Concrete questions

[newbury]

I've several "small" concrete projects I've let build up and a bunch of questions.

First the "projects" and my planned solutions

1. I've a sidewalk about 30" wide and 25' long that is badly cracked in 3 places and heaving due to a red maple root growing under it. The tree is about 2.5' DBH and of great value to the lot but may be turned into lumber. My planned solution is to pull out the entire sidewalk and repour.

2. I've another sidewalk at a different house with the same "root" problem, but only one crack. This one I was planning on "cutting" a section out and repouring, this is only about a 5' long section. The rest of it, about 20' just needs resurfacing w/ a leveler/patch material.

3. I've a concrete porch that has developed almost "saucer" like depressions, about 0.5 inches deep in the center and 8 feet in diameter which is just a pain after a rain. For this I'm looking at some concrete "leveler" products.

4. I've a basement "walkout" about 4'x8' that has several cracks about 0.5 inch wide in it, I'm planning on "cutting" the cracks, cleaning them out and filling them, perhaps again with "leveler".

So my questions are what are "good" or "best" products? Only the 25' long sidewalk MIGHT warrant a truck but I do have a cement mixer, have mixed a LOT by hand back in the day (1963) and remember how to rebar and float it so it's strong and pretty. But I'm not familiar with "added fiber" (sounds like health food) or "levelers" like CTS Concrete Leveler ($33 for 50 lbs) versus all the other levelers on the market.

For instance I had always thought a certain yellow bagged brand of concrete was good, but just read one review saying the user had all round stones and it spalled like mad. And some of the "leveler" products are $1/lb.

So before I start throwing $ I could spend on tractor parts on poor concrete products what does TBN recommend (that I could probably get at a local store).

 

[Streetcar]

Sika makes very good products, check out their website.
Spalling of concrete is usually installation error
Ready mix concrete for large pours is typically cheaper than bag mix, but your sidewalk job is a minimum loadfor my location
Good luck

 

[Streetcar]

Sika makes very good products, check out their website.
Spalling of concrete is usually installation error
Ready mix concrete for large pours is typically cheaper than bag mix, but your sidewalk job is a minimum loadfor my location
Good luck

 

[RedNeckRacin]

If you don't remove the roots isn't it only a matter of time before you have the same issue??

 

[KevT]

The spalding is from bad mixing (to dry) and bad troweling. It will take a lot of bags to do what you want to do, check into a metered auger truck in your area. Remember that a #60 bag is only like a 6th of a square foot. If you want better concrete than straight from the bag, add a shovel of straight Portland. No more or it will be to rich and cause you problems as it dries.

There are lots of levelers so to make sure you are comparing apples to apples... some are actually a vinyl product while others are cement (Portland). Some have built in bonding agents and some you have to do special prep work, and the biggest factor is some is leveling compound and others are SELF leveling. But none will finish like established concrete so it will always look like a patch.