Front steps to house unlevel. Suggestions?

[Derrickwade]

I plan on sprucing the house up a bit. I thought I'd try to level the front steps before putting new siding on the house. My gutters were obviously in rough shape, leading to poor water drainage, then causing the steps and sidewalk to sink. The gutters are fixed now, so we're good there. Any suggestions on leveling these steps? I'm thinking jack up the low side and pouring concrete under it...

 

[Zeke]

You could lift the steps with a long board and a fulcrum. Go a little high, shove some drypack under there with the edge of a board and let the stairs down gently. Using wood to cushion the blows, take a sledge to the steps and tap to level. If they goe too far, repeat.

I might even excavate a bit under them and use more drypack which is nothing more than sackcrete that has too little water added. But it will harden to rock.

 

[Derrickwade]

That's a great idea.

 

[Zeke]

That's a great idea.

It's what I do.

 

[mdale]

You could look into mudjacking, but not sure on what that
would cost.

 

[kbs2244]

I had a wider stair mud jacked for $150.00
Money well spent IMHO
Make a phone call and get an estimate.

 

[APEowner]

Zeke has it nailed. While those steps are going to be a bit on the heavy side this isn't a complicated structural job. Lift 'em up and shove something under them. I'm not sure I'd even mess with the drypack. Dirt/fine gravel will work for years once the drainage issue is fixed.

Personally, I'd take the opportunity to either center the steps in front of the door (to keep my head from exploding) but that's more a reflection of my precarious mental state than any real need.

 

[Danver]

Personally, I'd take the opportunity to either center the steps in front of the door (to keep my head from exploding) but that's more a reflection of my precarious mental state than any real need.

I'm surprised I didn't notice that.

But functionally I'm sure that extra room on the left is great when opening and entering through the door.

 

[buddyboy]

measure the rise in your steps, you may consider lowering the high side, instead of raising the low one.

but like others have said, you can do a lot with a shovel and time.

 

[volleyball]

Zeke has it nailed. While those steps are going to be a bit on the heavy side this isn't a complicated structural job. Lift 'em up and shove something under them. I'm not sure I'd even mess with the drypack. Dirt/fine gravel will work for years once the drainage issue is fixed.

Personally, I'd take the opportunity to either center the steps in front of the door (to keep my head from exploding) but that's more a reflection of my precarious mental state than any real need.

The steps are centered, It is just that the house slid sideways.

I would not align them to the door, it would make the walkway off and then he'd have to pour more walkway.

It looks like the stairs have been that way forever, the siding was hung around the tilt. Pry the low side up with a jack, fill in underneath and lower back down keeping the thing higher at the house side so it will continue to drain.

 

[Punchwood]

If it were me I'd bust them out of there and do something with wood. Maybe longer, deeper, and aesthetically pleasing. Sorry, but what you have isn't much to look at.

 

[Red05GT]

We had a client with a larger stoop than this that had settled 2.5" at the rear of the stoop
against the poured basement wall. We dug down under both sides, used a bottle jack under each side and jacked them back up to its original elevation. We then wedge bolted a 3 x 3
angle iron to the basement wall on each side to support the stoop, and removed the jacks,
and backfilled. Its been 4 years and they haven't moved a bit.

 

[Playwme]

If it were me I'd bust them out of there and do something with wood. Maybe longer, deeper, and aesthetically pleasing. Sorry, but what you have isn't much to look at.

Ditto. Looks to be plenty of space. I'd chuck a nice sized deck in there and run a nice long ramp down to the footpath, a few stainless balustrades and a pair of pencil pines in big concrete pots to frame the deck and break up the big expanse of the walls.

 

[jkwilson]

A lot of times people will pour that porch and the section of sidewalk in front of it as one pour. If that's the case, you will have to be very, very careful to keep from cracking the sidewalk. I did almost the same thing you are wanting to do and thought all was good until the first slab of the sidewalk cracked the next day. I used a 4X6 12' long on a fulcrum, with the end of the beam attached to my tractor drawbar with a come-along. That way I could crank the come-along until the porch was level.

Looking at the step though, it looks like there is a line on it that might have been where the sidewalk originally met the step. If that's the case, it looks like the porch actually heaved on the left side rather than sinking on the right or the sidewalk has settled differently.

 

[1grnlwn]

I like the Idea of digging out under the left side. If you scrape out just to the center point you can use the center point as fulcrum to adjust angle. This assumes that the porch is flat on the bottom that is a bad assumption. Back in the day concrete was cheap and no telling what lies beneath. Good luck!

 

[volleyball]

Ideally you need to go up or down to keep the step height all the same.
And there may be a bunch of rubble falling out when you start lifting either side.

 

[MoparTrucks]

Gotta agree with the wood/deck idea. You want your front entrance as a focal point.


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[LS6 Tommy]

I'm by no means a professional Mason, nor do I claim to know better, but it seems to me that many of these ideas would cost more in labor & time than just breaking the old steps up, pouring a proper slab to prevent settling & building new steps. You could also get rid of that big distance between the stoop & the door. It may not be any bigger than mine, but I'm not sure if that height distance is within code and again, I'm not a Mason. I redid mine about 3 years ago. Here's a quick phone photo. They're REALLY dirty from the big oak tree dropping **** in all the rain, but I think they came out OK:



Tommy

 

[Zeke]

Zeke has it nailed. While those steps are going to be a bit on the heavy side this isn't a complicated structural job. Lift 'em up and shove something under them. I'm not sure I'd even mess with the drypack. Dirt/fine gravel will work for years once the drainage issue is fixed.

Personally, I'd take the opportunity to either center the steps in front of the door (to keep my head from exploding) but that's more a reflection of my precarious mental state than any real need.

No need for the extra deck on the swing side. The storm door most likely has a closer on it so it swings at most 100º open. You have a little room to be on the top step to open the door w/o stepping back down.

 

[volleyball]

Gotta agree with the wood/deck idea. You want your front entrance as a focal point.

I am not a fan of a front deck. Tends to look odd is most locations. Why not go for a 8' deep full width porch with a nice roof over it since the house is being resided? That will make a nice focal point.

I assume there is more pressing need for the budget money and he figured he might as well fix the steps. I know that was my case. And my steps are far larger and heavier. They are now almost level with a slight pitch for positive
drainage and will probably stay that way until the GJ building fund set up for me is large enough for me to buy some columns and stone Lions to do it right.