Sidewalks, Steps & Porches in Taylor, MI

Sidewalks, steps and porches take a beating on older Taylor homes. A walk panel that lifts an inch above the next catches toes. A front stoop that settles pulls away from the house and lets water run toward the foundation. Step edges that flake lose their shape and become dangerous in sleet. With most of the city's housing built between 1950 and 1979, according to Point2Homes' Census summary, a lot of original walks and stoops here are well past their prime.

Service walks and public sidewalks

The City of Taylor's permits page lists "public sidewalk and/or service walk" as work that requires a permit, so whether we are replacing the walk from your driveway to the door or a section of public sidewalk in front of the house, the job goes through the Building Department. Taylor's Department of Public Works describes the road right-of-way as running from the edge of the sidewalk nearest the street, across the road, to the matching edge on the other side. The grass strip between walk and curb is the tree lawn, where the city allows residents to plant approved trees. If a street tree's roots have lifted your walk, we talk through the options before pouring, because a new walk over the same roots will heave again.

Warning signs

• A lip where one panel sits higher than the next
• Walk panels tipping toward the house
• A stoop separating from the foundation
• Chipped, rounded or crumbling step edges
• Risers of different heights
• A rough, flaking surface
• A loose railing anchored in cracked concrete

How a new walk goes in

We break out the old walk, dig past any soft or root-filled soil and compact a stone base in its place. HomeGuide's sidewalk guide notes most concrete walkways are 4 to 6 inches thick, with more depth in heavier-traffic areas. The forms get a gentle side-to-side pitch toward the lawn so rain does not stand on the walk. Then the concrete is placed, broomed for grip and jointed at even intervals. Where a walk crosses a driveway, that piece is poured as thick as the drive.

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Stoops, porches and steps

Poured steps are formed in place to meet your door threshold. Every riser should be the same height and every tread the same depth, or people misstep. The landing at the top needs room to stand while a storm door swings out. Support is the other half of the job. Michigan's residential code sets 42 inches below grade as the minimum depth for exterior footings, which is why a heavy stoop sitting on loose fill tends to tip and sink. We check what is under the old steps before we design the new ones, and we can price precast steps where they make sense.

Handrails

On a stoop with three or more steps, a rail is worth having, and in an icy Michigan January it matters most. Setting anchor sleeves into the concrete while it is still fresh gives a rail a solid base, instead of drilling into a thin step edge years later and cracking it.

Through the winter

Clear snow before it gets packed down by foot traffic. Spread sand instead of salt on new walks and steps for their first winter, and steer clear of ammonium-based de-icers in later years. Seal the surface every few years and fill small cracks before ice can pry them wider.