jumbled fill under front steps

[woger151]

The front "steps" to our house is a poured concrete thing. (Don't know what to call it---it's really not so much steps (though there are two of those) and more of a raised concrete rectangle a few feet on a side.)

Inside on the basement, where this thing intersects the exterior wall, there are bricks, cinder blocks, etc, which aren't square and protrude from the wall.

A handy friend said what happens is that when people make the front steps thing, they use some kind of fill, and the cluttered masonry is just them doing a crappy job of organizing the fill.

It's fine functionally, but it looks like crap. Instead of just smoothing it out with cement or whatever, he suggested first trimming it with some kind of small jack hammer-like thing (I think he said a "hammer drill"). Is that a reasonable idea? Or is there a better way to repair it?

[Eric in North TX]

Seems reasonable to me, it is going to be time consuming and dusty, you could use an abrasive wheel in an angle grinder, & that might be quicker, but that would likely be even dustier

[dadiOH]

You only see it from the basement? Do you spend a lot of time in the basement? If "yes" and "no" I'd just leave the thing alone.

[Joe]

Hammer drill is too slow. Get a 'zip gun' or air hammer with a small spade bit. Harbor Freight has them for $7 and up and they will eat away the offending masonry (if you must) very well. Rent an air compressor if you don't have one, and get one with some muscle. The zip guns use quite a lot of air and will overpower a little portable pancake type in a hurry. Wear safety goggles, too.

Joe

[aemeijers]

If there is an opening between basement and the space under the front porch, it is likely an old coal bin. (any evidence of a plugged-up hole on the side of the porch, down low?) If there is no opening, what you are seeing are probably the tie points between the basement wall and the porch foundation, done by a lazy mason. If the porch is solid, and there are no leaks in basement, I wouldn't screw with it. If it isn't finished space, but it bothers you that much, build some utility shelves with an recessed plywood back, to go in front of it. How far do the bumps stick out from the plane of the wall?

A picture would help- can you post one somewhere, and post the link back here?

-- aem sends...

[K]

What you describe is called aggregate, and it won't go away easily. I had to remove our front stoop to build a porch, and it was resistant to leaving for sure. After trying many things, I ended up spending five hours on a rented jackhammer (big sucker), and even that just chipped away enough that I could build the porch over it. It sounds like what you have - a pile of crap in soft cement surrounded and shaped with finish concrete - a stoop and a couple of steps. There is nothing to get a tool into - it just slips off one piece of brick onto the next piece of stone and never really gets a bite.

If you're just concerned about what protrudes into your basement, box it in somehow so it doesn't show.

k