How can I repair my concrete porch?

Question

I have a concrete porch upfront which has 2 pillars supporting a roof. The concrete is showing cracks and spalling. To repair can I resurface this? A friend suggested tigercrete (concrete with fiberglass) after doing a really thorough cleaning/pressure wash.

If I do resurface it should I wrap the wooden 4x4 pillars in something to protect them?

Another alternative suggested is to lay wooden strips down and put in a composite deck over the concrete. I may have "just" enough height on my door to do this.

Any suggestions? Not looking forward to jackhammering it out.

Answer 1

If you resurface concrete the cracks from the original concrete will eventually come out to your new surface (Even with the fiber in it, infact thats the only type of concrete we place). Its really better to remove the old concrete and pour in a new porch but that's not really the cost effective way to do it. But if you do decide to resurface it any part of your walls and pillars you want to cover with plastic, and tape down the ends, its very tough to get concrete off of brick and almost impossible to remove it from wood.

But what would be nice if you could do it would be a colored stamped overlay. That way after it is stamped any cracks that might come out wont be noticeable. To do this you need a stampable overlay mix, concrete die, release (I like powdered release over liquid), you can rent the stamps, and a gauge rake to spread it out. Stamping concrete is a little difficult especially with an overlay, the concrete has to be just right (not too wet but not too dry) for the stamp to come out correctly.