Wednesday 4 March 2015

One step beyond

The two areas of the new circle paving and the lawn need to be linked somehow as there is a drop of about 1/2 metre between the two, maybe 3 steps. 



Looking at the available options I decided to just put in some simple sleeper steps using treated pine sleepers from the local Bunnings. I picked up three different sizes for the 3 different steps, shorter ones for the top step, medium for the middle, and long for the bottom where it meets the circle paving. 

Here's a tip, make sure the long ones can fit in the back of your car before you drag them out to the car park (then embarrassingly have to go back in and pay for delivery).



Starting from the bottom up with the longest, I used a reciprocating saw to cut the sleeper to fit in next to the circle paving on a bed of packed stone. No other fixings, these sleepers are BIG!



Look at that nice shiny new barrow! Doesn't look like that any more, trust me!




May as well put the kid to work huh? Working up from the bottom step I packed behind it with stone and then added in the next step on top of the last, then packed and added again behind it, working my way from the bottom up. Two sleepers per step.



Here's the finished job and my son looking very pleased with himself for helping dad out on a hard job! These steps will do the trick until the decks are finished and I look at how I can tie it all together.

(Post note: After the steps were completed the smaller sleepers on the top steps started warping, and eventually had to be taken out as they were just rocking end to end. To do it properly I would suggest laying some wet concrete pads under the ends of the sleepers with holes pre-drilled to align with the pads. Then when the sleepers are down whack some decent length iron rebar through the holes and into the wet concrete. This would hopefully prevent the sleepers from warping. If anyone else has a better idea drop a note below!)

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