Front step rehab.

When I bought this house in 1986 or so, the concrete front step had outdoor carpet glued to it, which caused the concrete to deteriorate so badly it was almost a ramp. So, right or wrong, I formed up the step and poured about two inches of concrete over the whole thing.  

It worked quite nicely.

A few years after that, I repoured my sidewalk, which also worked quite nicely.  Missed one step, though.  I didn't leave an expansion joint between the step and the walk, which created this crack in the bottom step a couple of years ago.

It's gotten a bit worse every winter, but it's quite angled now.  

Fix options: 

1, Pull off the broken bit, trim the bottom edge so it has clearance to the sidewalk, find some super epoxy and stick it back on.  Seems cheesy, probably iffy in lasting, may not be possible.

2, Make a vertical cut at the corner of the bottom step and remove it completely.  Then either make a freestanding block to slide into place, and reset it a bit every few years, or drill as many bits of rebar as I can into the upper step, make a nice crushed rock base, and pour a step in place, bonded to and supported by the step.

3, Jackhammer the bitch and buy a new precast step.  Not a huge fan of this, partly from a cost standpoint, and partly from a serious lack of Grassroots thinking.

Wood or metal steps are an absolute no, as there is nothing on the planet more likely to kill you, when it's 20 below, than a metal or wooden step.

Votes?  Other plans?

We has a poured concrete patio/porch thing on the front of our house she absolutely HATED it and I heard about it for 8 years. Once we paved the driveway, which was gravel and something that she also expressed her displeasure with for the same 8+ years, I decided to do something about it. Because of the height of the steps involved, I didn't have much room to add much on top of the concrete slab. I found a local stone supplier who had 1/2" thick bluestone slabs in 12" x 18" pieces. Some quick measurements, a trip back to the stone supplier, one to the local Lowe's for some Type S mortar, a case of landscape block construction adhesive and a 4-1/2" stone cutting wheel and it was game on! It took 3 days to cut, glue and grout the patio and it made a HUGE improvement. She was right, the patio looked like CRAP in concrete and for very little investment, it was transformed.

Just an idea to do a thin overlay with natural stone.

Before and after.

How about a combo of 2 and 3? Jackhammer the broken step, remove.  Cut an expansion joint at the edge of the sidewalk.  Pour a new lower step.

If you called me I'd jack hammer off 4 inches off the top step, jackhammer out the broken piece off the bottom step, move the whole thing out a foot or so, cut away the sidewalk at the new landing spot, put in a piece of expansion strip at the bottom and dowel everything back together.

A 2 inch cap will always fail, it doesn't allow you to use serious reinforcement. It failed not because of the lack of expansion strip, but because of the lack of rebar. 

In reply to Antihero :

I poured the two inch cap about 35 years ago.  In another 35 years, I will be 98...