Full disclosure – this is my first time doing this, so we'll see how it goes. I have a little
hole and crack in my concrete at the bottom of a ramp. And normally I wouldn't care too much, but
this ramp is used by my wife who's in a wheelchair and the hole is perfectly positioned so that
someday it might catch a wheel and mess things up as she's going down the ramp...especially
because I'm not totally sure she knows how to use her brakes. The hole's been here for a while and
she usually just goes over the top of it. But it still makes me nervous because at some point
a wheel might get caught and mess up her trajectory. So today we'll be filling
up this hole, making it smooth on top and we'll see how it goes. Let's get started.
[Intro]
So for this project we have our hole to start with. It's kind of dirty at the moment.
We have a trowel and edger, a wire brush, some water - which I'll explain in a minute,
and then this guy – a two part cementitious. Kind of a, more like an epoxy cement solution
made by Sika. And it says this bag, which I'll try to link down in the description,
can cover a one square foot patch up to half an inch deep. So we should have enough for this.
The problem here is that these aren't just screwed down, they are nailed straight into
the cement so I can't take off these bottom two rails. We'll just have to put the new piece of
cement right up against this bottom step. And I also have a vacuum to help clean that out.
And it's cold right now but it's not freezing. It's about 50 degrees Fahrenheit,
so we should be able to get this set up because it only takes about an hour to cure or dry.
[Vacuum sounds]
I put
a little piece of tape up to protect this so no cement gets on it. And this right here,
it's kind of like epoxy with two parts to it. So we have liquid inside of this and the powder over
here. But before we can break this, we want to wet down the surface that it's going to be on.
Not so much that there's like pools of water, but just so that it's surface wet. The reason
we do that is because as this comes in contact with the cement, it's supposed to be bonding to,
if the cement is dry it will wick away that moisture and not let it adhere together.
So if this is pre-wet we should have a better bond with this new layer.
The hole is quite a bit deeper though than I anticipated and so we'll see how far this goes.
And it says, you know, we mix it for about 20 seconds and this whole thing should start
drying in about 30 minutes to an hour. So we don't have a whole lot of time. Just making
sure that there is no extra dry powder up here in the corners. Everything is mixed together.
And I'm not saying you have to have a Jerry Rig Knife for this next part, but it is very helpful.
We just need to get rid of one of these corners so we can pour out the mix.
And I might sound like I know what I'm doing, but that's just what the instructions said.
Nice. That's real nice.
I ended up getting another bag so I could patch this side of the crack.
So overall it was about a bag and a half and I have the rest sitting right there.
After it dried for about 20 minutes, I gave it a little texture with a brush just like the concrete
around it. And overall, not bad for about $12. I think you could use this same stuff to kind of,
like, fill up other holes in concrete...like whether you have...after moving concrete anchors
or removing a post that was in a concrete pad. I think that's what this is for. Anyway,
I'll let it continue drying for the next hour or two since it's kind of cold out. It might
take a little bit longer than the hour it says it does. And we'll see how well it works for Cambry.
So it's been about a week since we put the concrete at the bottom of the ramp,
and now we are going to try it out for real. So previously when there
was a hole there did you have to actively avoid it or what was your thought pattern?
-I just went down the ramp and I try to straddle the crack.
But I wasn't always super aware of safety.
-Let's see if it works. I mean you don't need to go 90 miles an hour but... [Laughing]
Was it a success?
-Two thumbs up. I think all wheels were on the ground at some point.
-So that is it. That is how to patch concrete with...I already forgot the brand name of that
stuff, but I will link it down in the description. It's been about a week and that's the color that
it looks like after a week. It was much darker right after I installed it so I'm glad it's kind
of blending in more with the concrete around it. I'll try to leave a pinned comment after about 6
months or a year or so just to see if the concrete is cracked or settled even more. Just keep you
updated on the quality over time. And since you're here, would you like to finish this off?
-Thanks a ton for watching. We'll see you around.