Concrete spalling or scaling - Noob here

[BGTI1]

Hi guys,

I am a noob here and I did use the search but honestly I am not sure what I am looking at. I believe it is spalling or scaling of the concrete footer that my garage walls are sitting on. The concrete is basically flaking off as shown in the pictures below.
My questions for you guys is whether my damage assessment is correct and whether this is something that I could repair myself or not. I have zero experience with concrete but I can hold my own fixing cars and general household repairs.
Or should I call in a pro and let them deal with it? I am located in SoCal so no freezing temperatures or snow and the garage is attached to the house and built in the 60's.

The piece of paper has a small piece of flaking concrete and one of the other pictures shows the crack at the top. If I was going to hit that surface with a broom then thin concrete layers would fall off.

The last picture shows an area where I hit it with a hammer to loosen all the flakes and the aggregate can be seen.

1 by BGTI, on Flickr

2 by BGTI, on Flickr

4 by BGTI, on Flickr

3 by BGTI, on Flickr

 

[Retroman]

Looks like Sulphate is attacking the concrete, But I don't know for sure. Last pic almost looks like the damaged area had been skim coated to hide the damage and that has now failed. How long have you lived in the house?

 

[BGTI1]

I have been living here for almost 7 years.

 

[bugdry]

I have a similar problem to this in my garage. I would like to know how to deal with it too.

 

[BGTI1]

Anybody have any ideas on how to fix this?

 

[ConCretin]

If I had to guess, it looks like the original concrete deteriorated or was poorly done and someone repaired it with material that is now coming loose. About the only thing you can do is remove the loose material, prep the substrate and apply a repair mortar. I'd suggest using a bonding agent to help hold the repair in place.

 

[BGTI1]

Thanks for the advice. Can you recommend any products that I should look into? I was thinking about going to Lowes to ask what to use but I am thinking there may be better products out there.

 

[ConCretin]

If you have access to a construction supply house such as HD Supply, they will have a better range of choices - we use a lot of Ardex products - but you can find similar products at the big boxes.

I'd stick with cementitious products rather than epoxies. As always, prep of the existing surface is critical to a long lasting repair. Use a bonding agent. Some are applied to the surface and others are mixed into the mortar. Finally get a product designed for feathering out to nothing. Some products have a minimum thickness requirement which means you'd have to cut and chip at the edges of your repairs to maintain the min patch depth. Just follow the mfg instructions and you should be fine. Good luck with your repair.