Essential Guide to Rear Landing Decks – Part I
Even where there aren’t large decks at the backyards of houses here in Washington DC, we often at least see small landings that lead from my back door of the house out of the elevated level, down to the ground below in the backyard. In most cases, the kitchen will be set at the rear of the ground level of the home. There are multiple common layouts, here in DC, but the kitchen at the back door, at an elevated landing, is often found at buildings without a rear ell.
In comparison, buildings with a rear elll, will often have kitchens set at a ground level with less elevation above the backyard. If you think about all the reasons why this trend or commonality might occur at the architecture and layout of these homes, one of the biggest reasons is simply because buildings without a rear elll generally have a parking space in the yard. Historic homes, from just a little bit earlier often didn’t have parking spaces, instead they might have a carriage house or an old garage, but they instead often just had a small backyard, if they were lucky enough to have enough space.
A picture of the rear of a rowhome with a back door at everywhere else that leads to a kitchen follows below. This particular landing in fact happened to be about 5 ft above the adjacent grade of the yard. The yard space leaves just enough clearance for the car to fit inside of that small yard but to access the back door, a small stairway of about seven treads and risers is offset away from the door.
The door opens inward. Since the door opens inward, it doesn’t require a significant amount of space on the landing itself for the door swing, but nonetheless it’s important that there is a little bit of space for somebody to open the door while standing in front of the door.
The picture below shows that landing more closely. This particular Landing is just like a deck in many ways, it has all of the same components that you’d find at most decks in terms of a functional landing, a Stairway to access the ground and a guardrail around the sides of the landing and a handrail with a guard that follows the path of the stairway. This particular that happens to have a steel diamond plate walking surface with diamond plate prefabricated steel treads that run up the c channel risers at the stairway.
There is a steel frame that wraps around the underside of the landing and the Edge closest to the building is bolted back to the masonry facade, similar to the way a ledger board would be attached at a typical wood deck. At the outer edge of the landing, two steel posts run downwards and are set into concrete footings. All of these components, although built with steel are very similar to the elements and configurations of most backyard wooden decks, its just smaller overall with the steel elements also proportionately smaller in scale.
As you can see in the pictures above, although the landing works just like a deck it’s very useful because it allows access to the doorway. However, this type of simple Landing seems different than a deck because it doesn’t have the same abundant space that we normally find for other uses such as seating and enjoyment of outdoor space in this example, the landing is needed as a simple and functional architectural element, to access tge elevated exterior door. A landing, in this case, has to be just large enough to stand outside, particularly if the swing of the door if a screen door or storm door opens outward, for example.
In this coming week blog article, we’re going to look at a different but similar type of landing built just outside of a rear elevated door. This door also happens to lead directly to the kitchen of the house. Most layouts, here in Washington dc, are similar, but they’re not all exactly the same. The picture shows the deck and landing and stairway that will look more closely at this coming week.
Use a contractor who understands and cares about doing things right. Always, feel free to reach out to us here at Dupont Decks and Patios. We are happy to help with almost all steps of the deck building and design process. A backyard and outdoor space should make a significant, positive impact on both quality of life and home value. We can help with more than just decks, we also build patios, pergolas, ramadas, awnings, gazebos, arbors, and privacy fences.
Let us know about your ideas and talk to us if you have questions about possibilities. We are happy to participate in improving your outdoor space and quality of life! 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/contact-us
