How to renovate this concrete porch?

[Poppy89]

Hi everyone

We have an overdue outdoor porch reno  that has been on my mind for a long time as I am not sure how to go about doing it. The corner towards the house has been dropping gradually and water pools in that corner so I need to think of some way of re-levelling before either tiling or concreting it. My budget is not much so I was hoping I could do something about it myself and without demolishing and rebuilding the whole thing. I would welcome any suggestions as to how to reno this area which has been in my face for too long now. It’s looking terrible with cracking that has been sealed in before.

 

[MitchellMc · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @Poppy89. It's brilliant to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about renovating a porch.

The roadblock here is that the porch is unstable. Unless something is done about this, it will continue to subside and crack any levelling you do upon it. The most budget-friendly solution I can think of would be priming and painting the porch. The best products for your situation would be Rust-Oleum 3.78L Concrete & Garage Recoat Primer, followed by either Rust-Oleum 3.78L Battleship Grey Concrete And Garage Floor Paint or Rust-Oleum 3.78L Armour Grey Concrete And Garage Floor Paint. Unfortunately, your topcoat colours are limited to grey tones. This primer and paint are the only products designed to cover a compromised pre-painted surface. All our other concrete paint manufacturers recommend you remove the compromised paint before painting; otherwise, they can't guarantee their product will adhere.

Before painting, I recommend drilling at least a 10mm drainage hole right in the corner where the water pools. This hole must penetrate through the porch and allow the standing water an escape route.

By painting, you'll cover the repaired cracks and improve the look of the porch dramatically. The primer, paint and painting materials will cost under $200, and I'm sure you'll be suitably impressed with the results.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[Poppy89]

Thanks @MitchellMc for your response and time, so great, especially to know there are such paint options available and I don’t have to grind the surface beforehand! Just wondering about the hole as that area is next to a wall that extends beneath the porch and you can already see the water stain on the wall, so I’m not sure if we drain the area to the ground it probably would still be able wet the brick wall and damage it, wouldn’t it? Thanks again for your thorough response!

[EricL]

Hi @Poppy89

One reason that the corner has started to drop is because of water seeping down into the ground. The recommendation made by @Mitchell is actually very good. Drilling a drain hole in the porch will divert all that water to somewhere else rather than flowing into the corner of your porch. If rain should come again, I suggest carefully observing where the water is flowing and gathering towards your porch and property.

By determining where the flow of water is going you'll be able to address this issue by putting in a drain or diverter. Once the water flow issue has been solved you can then begin to plan on re-levelling your porch.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

[Poppy89]

Thanks for that @EricL, alright then I will get onto it and solve the drainage first, cheers