An engineer and a content creator, that is Andrew Thron. Just a couple of years ago, he purchased an upper-fixer property which he calls the “ugliest house” in his neighborhood. It was also the time when he started his YouTube channel called ‘Andrew Thron Improvements.’
Since then, he’s been sharing his journey of transforming his house into a beautiful living space. So far, the renovation of the entire property is already close to finish and you’d be surprised by how he’s able to give his house a total makeover.
In his most recent video with over 1.2 million views, he shared what he did to upgrade his house’s curb appeal.
In the real estate world, “curb appeal” is a terminology used to describe a property’s level of attractiveness on the outside. This starts from a potential buyer’s perspective by judging the appearance of the property by looking at it from the outside.
The term is also used often by real estate agents when they are trying to either sell or evaluate the estimated price of a certain property.
In Thron’s case, he is doing it to make his property look and feel more like home for him.
From “ugly” to something worth staring at.
Thron demonstrated how he managed to pull off four different concrete projects in order for him to turn his vision into a reality. Since the start of his house renovation project, he did most of the job with little to no help from others.
He just based everything on his knowledge and experience, in return, he’s learned a lot from the entire process. Although the entire video was a compilation of his previous ones, Thron still managed to stitch each step to make it more understandable and convenient for his audience.
1. Concrete resurfacing front steps.
The first thing that Thron did was remove the steel railings on his front steps to give way to the rest of the process. Then he removed molds and deep-seated dirt on his front steps using a high-pressure powerwash.
He used a concrete resurfacer on this step and mixed it until it reached a pancake batter-like consistency. After that, he started pouring the concrete resurfaced mix on his front steps from the topmost level down.
Thron used a stainless concrete trowel to spread the concrete mix evenly and smoothly. Unlike most front steps with a smooth finish, he used a concrete finishing broom on his and applied wet-look sealer for the finishing touches.
2. Replacing the front walkway and curved sidewalk
In this part of his 4-part project, Thron removed the original front walkway and concrete sidewalk of his property and replaced it with a new one. He went for a gravel base and steel wire mesh as reinforcement and applied a concrete finishing broom as he did on the front steps.
He knew concrete cracks were inevitable so he made some control joints hoping cracks would naturally start there.
3. Constructing a new concrete garden curb edging
On this one, Thron started off by cleaning the area and establishing the measurement of the concrete garden curb edging. He also used a gravel base on it and a weed barrier to prevent weeds from growing in the future.
He used a bladeless reciprocating saw and meticulously applied vibration all along the entire garden curb edging to ensure air spaces were minimized. Just like what he did to his front walkway and curved sidewalk, Thron made a couple of control joints on it.
4. Repairing old and broken driveway sidewalk
He first removed the old sidewalk using a jackhammer then used the same process of applying gravel base and steel wire mesh as concrete reinforcers. Thron also used concrete finishing broom and made control joints especially because heavy foot traffic is to be expected on his sidewalk.
Other factors like power washing outdoor walls, trimming wild grasses, landscaping, and much more made a great contribution to the beautiful outcome of his project. In total, the entire project consumed a total of 78 bags of concrete.
Guess that’s just worth it because the outcome of his project was truly beautiful.
See how he did it by watching the video below.
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