I want to lay down some new carpet on my patio and, as you can see, there are some hefty cracks in the slab. (Imgur album link is below.) The previous owners have attempted patches on the cracks going back many years I'm assuming. I could tell there have been at least two patch jobs attempted.

The previous patching job was all loose and coming up easy, so I chiseled out what i could and I am left with what you see in the pictures. The crack is maybe a tad over 2 inches at its widest and goes down about 4 inches to dirt and small rocks.

I'm guessing there is no permanent fix other than replacing the whole thing. I just want to get a few years out of this before thinking about doing something like that. What do you guys think is the best approach to get this back into shape? Fill it with a bit of sand and then use a liberal amount of Quikrete / Sakrete mix?

Image album:

Concrete Patio - Imgur

Thanks for checking this out.

 

If you are just going over it with carpeting....I would go with filling it with concrete. Rather than sand....try some fine gravel, it will settle less. Wet the crack slightly before pouring in the concrete. Also, as opposed to standard concrete mix, I would use the sand/topping mix offered by quikrete...it gets all those pesky little stones out of there

Just a couple other options....

They do make epoxies that could fill that, though they are pricey.

As an alternative to the carpeting(if you are not set on that) once you have that crack filled with concrete...they make a concrete resurfacer. It is very fine concrete mix that you trowel or even brush on it a very thin layer. It can look just like freshly poured concrete if you broom it while drying/curing. I have used it twice....once to cover some jackasses initials in a sidewalk on a house I bought(that is still lasting 11 years later) and the other time to breath some life into some old cement stairs where I am now. That is starting to flake, after 9 years. Quikrete makes that also.

Sand/topping mix:
QUIKRETE® - Sand/Topping Mix

Resurfacer:
QUIKRETE® - Concrete Resurfacer

 

Funny you ask this question. Today I had a customer come into our store and ask the same identical question. Just wanting to do a temporary fix and cover it with a carpet. I basically gave them the same advise as James gave you. His advice is pretty much on the mark for you situation. You could consider some of the self leveling repair patch that Quikrete makes for cracks and it stays pliable.

 

Thanks for the input! Yes, I'm just going to put carpet over it. In fact I already have new carpet already cut to size and ready to put down.

I will look into that Quikrete sand/topping mix. What do you mean by it getting the pesky stones out of there?

 

The sand/topping mix has no gravel in it, it is basically sandy concrete....gravel can be a PITA with such a small area as that crack

 

Excellent, thanks for the help.