floor to get rid of sticky bits or other debris that might be stuck in the crevices and cracks.
Once that’s done, you can start with the repair work.
STEP ONE
Using a cold chisel and a hammer, get rid of large pieces of the crack. Hold the chisel at an angle and “pound” with the hammer to chisel out the crack neatly and carefully. This process is called “keying” the hole to make a base or inside of the gap more significant than at the surface.
“Keying” helps the new patching material bond with the old crack.
STEP TWO
Brush and vacuum – easy peasy.
STEP THREE
Here is where the actual repair begins. Make use of a concrete filler, cut the nozzle and slowly fill the cracks. Now, if you’re using a mixed concrete patch, mix according to the guides and directions of whatever product you’re using. Check the cracks every few minutes to see whether the filler has settled. You might want to add more if it doesn’t look “right” and use a trowel to smooth out the cracks.
STEP FOUR
Allow the filler to cure overnight and don’t disturb it.
STEP FIVE
So now you’re going to repair the concrete, and using a product like Fosroc renderoc HB45 could prove highly useful for you. After you’ve patched the concrete, it’s also a good idea to seal it. Concrete has the rather annoying habit of absorbing stains, and sealing will prevent that, but be sure to follow the previous steps first.
The beauty of water-based polyurethane is that it dries quickly so that you can put on a second coat just a few hours after the first. Also, water-based polyurethanes don’t smell as bad as other types of sealer. In heavy traffic areas, it’s a good idea to apply three or four coats.