Porch floor options
 

Here's the ugliest member of our family that doesn't have my name...our front porch.

Smallish house, smallish porch. I'm blessed in plenty of other ways.

It's not really protected. When we moved in 4 years ago it had putt-putt type carpet on the porch floor. Time, sun, and the rain did their thing until it became the rattiest tripping hazard in the neighborhood.

Off it came.

I'm now the proud owner of a mastic/adhesive residue covered, slightly sloping *towards* the house, porch and delightfully outdated railing.

What do people do for porch floors these days?

Tile?

Have their been epic strides in indoor-outdoor carpet technology since Clinton's el camino years?

How thin of a thinset cap can one put on to re-slope?

I do realize that many a 15K porch remodels start with "Let's rip off that nasty carpet and go from there."

This won't be one of those escalations. That will come in 8 years.

Here's the visual report. I welcome all of your expertise and smartassery.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch7.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch1.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch2.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch3.jpg
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1013207/porch/porch4.jpg

tile won't work- the grout would crack in no time. You shouldm consider stamped concrete. It will be the cheapest- best looking alternative. It is basically a decorative thinset, but has to be a little thicker so won't crack as easy. They can also fix the sloping problem in the process

This was my thought as well. Patterned/stamped concrete, especially if you're going to change it in 8 years. You won't have to worry about possibly covering up framing and rot issues and such from running the concrete too high up into the baseplate.

Stamped concrete seems like a beast to keep clean, yes?

The siding does come all the way down to the concrete porch, but it's vinyl, so easily cut.

Right. But behind the siding is framing. You start covering the framing with concrete, and you're trapping moisture which leads to rot, etc...

Still, not a big deal if you're talking about 8 years. If you're talking about the life of the home... slightly bigger deal.

And I don't think stamped concrete is any harder to keep clean than anything else. Spray it off and mop that shit down.

Thanks for the advice, and I understand the moisture part.

By "keep clean" I don't mean stains and moppable stuff.

Our porch gets filled with maple seeds, muddy boots, and things like that. I'd like to be able to sweep it off, and those furrows in stamped concrete seem like I'd be growing weeds in 10 days.

Can I get the stamped concrete without the stamps? Do they do stairs too? Am I basically forming up the entire project and pouring or is it more like troweled on like stucco?

Maybe I'm the lone hold-out in a largely porch mopping world? Who knew?

Stone?

http://www.homeplacemasonry.com/BeforeAfter.html

Tile?

How easy is that to shovel snow and ice off of?

Vailpass, you make a great point.

You sure you don't root chiefs when nobody is looking.

I'm cheap & would go with garge floor paint
maybe with sparkles!

Maybe? There is no question...... You ALWAYS go with sparkles!

Are you a Boise State fan? Have you considered the blue putt-putt carpet. :evil:

you CAN do tile outdoors, but you have to use the right products. unfortunately in this climate, the winters are hard, water gets under the tile and freezes, popping it off. stamped concrete is good, but only for a tear-out. You can
t just put a thin topping on something like this, otherwise the afore-mentioned freezing will pop it off.

I have stamped concrete on my back patio, my front porch, and the trim around my driveway. It's no problem at all. The grooves aren't very deep, certainly nowhere near as deep as the grooves between sidewalk squares. Keeping them clean and/or shoveled is a complete non-issue; literally, it's never even crossed my mind that they are dirty or difficult to shovel. It looks really good, too. I would absolutely recommend it.

I have tile on my deck, and I haven't had any real problems with it, but I don't walk on it all that much, especially in the winter. No way would I want to use it in a high traffic area.

Stampcrete
http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/...r/DSCN0364.jpghttp://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/...r/DSCN0363.jpg

Tile
http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/...r/DSCN0362.jpghttp://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/...r/DSCN0361.jpg

The stampcrete actually looks much better in person than it does in the pictures...strange.

Lots of good input. Thanks.

Let's pretend that I was a total bottom feeder house flipper. Not all flippers dwell on the bottom, but the person who did this house was mr cutcorners. What devilry did he invoke to stick that carpet down? Do I really have to sand it all off?

At this point I'd like to consider epoxy paint possibly with some grit added.

I figure as with any paint the prep work makes or breaks the quality of the job. Does epoxy paint stick to even old carpet adhesive?

Tile could work well on the porch but I wouldn't put tile on those steps. Might get a bit slippery in the winter months and eventually there would be installation problems.

Why not just have some nicer quality outdoor carpet installed? Not all outdoor carpet looks like grass. Have you visited a local flooring dealer? I bet you have a good one close to home.

Wish I lived closer, I'd hook you up with something great that would work in your budget simply because I like your beard.

If Donger was your neighbor he would be pissed at you using your garage for storage and not for parking your car in.


He gets fuming mad!:mad:

Dude, this beard has both men and women throwing themselves at me.

Sometimes the bennies can be helpful, but other times I just wonder if it's all worth it.

May have to shave it just to take a break.

The epoxy would stick to the glue. But one day when the glue decides to peel off the concrete, you will not be happy. It's likely just an exterior grade carpet adhesive, nothing special. Best way to remove is with elbow grease. Get a floor scraper and then a razor scraper and go to town until it's off as much as possible. Powerwash. If it was a commercial job, we'd probably have it bead-blasted, but you won't want to mess with that.

you could always put the green carpeting back on, drill a hole in it, drop a flag, and have a little putting green on your porch.

I like this a lot.

The subtle sway in level would add to the challenge, and kids coming and going would simulate the windmill obstacle. Brilliant!

yeah, and you could put one of those little "lakes" in that they have at the miniature golf places to keep rain water from getting to the foundation.

Let's face it. This porch stinks, and if we're going to put any money into it, the first check would go to the demolition crew.

So. 50bucks for a day rental on a 5inch concrete grinder and here's the score.

Concrete grinder: 1
My jeans: 0
My gashed leg: -1
My aching back: -2 (such an old man)

The diamond cup didn't love it, but it got the job done.

http://img.tapatalk.com/ad1ef969-5089-c49b.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/ad1ef969-509c-806c.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/ad1ef969-50ab-b762.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/ad1ef969-50be-4266.jpg

I was too pooped and weak to get those verticals on the steps. They used a lot more adhesive there and I'll use chemicals to attack that part.

So now all the concrete is bare and unprotected.

If I were in love with the porch I'd do some cool concrete stenciling.

Not in love. Now I just want to protect it. What's the right move here? Thompsons? Skim coat of concrete?

Not Thompsons. You'll want a masonry sealer specific for concrete. It's not cheap - at least the good stuff isn't. Plan to pay $50+ a gallon for something that is worth putting down.

Skim coating isn't easy and you open yourself up for a lot of problems down the road if you don't prep right. I'm not posting all the steps but you should be fine with a google search. You'll need a bonding agent and a proper mix for a thin topcoat. You'll also want to pull back your first coarse of siding and the cast iron hand rails before prepping any of the substrate.

Since we're on the subject, I have a similar issue on my front stoop. I was thinking of overlaying it with some type of composite decking. Anyone ever try that? Good or bad idea?

Yes a thorough job would have been to swing that steel away before grinding.

Is it easy to incorporate non-slip into the concrete sealer? Think that's the way I'll go.

Since you are looking for a stop gap till you can redo, paint it with mold resistant paint. You can hit it every other year and it should look good for you in the interim.