These steps were built with a purpose and it was a good one. Humane even. I’ve probably told this story before but it’s ok. I’m old and I can repeat myself.
Sally’s mom lived here with us and Sally gave me some specific instructions. She wanted the steps to be deep enough that one could stand with a walker. Then the artsy/crafty part of here came out. She told me to make it without a specific pattern (whompy jawed for the uninitiated). This is how that looks when done.
Probably 10 years passed and we no longer needed a porch built for her mom. Lack of a roof led to considerable deterioration so we needed to do something. That something grew and grew. The first thing was to go concrete versus wood on the steps. The EPA might have cleaned things up a bunch but treated wood no longer lasts.
One thing I knew for sure. Wooden supports were not going to be sufficient. Using the existing steps to start the forms is ok but I wanted to build the support structure from something that wouldn’t rot. Here you see an angle iron stuck in a hole filled with concrete. The pvc pipe to it’s right will slide over it and the top cut so that the pvc goes just past the bottom of the concrete. Then when you pour the concrete the first thing that is filled with wet concrete is the pvc pipe.
Same thing but just a different step. There are probably three to each step and some of them are square forms made with fence boards. The concrete doesn’t care if it’s square or round and I don’t either. Forms may rot away but the concrete won't. I do want it to last.
This is another thing that was a prime consideration in our plans.
We have a bunch of younguns and I always wanted to have something they could come back to when they are older. Sort of paying forward the memories to their own kids. If you have any concrete surfaces with out of the way areas, this is a suggestion. We had a day when most of the grands were gathered here and we collected these.
Unless you are building in place you need a smooth surface and metal is best. Mix up about a cow patty worth of concrete and drop it on the metal. Helps if you spray the metal just before you put the cow patty down. Smooth things with a trowel. I built a form for the first ones but abandoned that early because this is so easy. Put the kid’s handprint in it and wait for a few minutes. You can slide these things way earlier than you think you can.
We have a bunch of younguns and I always wanted to have something they could come back to when they are older. Sort of paying forward the memories to their own kids. If you have any concrete surfaces with out of the way areas, this is a suggestion. We had a day when most of the grands were gathered here and we collected these.
Unless you are building in place you need a smooth surface and metal is best. Mix up about a cow patty worth of concrete and drop it on the metal. Helps if you spray the metal just before you put the cow patty down. Smooth things with a trowel. I built a form for the first ones but abandoned that early because this is so easy. Put the kid’s handprint in it and wait for a few minutes. You can slide these things way earlier than you think you can.
This is how we put them in the steps but you can mortar them to existing walks and drives. Our handprints are all way over to the left and not in an area that one tends to walk. This picture is of the next to last step that I did and my photo records tell me that it took about a year to do these last three. I like going slowly.
This last step spent some time looking like this because I wanted to make a step without chicken, duck, or dog prints. It only takes a couple hours but I gave it overnight to be sure.
I will get some vinyl repair or some mortar mix to take the granular surface out. I may start up the power washer and get some quick set and resurface the whole mess. You might notice that this picture contains some new lumber. That’s because plans for the near future include screening in the porch to keep the chickens out and this enlarged the porch in a logical place. That will make a lot more sense (I hope) in future blogs.
This story certainly has some gaps and that’s ok. These links will fill in some of those gaps.
http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/redneck-engineering-the-next-step
http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/more-concrete
This story certainly has some gaps and that’s ok. These links will fill in some of those gaps.
http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/redneck-engineering-the-next-step
http://www.grangerlandrfd.com/more-concrete
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