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
