Exterior stairs take a special place in the exterior of a private house. If the theater begins with a hanger, then the house begins with the stairs, and not with the front door, as they say. After all, before getting into the house, you must go through one, two, or even all ten steps, framed by railings or without them. And if in a new building the staircase is designed together with the house, then what about the entrance to the already finished house? After all, not everyone gets the perfect house with a chic front door.
How to remake unsightly steps by making a solid approach to the main entrance.
First, you need to determine what material the steps will be made of. It can be concrete, wood, metal, glass, or plastic. A wooden staircase is best suited for a staircase made of wood, and for a brick building, a structure made of a similar material is more impressed. Although outdoor brick stairs are extremely rare due to their weak strength, and have no more than two or three steps. So the new owners have to rebuild such structures in a new way.
In order to build a new staircase made of concrete, it is necessary to dismantle the old structure, which, if not made of wooden elements, must be bound with cement mortar. In such types of work, perforators, which are very often required in private housing construction and repair, become the best helpers. Having smashed the old staircase to the ground, it is necessary to clear and outline the place for new steps.
After preparatory operations, a pit 20-30 cm deep is dug along a given perimeter, at the bottom of which a gravel pad or a mixture of crushed stone and sand is laid. Since the staircase is cast separately from the whole house, it should be "tied" to the main structure. These can be anchors or ordinary pieces of reinforcement driven into the foundation or basement of the building. And here, too, a puncher will come in handy.
Formwork can now be built from wooden planks or plywood. Remember that the width of the steps should be at least 43 foot size or 28 cm, while the height can be made arbitrary, as long as it is convenient for you to climb the porch or directly to the doors. For better strength against distortions and cracking, a reinforcing or wire frame is laid in the structure (the suitable dimensions of construction reinforcement can be found here , and wire here ) for each step. The solution is prepared in the same way as for the foundation. If external stairs are planned with metal railings, then you need to drive pieces of reinforcement into the formwork, to which the balusters will then be welded.
