stairs and front porch stuff ... continued.

So 4th of July weekend - three-day weekend so had to keep plugging away on the front porch stairs. Like everything, a job that goes from a spark of an idea of 'hey I can build new stair railings!' to completely redoing the stairs. And maybe all of the porch railings. Hmm, what about the porch floor ... ? No no no - must stay on track to set aside the month of August to, well, paint the whole bloody house.

So stairs ...

Step 1: inspect what the previous owners had done and cringe/laugh/wonder what they were smoking when they did whatever it was they did. Case in point - as a footing for the stairs they apparently figured tossing an ol' garden brick on the ground would suffice -

Awesome! Nah, that won't sink or become unlevel over time ...

Step 2: plan to do work that meets code/will stand the test of time/makes sense/the complete opposite of previous owners/etc. For this particular project, that meant building footings in which to pour, oh I don't know, that cement stuff. So to the garage I went to find scrap 2x4s and 1x4s and got to work -

I had to make five of them but it went pretty fast. I screwed together the 2x4s so I'd be able to easily unscrew them (as opposed to nailing) for taking them off once the concrete had set.

Then it was a matter of digging some holes and burying them in the dirt. The challenge of course (since I wasn't smoking crack or other miscellaneous drugs while doing this) was to make each one level and then across all of them level -

After some pounding here and there mission accomplished! The stringer will then sit on top of the concrete like this (well once there is concrete and the 2x4s are removed) -

And here is my work to the stringers that were just resting on those lowly bricks -

The main stairway had - wait for it ... - two bricks per stringer! Much much better. But still only two stringers, whereas I believe I read somewhere there should be at least one every 16 O.C. So I put in a footing for a third to keep the staircase from sagging in the middle. And then mixed up (I'm getting good at this) and poured the concrete -

Good times.

Of course I was now one stringer short so I had to build another one. Well, I initially made the mistake of copying what the past owners did (note to self: never ever ever do that again and question everything they have ever touched!) so I had gotten some 2x12s to make the stair treads (same as the stairs I was gutting). But then it hit me at some point that a) they will likely bow over time and b) then they will trap water. So I decided even though I had already plunked down the cash (oh, and primed and cut them to size) for the 2x12s to go back to the lumber yard and pick up enough 2x6s to get the job done right - two 2x6s per tread so a) they won't bow over time and b) rainwater will drain through the crack between the two.

Well all that to say that I had some 2x12s laying around which is what stringers are made from. So a couple bucks for some handy square guides to turn my ordinary square into a framing square and I went to work -

After drawing it up and sawing it with a circ saw and about thirty minutes later cos I'm slow and used the square as a guide for the saw since I don't trust my sawing ability in making straight cuts - wallah - a brand new stringer!

And that's as far as I got.

Next step - figure out how to actually bolt the stringers to the concrete footings after installing them and making sure they are level front to back and side to side ...

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Parting shot - awesome birthday present this year from my folks to keep me company in the garage as I work!

And ps - that NeoAir in the background that I just ordered from Therm-A-Rest ... ? Best. Sleeping. Pad. Ever.