It's Finally Safe To Leave The House...

By the back door!

When we bought the house, the 'deck' (really a glorified landing) was crumbling and falling apart. Boards were rotted through, the handrails were no longer attached, and there were even steps missing, which led to people (and pets) falling through a couple of times!

We basically avoided using them as much as possible, and prayed that no one would get severely injured on them before we had a chance to fix them.

Watching a 75lb dog run up and down a couple of times a day, and the steps bowing under her, we realised we would have to replace them, now.

After a trip to HD and Lowes, we found the stand

ard stringers were only premade up to 6 steps - we needed 8. We visited Tart Lumber, who told us they would happily make the 8 step stringers, at a cost of around $78. Per stringer. We needed 3. (Although the old stairs had only 2 - deathtrap!)

The wood itself was only $17 per length, so T decided we were doing it ourselves.
We bought the pieces of wood needed (12"x2"x12') and drove them home sticking 4' out the back of the Versa at 50mph. That was fun.

Out came the skilsaw, jigsaw and drill. We used the old stringer with the least chunks missing as a template. I marked up the new pieces of wood and T cut the triangles out. We then lined them up, made a few adjustments here and there, and screwed them to the deck using metal brackets (a little more sturdy than the 25 yr old nails holding in the previous ones!)

We then attached the 8 brand spanking new treads (premade from Lowes) with screws.
We reattached the handrails and added some support to them at the bottom posts, so they are now pretty sturdy.

I then ran up and down the new stairs repeatedly. They are very sturdy!

They passed Madra's inspection.