The owner was tired of having his
porch steps rebuilt and repaired. In
the 70 years he had lived at the
house these wooden steps had been
completely rebuilt twice. In the last
22 years they had been repaired at
least three times. My job was to
rebuild them again, but with long life
and low maintenance in mind.
Hopefully the owner wouldn't have
to worry about them again.
Existing Conditions
Decay had weakened the structural
members underneath, so that the
treads moved and shifted every time
they were walked on. Peeling paint
and checked wood gave the steps a
shabby appearance (see Figure 1), but
were only indications of the true
problem, which was poor drainage.
In fact, a