Concrete sidewalks, walkways and steps

Your walk or the public sidewalk?

Your own walkways, from the driveway to the front door or around to the back, are yours to replace as you like.

The public sidewalk along the street sits in the road right-of-way. In many Michigan cities the owner of the adjoining property is still responsible for keeping it in repair, and the city can order a damaged section replaced. Work on it normally needs a permit and has to meet the city's standards for width, thickness and slope. Flint's code, for example, requires a permit from the city before a sidewalk is built or repaired. Call your city or township before any public sidewalk work starts, and ask the contractor to confirm they are allowed to work in the right-of-way there.

Repair or replace?

• One slab lifted by a tree root or frost. If the concrete itself is sound, the high edge can sometimes be ground down, or the slab can be lifted and re-leveled. Replacing just that section is the lasting fix, and the root usually has to be dealt with too.
• A slab that has sunk. Slab lifting, where material is pumped underneath to raise it, costs less than replacement. It works when the slab is in one piece.
• Cracked into pieces, crumbling or flaking. Replace it. Patches on a failing surface do not survive a Michigan winter.

New sections will look brighter than the old concrete beside them for a few years. That is normal and fades as they weather.

What a good walk includes

• Four inches of air-entrained concrete on compacted gravel. Where a sidewalk crosses a driveway it should be thicker, usually six inches, because cars drive over it.
• Width. Three to four feet is comfortable for a private walk. Public sidewalks are usually four or five feet wide, set by the city.
• A slight cross-slope so water runs off and does not sit and freeze.
• Joints about every four or five feet, matching the width, with a broom finish for grip.

Steps and landings

Concrete steps fail here when they are poured without a proper footing: frost lifts them, and they tip away from the house. Steps attached to the house should sit on footings below the 42-inch frost line. Michigan's residential code also generally calls for a handrail once a stair has four or more risers, so ask about railing when you get the estimate.

What it costs

Walks are priced like other flatwork at $8 to $14 per square foot, plus $2 to $5 for tear-out. Small jobs come in toward the top of that range or carry a minimum charge, since getting a crew and a truck out costs the same for 60 square feet as for 600. Steps are priced separately. If you already need a driveway or patio, adding the walk to the same pour is the cheapest way to get it done.