How to Fix a Concrete Pot

You can paint your concrete pot to hide repairs.

Concrete planters and flowerpots are common, as concrete is quite strong but still porous, allowing air, water and nutrients to circulate in the planting environment. Concrete flowerpots generally are inexpensive, and many gardeners choose to simply replace ones that become chipped or cracked. However, if your concrete flowerpot is very large or has sentimental value, this may not be an option for you. You can fix cracks and chips in your concrete flowerpot to make it practical for planting again.

Things You'll Need

• Steel wool
• Shop vacuum
• Nails, 3-inch
• Hammer
• 2-part epoxy sealer
• Paper plate
• Wooden craft stick
• Plastic epoxy injection ports
• Putty knife
• Epoxy
• Caulking gun
• Saw
• Sandpaper, extra-fine grit

Instructions

1. Scrub the cracked or chipped area with a piece of steel wool. This removes the small bits of concrete you cannot tell are loose simply by looking. Vacuum over the flowerpot with the hose attachment of a shop vacuum to remove the concrete fragments.

2. Push a 3-inch nail into one end of each crack, and another into the opposite end. If there are more than 12 inches between the two nails, insert a third nail between them. Hammer each nail very gently to widen the crack a bit. Remove the nails.

3. Empty each part of the concrete epoxy sealer onto one half of a paper plate. Do not allow the parts to touch and use a different utensil, if necessary, to remove each part from its packaging. Combine the two parts on the paper plate using a wooden craft stick and vigorously stir until the sealer is uniform throughout in color and texture.

4. Smear a little bit of the prepared epoxy sealer over the base end of one plastic injection port with the craft stick. Do not get sealer into the port opening. Slide the hole in the port over the lowest nail in the crack and press it against the concrete flowerpot until the epoxy sealer holds it securely.

5. Apply epoxy sealer to one port for each remaining nail and attach them in the same way as you did the first. Work the leftover sealer generously around each port, into the crack between the ports, and 1/8-inch past each edge with a putty knife. Smooth the surface with the knife face. Wait approximately eight hours.

6. Mix the epoxy following the directions on the package for the particular product. Fit the prepared bottle of epoxy into a standard caulking gun and tighten it just until you see epoxy in the top of the bottle.

7. Fit the tip of the epoxy bottle into the hole in the lowest plastic port. Squeeze the trigger of the caulk gun to fill the port with epoxy. Stop when epoxy is visible in the hole of the next highest port.

8. Continue filling the ports with epoxy from top to bottom. When you are finished, squeeze epoxy into any chipped areas and smooth the surfaces of repaired chips with the face of a putty knife. Let the flowerpot sit undisturbed for five days.

9. Cut off the tops of the plastic ports with a saw. Apply more epoxy sealer over the ports to block and cover them. Let the sealer dry completely, then sand all of the repaired surfaces smooth with extra fine-grit sandpaper.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not use an expensive putty knife as the knife used will be ruined afterward.

References

• This Old House: Fixing Cracks In Concrete Walls