Concrete – This hole in a concrete porch needs fixing

cementconcretepatchporch

I might buy this house and have never lived there.

The porch has an big air space of maybe 4 feet underneath the slab. Some of the rebar at the bottom edge of the slab is visible when peering in. The rebar is not the small round stuff; it's more like the T-shape metal 'fence post' thicker design.

Of course, the crack also needs repair. There are other smaller, less visible cracks.

The hole has been there for a long time so the concrete around the hole feels a tad crumbly.

The porch is perhaps 6 x 20 feet. I didn't measure the slab thickness, but it's probably 4-6 inches. There is a basement block wall towards the back side underneath.

  1. If it is not a good idea to use a strong concrete patch, why not?

  2. Otherwise, if it is not a good idea to open up the hole a little and fill the huge air space with something, perhaps a concrete slurry, why not?

  3. How about using a Trex or wood product (or some stamped design) to re-cover the porch after patch since it would otherwise look ugly?

Thanks.

hole in concrete porch

Best Answer

Knowing that the earth has subsided from underneath the porch (and it's all cracked, anyway), I'd ask for a discount along the lines of what it would cost to bust it up, throw it away and re-pour it.

I bet I could sink that porch into the basement with a hammer. Move on to the next house, unless you both want to play the discount game.

If you're going to call out a truck to pour 12+ yards of concrete, you might as well have a nice, entirely new pour. If we really want to get into how to 'fix' this, we'd need a lot more pictures and knowledge of the substrate in this particular situation.