Concrete Step Fix

[SkunkedAgain]

My concrete steps are very old, have been patched many times, and are crumbling with the interior sand pouring out. I am going to replace them but have two questions:

1) At what temperatures do you start running into problems with concrete pours (i.e. being too cold)?

2) Does anyone have experience with custom pre-cast concrete steps? Seems like a good concept.

[cavalierowner]

Here's a link to a pretty good summary of ACI's (American Concrete Institute) Cold Weather Concreting book http://www.cemexusa.com/ProductsServices/files/TechnicalServices/Cold_Weather_Concreting.pdf

Hopefully someone with experience with precast steps can respond to your second question.

 

[delcecchi]

I think there was a  thread about this awhile back,

Turned out to not be as detailed as I remembered.  But might be of use. 

I'll let someone else answer temp for pouring concrete.  My guess would be it shouldn't freeze in the first few days while curing. 

[RebelSS]

Pre-cast steps are great......the only way to fly. No muss, no fuss. 

Edited October 8, 2015 by RebelSS

[Tom7227]

The previous post about this was by me.  So far my daughter hasn't done anything.

As I was looking at the project a couple things popped up.  First was that getting rid of the old steps was a major  undertaking.  There is a landing that is about 3 X 6 and then three steps down.  That is a lot of material to move.  The front of her house has a similar if not bigger setup.  The bottom step has sunk there and so maybe that's all that needs to be done.

I liked the idea of precast steps.  We had some at my old house probably 50 years ago and they were great.  The only thing now is that my daughter probably is going to want to have a fairly large landing again.  I didn't look very far into the recast but I wonder if they even have something that is sort of L shaped like she wants.

As far as pouring concrete if it gets really cold they put a chemical into the cement that deals with it.  Cement actually generates a bit of heat as it cures so you probably are OK until it gets well below zero for an extended period of time.

[cavalierowner]

FWIW, the specs I wrote for concrete specifically prohibited the use of anti-freeze chemicals in the mix. It's been a while, but I seem to recall they affected the strength and resistance to freeze/thaw in cured concrete. Because concrete generates heat in the hydration (curing) process, covering it with blankets works very well in marginal temperatures. 

I would think that precast steps would be a good choice, if only because they would be ready to use immediately after they are set in place.

[SkunkedAgain]

Thanks for all of the replies