LMHmedchem
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2012
- Messages
- 92
- Reaction score
- 5
Hello,
The brick steps for my back door took a real beating the last two winters, especially this one. The ice has more or less split the steps in several places. The bottom step is falling off entirely and let left side is separating. The top has a split as well. I don't believe that I can repair the steps. I am not sure what the core of the steps is made of. I don't know if its concrete block, etc.
I had a couple of masons out to give me an estimate and they want $3000-$3200 for new steps plus another $500 to remove the existing ones. This is far more than I want to spend right now, in part because I may try to reconfigure this part of the house and that could affect the location of the door and orientation of the steps.
My current plan is to remove the brick and replace with wooden stairs that I can build myself. I will post pictures at some point, but the configuration is a 36"x52" landing just outside the door. The landing is and 8" step down from the threshold. The top of the landing is 32" off of the ground and there are three steps down to the ground. The steps are 12" deep.
It would be very helpful if someone could post some plans for steps of this type. They don't need to match the exact specifications but just be similar. Off the top of my head, I would put down 4 sonotubes and do 4" pressure treated posts for the 4 corners of the landing. I would build the landing like a deck with a ledger attached below the door. I guess I could probably get away with 2 posts and the ledger but I tend to go with more structure. After the deck is up, I would run stringers down to a concrete pad at the foot of the steps. Everything would be pressure treated with some kind of composite decking, treads, and risers. I would also need rails on both sides.
I think I know how to do this, but there are always a million details that raise questions. For instance, I wouldn't normally have wood and concrete in contact but I'm not sure how to avoid that where the risers hit the concrete pad at the foot of the stairs unless there is some kind of metal riser base that can be used like a post base.
Any suggestions to get me going would be appreciated.
Sorry if this should have going into the decks forum, I wasn't sure.
LMHmedchem
The brick steps for my back door took a real beating the last two winters, especially this one. The ice has more or less split the steps in several places. The bottom step is falling off entirely and let left side is separating. The top has a split as well. I don't believe that I can repair the steps. I am not sure what the core of the steps is made of. I don't know if its concrete block, etc.
I had a couple of masons out to give me an estimate and they want $3000-$3200 for new steps plus another $500 to remove the existing ones. This is far more than I want to spend right now, in part because I may try to reconfigure this part of the house and that could affect the location of the door and orientation of the steps.
My current plan is to remove the brick and replace with wooden stairs that I can build myself. I will post pictures at some point, but the configuration is a 36"x52" landing just outside the door. The landing is and 8" step down from the threshold. The top of the landing is 32" off of the ground and there are three steps down to the ground. The steps are 12" deep.
It would be very helpful if someone could post some plans for steps of this type. They don't need to match the exact specifications but just be similar. Off the top of my head, I would put down 4 sonotubes and do 4" pressure treated posts for the 4 corners of the landing. I would build the landing like a deck with a ledger attached below the door. I guess I could probably get away with 2 posts and the ledger but I tend to go with more structure. After the deck is up, I would run stringers down to a concrete pad at the foot of the steps. Everything would be pressure treated with some kind of composite decking, treads, and risers. I would also need rails on both sides.
I think I know how to do this, but there are always a million details that raise questions. For instance, I wouldn't normally have wood and concrete in contact but I'm not sure how to avoid that where the risers hit the concrete pad at the foot of the stairs unless there is some kind of metal riser base that can be used like a post base.
Any suggestions to get me going would be appreciated.
Sorry if this should have going into the decks forum, I wasn't sure.
LMHmedchem