Cracked concrete slab must be replaced
Areader, James H. of Evanston, Illinois, recently asked me how to remedy issues he has with his condominium carport. James sent me two photos of the crumbling and cracked concrete slab. It was in horrible shape.
His question was simple: “What can we do to fix this problem other than removing and replacing it, which we don’t want to do?”
James must rip out the old slab. The new concrete needs to be at least 6 inches thick, it should have ½-inch steel bars in it in both directions set at 2-foot centers. The grid should look like an empty piece of graph paper. The steel should have at least 2 inches of concrete under it.
I’d order the concrete to be 5,000 pounds-persquare-inch (PSI) strength. The minimum acceptable standard is 4,000 PSI. It costs just a little more for the extra Portland cement to get to 5,000 PSI. This new slab should look good for at least 50 years.
Another reader, Dan, in Boulder, Colorado, had a problem with his bathroom door. The top right corner was sticking to the jamb when he’d try to close or open it.
First, Dan must remove the center screw in the top hinge and take it to a hardware store and buy the exact same screw, making sure that it is 2.5 inches long. He also needs to get a 6-inch wood dowel rod and a small bottle of yellow carpenter’s glue.
Next he must open the door fairly wide and place wood shims under the lower corner of the door directly below the handle. These shims will support the door and eliminate stress on the lower hinge as Dan starts the repair.
Then Dan needs to remove the other two screws on the hinge where it attaches to the door jamb and swing it out of the way, and cut two 1-inch pieces of the dowel rod and whittle the tip down, if needed, to get it to fill the holes of the top and bottom hinge screw holes. The carpenter’s glue should be used to coat the dowel and inside of the hole. Dan can then tap the dowels into the door jamb, making sure they are flush.
Finally, he must flip the hinge back into position and drive the long screw through the center hinge hole. He’ll need to drill a small pilot hole in the rough jamb as well as in the new wood dowels. The long screw will bite into the wood rough jamb behind the visible door jamb and keep the door from sagging.