Any building gurus here ?

[GlennB]

No builder me, so I'd appreciate any advice. I'm aiming to build a breeze block and paving stone staircase down from a raised path to a lower patch of garden. The total drop is about 3'6"

 

I've dug a 4' x 8' trench, 10" deep (to bedrock - it's rocky here). Made a timber form around it.

Put in about 5" of hardcore and smashed and tamped that down hard with a sledgehammer. Yes, my back hurts.

 

Some questions:

 

Should I aim to apply the concrete in one go, or is it a good/OK/rotten idea to use some fairly sloppy concrete mix to fill the voids in the hardcore first while leaving it rough enough for the final concrete?

 

I have loads of old "L" section metal fence posts, about 1" x 1" section. Would it be useful to embed these?

 

The staircase will run alongside a drystone wall that sits on the bedrock. Would it be helpful to drive metal rods into the wall gaps and cement them into the stairs?

 

Should I infill the hollow sections of the final staircase with hardcore/concrete? Between the breeze blocks I mean, not in the block voids. I'm worrying here about the total weight that ends up sitting on these footings.

 

Other good advice might be obvious to youse who know about these things

 

Cheers

Edited February 14, 2009 by GlennB

[five bellies]

If you are on bedrock the footings won't be an issue and the hardcore will ony serve to level up and save on the amount of Concrete you use, Breeze blocks have poor weathering qaulities and should be renderd if exposed to the elements they also dont have the compresive strenth I would look for in steps and they will suck water up like a sponge in the wet and if it should freeze they will blow they will also get mossy, when you poor your concrete agitiate it with a rod to get it to fill all the nooks if you have an orbital sander run the pad of that over the formwork even the vibrations from that will cause the viods to fill up,you can hire a vibrating tool made for the job. as for infilling step risers prior to laying the treader I would especialy if you are going to use Breeze blocks it would add to the strength then all the blocks would be doing is acting as a faceing that would still need rendering but would be stronger, as for tying the stairs to the dry stone wall with angle irons I cant help there I have never worked on or with one not a lot of them in Kent I would suggest that the concrete would key into the open stone work on its own. one last thing make sure all your risers are the same hight your brain after about three steps has worked out the spacing of the steps if they keep changing you will constantly keep tripping up them.

 

That is how I would approach it mate hop that helps

[GlennB]

That helps a lot, 5B. Ta!

 

If you're still here though, what do you think of putting some of this angle iron into the footings as reinforcement? Useful?

[barry luxton]

That helps a lot, 5B. Ta!

 

If you're still here though, what do you think of putting some of this angle iron into the footings as reinforcement? Useful?

 

As long as it is not too rusty and make sure you bury it more than 50mm same as driving the metal into the wall, make sure you have enough cover as it will do more damage in the long term than good.

 

As an alternative do you have a steel stockholder where you can get some odd lengths of reinforcing bar or high tensile bar, say 12mm really don't cost a lot of dosh, if it was me that is what i would use to put your mind at rest, good luck with your project, sounds interesting.

Edited February 15, 2009 by barry luxton

[five bellies]

I agree with Barry, Glenn get some off cuts of Re bar it is made for the job most sites will have a odd ends the the steel guys would give you for a beer. the depth it is set into the concrete is important as barry mentioned to near the surface it will oxidise and blow your slab.

[GlennB]

OK, a proper job it is. Thanks for the advice

[Ken Davison South Wales]

We are talking five garden steps max constructed on bed rock, would hardly think rebar is a requirement for a strong structure, a good mix is the key factor and your rusty steel will be ok if covered by 50mm of well tamped concrete. Here is a link which is great for calculating quantities for a decent mix.

[barry luxton]

Nasty habit of mine doing more than minimum, in particular after spending 25 plus years underpinning and structural repairs to peoples properties, including diy disasters. 4.2.1 would be the weakest mix i would use in that slab. for the sake of a couple of bags of cement i would make it a bit stronger. If it was mine i would try to get some bar as five bellies suggested.

[Ken Davison South Wales]

No builder me, so I'd appreciate any advice. I'm aiming to build a breeze block and paving stone staircase down from a raised path to a lower patch of garden. The total drop is about 3'6"

 

Am I missing something? Glenn is building some garden steps not laying the foundations for a massive building. He is starting from bedrock so nothing is going any where. Level the area with concrete and start building, just hope he is ok with heights

[barry luxton]

Am I missing something? Glenn is building some garden steps not laying the foundations for a massive building. He is starting from bedrock so nothing is going any where. Level the area with concrete and start building, just hope he is ok with heights

 

 

 

Level the area with concrete and start building, I wouldn't even do that for a shed base.

 

Am I missing something. Only so far as to how long the said item is to last.

 

The answer to that question, i dunno, err on the side of caution.