Sidewalks, steps and porches
Concrete sidewalks, steps and porches in Henderson, Kentucky
The front of the house: the walk from the street, the steps up to the porch, the stoop at the back door. Small pours that get looked at every day, formed to fit the house instead of the other way around.
The job
Walks, steps and stoops on Henderson houses
The brick two-stories on Main, Center and Elm have deep front porches and tall steps built a hundred years ago. The ranches on the East End have a short walk from the driveway and a two-step stoop at the back door. The newer houses off Zion Road have a builder-grade walk that cracked in year three. Different houses, same trade: form it to fit, pour it on a base, cut the joints, broom it.
- Front and side walks at three or four feet wide, four inches thick, joints every four to five feet so they crack on the line.
- Poured-in-place steps formed to the porch height, with a consistent rise and a nose that is not a trip hazard, tied to the walk.
- Stoops and landings at back doors and side doors, with a slope away from the sill.
- Porch slabs re-poured on compacted base when the old one has settled or broken up.
- Replacing city sidewalk panels in front of the house, when the city program or the homeowner covers it.
Henderson ranges
- Sidewalk, 4 ft wide, per running ft
- $40 - $55 per linear ft
- Steps, one flight of 3 or 4, poured
- $1,200 - $2,800
- Small stoop, poured
- $1,500 - $3,500
Installed, Henderson County. Tear-out of the old walk, railings and a tall porch move it. More on the page about what concrete costs in Henderson.
The right-of-way
Where your walk ends and the city's begins
The strip between the sidewalk and the curb, and the public sidewalk itself, belong to the City of Henderson. Work there follows the city's slope and thickness rules and sometimes its cost-share program. Everything from the public sidewalk to your door is yours, and it is where most of the walk and step work happens. On a corner lot or a house on one of the older brick streets, sorting out which panels are which is the first ten minutes of the site visit.
Steps that match the house
Rise, run and the porch that was built in 1920
A comfortable step is about seven inches up and eleven inches deep, and every step in the flight has to be the same or someone trips. The older porches downtown were built before that was standard, and matching a new flight to a 40-inch porch height means the crew sets the forms to divide the height evenly, not to a stock size. It is the difference between steps you stop noticing and steps you always notice.
Henderson specifics
Big trees, small pours
The sycamores and oaks on the older streets are the reason those streets look the way they do, and the reason the sidewalks heave. A root under a four-foot walk lifts a panel in a few years. The crew will not cut a major root to lay a flat panel; the tree matters more than the concrete. The usual answer is to bridge the root with a thicker section and a slight ramp, or to re-route the walk a couple of feet. Either way it gets discussed at the site visit and written into the quote.
Asked and answered
Sidewalk and step questions from Henderson callers
Who is responsible for the sidewalk in front of my house in Henderson?
Inside the city, the public sidewalk along the street is in the right-of-way, and repairs to it run through the City of Henderson; some years there is a cost-share program for replacing bad panels. The walk from that sidewalk to your front door is yours. The crew knows which is which and will tell you on the site visit, because it changes who is paying.
Poured steps or precast steps?
Precast is a finished concrete step unit set on a pad, and it is fine for a back door on a small house. Poured-in-place steps are formed and poured to fit the porch exactly, tie into the walk, and can be any width or rise the porch needs. On the older houses near downtown with a tall front porch, poured is the only way to get steps that match. A flight of three or four poured steps runs $1,200 - $2,800.
How wide should a front walk be?
Four feet lets two people pass and matches most city sidewalks; three feet is the minimum that does not feel like a path. Along the side of the house to the back yard, three feet is plenty. Sidewalk work is priced by the running foot at four feet wide ($40 - $55 per linear ft), so a 30-foot front walk is a quick number to check.
My porch slab is sinking away from the house. Can it be fixed?
A porch slab that has dropped is usually sitting on fill that settled, which is common on the houses built in the 1950s and 60s where the porch was backfilled with whatever was handy. If the slab is sound it can sometimes be lifted; if it has cracked as it settled, it comes out and gets re-poured on compacted base, tied to the foundation with an expansion joint. A small stoop rebuild runs $1,500 - $3,500.
Free estimate
Get a written quote for the front of the house
Say what it is (walk, steps, stoop, porch slab), roughly how long or how tall, and the street. A crew that does this work in Henderson comes out, sorts the right-of-way question, and writes it up.
Rather talk it through? Call (270) 714-3029. If nobody picks up, leave the address and the job and you get a call back.
- Measured on site before the number is final
- Tear-out, base, finish and haul-off itemized
- Pour dates set by the weather, in writing
Answers
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