Needed to replace the steps up to our veggie garden. The old ones had lasted over twenty years and the front board had pulled out, look close at last picture to see board separation. Both of the pictures of step progress were upside down.
DW had two falls in the last 18 months both resulted in falls with bone fractures in both cases. She loves growing flowers, shrubs, trees, and veggies.
Went to local board store bought 7 - 2x6 cedar boards 2 - 2x4 cedar boards for hand rail. All boards were 8 feet long, almost no material left over.
Built the five 15"x24" steps and cut the runners bottom ends at 22 degree angle. Cut verts and hand rail. End of day one.
Day two stitched step boxes together using #9 x 3" coated deck screws. Cut the runner upper ends off at 22 degrees. Screwed them to the steps boxes. I don't have a big table in the middle of my shop (garage). So all the work was done with me on the floor. Not a lot of work got done that day but my body was worn out getting up and down.
Went to the gravel store and bought 1/2 yard of crushed 3/4 minus rock. Was easily enough. Moving the rock took me awhile. Loved being finished. Took two Tylenol,slept great that night.
Handy accoutrement for a minefield some refer to as "a garden"... I hate gardening.
gdaveg commented 43 minutes ago Splint & Pottz, ..... 24" step width not very big so rail went to outside. I plan to cap rail with 1x4 flat.
Just make sure you nail it to the right side, and coat your hands with "splinterproof".
BTW, in my humble opinion, that gardenminefield has now been planted with 5 APLs. A few trips (no pun intended... yet) up/down those stairs will dislodge enough gravel to make the trip a literal trip (pun intended) unless you add a wire rope, and put on your green gardening gear, May I suggest you be the dummy! I speak from experience... maybe a coat of concrete, and it slows the growth of weeds.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
No lazy stair climber for me!... why the hell do you think I installed the lift? I get my exercise standing in the lift and not parking my rrrs in a chair.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD
I like the glass phone booth Duck, Just like Superman, you walk in as Alex, adorn your underwear, and come out as LBD. Always thought it odd that no one recognized Clark Kent in his underwear and no glasses. The exposure with the clear glass would "out" your identity to any peepers near by, but the retinal damage observing the outfit change would blind them and make them useless as eye witnesses!
I did a one-sided rail system on stairs a while back. The original stairs were monstrous rocks and I built winding wood stair over them. I think they were around 4' wide. I put the rail on the inside of the curve, which is where the drop was. The other side was cushioned by an old be of ivy.
By not putting rail up on both sides, it was far easier to move furniture and appliances to the basement. The wide stairs made it easy to stay on track, going down the winding stairs.
Since I like to have 4,287 projects all going at once, so my house never looks done to the assessor I'm, also, doing another stairs with pavers, rebar (goes through bricks and into holes drilled to hold things in place) and it uses your gravel approach too.
In the end, works good, looks nice, lasts longer than a whatever candy bar used that line. . .
