Enhancing Your Space with a Concrete Patio Stair
Over were the past several weeks, here on our website, we’ve looked at several different decks and patios that are built in relatively unique styles and arrangements. We’ve also had an opportunity to take a look at a couple different concrete and or masonry type patios that are either well built or have interesting design elements. When we look at work that’s been done in the past, especially by others, we can often find several details that don’t meet our own quality standards or meet the requirements of the building code. Today, we’re looking at an interesting deck that has an exposed aggregate at the surface.
The picture below shows a cast in place concrete patio stair. This stairway connects the yard of the property to the upper elevated patio. Here in Washington, DC, our outdoor spaces are often very limited and ratios are often constrained by the limitations of the exterior spaces. When ample space is abundant, there’s a couple rules of thumb that we would generally recommend.
To a point, lower risers that stairways and deeper treads make the stairway more comfortable. The building code sets limitations for the width of stair treads and we would recommend exceeding these minimum widths at any opportunity where space is abundant. However, as we mentioned, one of the big problems and realities here in Washington, DC is that space is rarely abundant. We have to work within the confines of the type property lines associated with typical row home or joined building construction. This particular case is an anomaly because the stairs are built extra wide and with comfortable deeper tread depths and wider tread widths.
If you look very closely at the stairway though, you might notice a particular problem. The lowest stair tread has been modified, it wasn’t built short, but the ground around it has been built up to accommodate a modified level of the retained earth in the adjacent retaining wall. Essentially they’re using this retained earth as a planter or a walkway, but the grade has been raised higher. Raising that grade higher now changes the tread height at the lowest step. That lowest riiser, now, is shorter than it should be.
In this particular case though, the entire run of the stairway remains relatively close to the adjacent grade of the land in the yard. Since the stairway follows the path of the sloped grade, it doesn’t necessarily go outside of the building code’s limitations at all locations.
If you look closely at the uppermost part of the stairway though, it does look higher than the rest of the stairway, in relation to the height of the adjacent grade. That portion of the stairway may be higher than the building code allows. In typical residential Building home construction, of certain types of zoning and classifications, an elevation of 30 inches or more requires a guardrail, in parts of Washington, DC
Another unrelated small detail, if you look very closely at the second tread up, you may notice a very small weep hole installed at the base of the third riser. This weep allows water to drain from the planter area where it can accumulate against the inside of the retaining wall. It’s important to have weeps, but with a weep this small, we are concerned that it will be quickly clogged, even after being cleaned out, it will re-clog again very quickly because it’s so small. Proper weep systems should be built with a combination of different alternative types of materials.
One type of material that can be installed in hydrostatic pressure relief systems is a filter fabric used to wrap around a gravel base. Perforated piping should then be set inside of this gravel base which will allow the draining water to be filtered, to an extent, before it enters into the pipework.
One thing you might notice about this particular stairway is that although it conforms to the grade of the adjacent yard, the stair has no handrail or guardrail. The building code specifically states that areas over to find Heights in elevation may require a guardrail, and this is integded to protect people from falling off the edge. Falls from greater than certain heights can serious injury.
The exposed aggregate used at tge stair rreads creates an area of visual interest. In this coming weeks edition of our blog, we will discuss the steps and processes in forming, casting, curing and finishing concrete like this.
We recommend building and homeowners here in Washington DC use a contractor, like us, who understands and cares about quality, deck and patio longevity, snd simply doing things right. Always, feel free to reach out to us here at Dupont Decks and Patios, you can give us a can or just drop us a line. We are happy to help with almost all steps of the deck and patio building and design process. Let us know about your ideas and talk to us if you have questions about possibilities. You can call us at (202) 774-9128. You can find us online at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com and you can email us there as well at https://dupontdeckspatiosdc.com
