Showing posts with label hardscaping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hardscaping. Show all posts

Saturday, July 25, 2009

New Steps Project

Shortly after we moved into our house, the back steps began settling. And then settled some more. In the end, we had a set of three steps, each with a different vertical height. For the uninitiated, it was almost always a cause for stumbling. Not only was this dangerous, it was an eye-sore.



Sure, we could have some guys come in and "mud jack" the steps back to where they should be, but I decided the steps were ugly enough to be replaced. Or simply buried, which is what I opted to do. So one of my projects this summer was to build some bigger, more attractive steps around the existing steps, and to provide a more consistent height for each step.

I decided to bury the steps because: (a) I didn't know what to do with all the concrete I pulled out of there, and (b) I didn't have much spare soil to fill in the steps. Leaving the steps in place made sense.

After redesigning the pond, I was left with many large cement blocks which could provide the step material. First I made the lower ring of steps around the existing steps.


Then I built up this layer with soil and other left-over blocks and built the second layer. More filling and the landings were covered with left-over flagstone to match the patio.

The resulting steps are not perfect, but they are much better than the original cement steps, and now the height of each step is a consistent 6 inches.