Front porch project begins

So I am going to start off this post by saying that the front of our house has no curb appeal and does not in anyway represent the look and feel of the interior of the house. When we first looked at this house I had a vision in my head of what the house could look like I just had to convince Sara to trust that I could change the look of the house into something much more appealing than it was. She was reluctant but my persistence paid off and we bought the house despite of her unatraction to the front. So with the backyard and deck finished it was time to move up front and get to work.

The first issue is the extremely large set of concrete steps on the left side of the porch that have settled towards the house and have been putting pressure on the foundation for who knows how long. 

 Not having a clue what we were getting into Sara and I grab the sledge with enthusiasm ready to bust up the steps. Well we both took a couple of swings and quickly realized we were wasting our time with the hammer. My next step was to try to hire someone to drag the steps away from the foundation so they could be jack hammered apart, if we would have attempted to do that in place the foundation mortar would crumble from the vibration causing an even bigger disaster than we had going on. After having several contractors turn down the task of dragging the steps out one mentioned a product he had heard of a guy using with great success but had no personal experience with. He described a non explosive demolition compound the when poured in drilled holes in concrete expands and busts the concrete apart. Sara quickly grabbed her trusty iPhone and searched for a product that matched that description with immediate success. Desperate for anything that would solve our problem an order was placed for 44 pounds of Dexpan.

 The first step to using this product is laying out a hole pattern no more than one foot between holes (i did much closer). Then using a rotary hammer drill I drilled inch and a half holes going about two inches from the bottom of the slab.

 It was a heck of a workout with a twenty four inch long bit, took about six hours from the first hole to the last but there were lots of water breaks in there.

 Here is what you get when you order 44 pounds of Dexpan, a five gallon bucket with simple yet complete instructions printed on the side and four eleven pound bags of the Dexpan powder.

 Before you get started mixing the Dexpan up you should thoroughly clean out the holes. I used my shop vac with a piece of one inch tubing duct taped to the end of the hose so i could reach all the way to the bottom of the holes.

 Next it was time to mix up the Dexpan, since it uses water to react I decided to do it in small batches. Mix one and a half liters with one of the eleven pound bags in the supplied bucket. I used a paint stirring paddle on my cordless drill so I could mix it thoroughly and quickly. Once the batch of slurry was all mixed I went right to pouring it in the holes. Unfortunately I did not calculate the amount I needed to fill all my holes so when i figured out I was going to be short i skipped around so that i wouldn't have any major portions intact.

 Luckily for me I had to leave town for the night after pouring in the Dexpan or I would have been staring at it the whole time waiting for it to work. When we got home the next day the steps looked like someone had shoved explosives in the holes and blown them apart!! I was absolutely amazed not only did it actually work but worked very well. The holes that had been filled were completely busted loose and I am confident that if i would have ordered the proper amount for my task there wouldn't have been a single piece I could not pick up by hand.

 The large pieces got drug back by the Jeep and I moved the rest in the wheel barrel. Of course I couldn't resist crawling one wheel up on the concrete pile to show my triumph over the eight thousand pound concrete steps!!! So now that those are out of my way its time to see if I can full fill my end of the deal and make the front of this house beautiful!!!