Back To The Porch Skirting – Two Options To Get The Look I Want

That plan for the side steps worked out, so now I know that I’ll follow that same plan for the steps to the bedroom door so that those two areas actually do match.

For those risers, I used retaining wall blocks. Obviously, I can’t simply stack retaining wall blocks to create the skirting for the front porch because the front porch is actually a concrete porch with a floating wood porch built over it. Right now, it looks like a complete mess, but here’s what I’m working with…

That’s where I left things when I stopped working on this project when my original idea (i.e., covering the skirting area with white PVC boards) didn’t work out. I had already painted the skirting area of the porch black because I wanted the black to show through the 1/4″ or 1/2″ spaces between the PVC boards, and then when I realized my idea wouldn’t work, I started removing the black paint using my handheld grinder. So again, it’s a complete mess at this point.

But you can see that I don’t really have a lot of area to cover. I think the whole porch is about 21 feet wide, so the front area that needs to be covered is maybe 15 feet wide and 13 inches high on the front, and then it will need to be carried around the side at the same height, and that’s right at five feet wide.

And then I have this annoyingly small area on the other side of the steps that will need to be covered as well.

And I want it to look like the retaining wall blocks that I used on the side steps, which look like this. These are 4 inches high and just under 12 inches wide.

I did a quick mockup of how I want it to look, although I couldn’t get the color just right. But you can get the idea…

So as I’ve thought through this, I can come up with two ways to achieve this look. Neither of them will be easy, so I’m already gearing up for the challenge. I just need to decide which way to go. The first way would be to use actual retaining wall blocks, use my handheld grinder to cut off the front portion of each block, and then adhere those to the concrete to create the facade.

It’s basically the same concept as using slices of reclaimed bricks to cover a concrete sidewalk or porch, except that slices of reclaimed bricks are commercially available, whereas these slices of retaining wall blocks aren’t commercially available so I’d have to create my own.

The second option would be to use mortar mix to cover the skirting area, and then use an actual retaining wall block to press into the wet mortar mix to create the texture and shape that I want. I’ve shared the mortar mix idea in a previous post and showed how this YouTuber, Michael Builds, used mortar mix to create three different looks.

So mine would probably be closer to the thickness of the bottom stone look except that I’d create the size and shape of the retaining wall blocks instead of stones, and then press the texture into the front of the wet mortar mix.

As I said, neither of these options is going to be easy, so I’ll have to start with some trial and error. I’ll start by seeing if I can even cut even slices off of the front of the retaining wall blocks with my handheld grinder. Working on the side steps, I got pretty good at using that grinder, but I’m not sure if my skills are quite that good yet. And once I test out that idea, I’ll have to determine if I’m willing to cut the number I need to cover the whole skirting area. I haven’t figured how many I need yet, but I already know it would be a messy and time-consuming job.

So those are the two ideas I have for achieving the look I want. But before I jump headlong into this, I’d love to know if you have any other ideas for achieving this look that I haven’t thought of yet. I’m open to suggestions for how to achieve this look, but at this point, I’m not really open to going with a completely different look. I want the retaining wall block look. Final answer. But I’m open to any other ideas about how to achieve this look if you can think of one that might be easier.