Patio over bad concrete slab- Any advice?

Michelle Nendza
by Michelle Nendza
What kind of patio would I be able to put on top of an old cracked up, peeling concrete slab. I Only have maybe two inches to work w as the concrete slab is only two inches below my back door sill plate. When it rains I'm afraid all the water is ruining the doorframe wood/will plate? Any advice? Desperate for help as budget is tight.....as we all know about that. Pls help before winter this needs desperate repair before I flood my back room doorway area?

  4 answers
  • Shuganne Shuganne on Jun 11, 2018

    Dig down the side of the concrete just enough to see how deep it is and if it has a stone substrate to allow for water flow. You need a stone underlayment - in my area they say 4", in California they just lay the concrete on flat dirt. You also don't want to have snow/rain at the height of your door frame from the very beginning of the season. The peeling hints that someone has already tried to patch the concrete but not done it well enough. I wouldn't put a new patio on your problem concrete. That's asking the wolf to build a door for your chicken coop. I don't see a solution off hand except busting up the old concrete, making sure the new patio drains and slopes away from the house and starting over. I hope one of the other answers has a better solution than my obviously expensive one. Fingers crossed for you!

  • Sharon Sharon on Jun 12, 2018

    Agree you can't lay anything like concrete or pavers on busted up concrete, it will need to be removed.

    You might be able to make a small treated wood deck over it, if its not sitting in water. Depending on where the water is coming from, you might add gutter extensions to move the water further away from the house.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AvTA5eAHX0

    or wood panels that lock together... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNqmNpYMCCs

  • 17335038 17335038 on Jun 12, 2018

    Agree with Shuganne and Sharon!

  • Pam Schultz Pam Schultz on Jun 12, 2018

    We places recycled rubber (I think tires) simply butted togetheR. Sun and head, wate, no problem. We did use some adhesive to keep them from shifting but I don’t think it was necessary. Also, we used a saw to trim to size to allow us to fit it in some areas that were curve. We did this 3 or 4 years ago to hide crack of the patio concrete. We also thought it might be cooler to walk on, but it is not cooler to walk on. We are still happy