patio repairs

My dad wants to buy some kind of cement-caulking and rent a machine with concrete blades so that he can repair our basement patio, which has started pulling away from the house. It's not a critical repair but now that he's retired, he has more time to do these things. Of course, this past winter was not bad at all, but if we have another bad winter with lots of snow and ice, I suppose that could potentially due some real damage to the patio. Lucky we have a few months to make the repairs!