Purchased a house. We are having a patio cover built and really like the idea of a brick patio (pic attached). We have an existing concrete patio but cosmetically it looks terrible. Lots of sections that were repaired things like that. Is it feasible to do a brick overlay on top of the concrete doing the proper prep work or will that cause us more headaches down the road? We are willing to bite the bullet if it's going to be costly down the road. The labor to remove the existing slab is adding a big chunk but it's hard work to tear up and remove that. Any suggestions?

IMO The old saying "Don't throw good money after bad" applies.

If the patio has already had issues there's no reason to believe those issues will stop once you have put something expensive on top of it.

That said every situation is situational, it all depends on your budget and long term plans. If you plan on selling the house in 5-10 years, maybe going the cheaper route is ok, if you plan on being there 10+ years, then cry now and have it done right.

Quote:

---

We have an existing concrete patio but cosmetically it looks terrible. Lots of sections that were repaired things like that.

---

Post a pic so it can be evaluated. As other have said, cosmetic cracking is one thing, big structural cracks are another.

"There are two kinds of concrete: Concrete that is cracked & concrete that is going to crack."

All answers thus far with which EZ to agree, so are you going to "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" ?

The land.architects' take you may be avoiding .... well, here's SOP advice gleaned from the past:

• Float a deck top of cracking patio
• Soaker hoses/system w/moisture sentinels running at patio perimeter to stabilize/manage/mitigate
• Pole frame any covers/roofs outside this overtaxed patio slab and go plenty deep (Aggieland soils may require 2.5-3.5ft no-rot poles and (depending on soil quality) ample reinf.conc or red bag Quikrete

Also exotic woods some judge more sexy than brick
https://buy.advantagelumber.com/products/5-4-x-6-tigerwood-wood-decking?variant=40442931707946

Apache said:

---

Quote:

---

We have an existing concrete patio but cosmetically it looks terrible. Lots of sections that were repaired things like that.

---

Post a pic so it can be evaluated. As other have said, cosmetic cracking is one thing, big structural cracks are another.

"There are two kinds of concrete: Concrete that is cracked & concrete that is going to crack."

---

I had a bad poor of concrete with a bunch of cracks showing a few weeks after it was built. I hired a tile guy that used something under the tile that leveled and sealed the concrete. A few years later and it looks great still.

He recommended using small tiles so that if it did have issues in the future it would be more likely to crack the grout than the actual tile. They had brick tiles as well but they were a more expensive but looked pretty sweet.

If it's just superficial cracking as stated before, just have them put down some Schluter Ditra before the brick (anti-crack membrane). We use it on stone decks to reduce the concrete shrinkage cracks from coming up through the stone.