Reasonable Price for set of 3 steps, was : Replace Dangerous Side
Steps.

I apologize for posting this under a new name, but I think people no
longer see this thread (no one but aspasia and I are posting), and
there are some new questions I can't answer.

On Sun, 25 Mar 2007 23:38:27 -0700, aspasia wrote:


And I guess there are only two risers, but isn't the distance from the
top step to the door sill an important distance too, and it seems as
high as the second riser.

Riser from top step to second step is 9". (It's only supposed to be
6".) Bottom riser is 6".

And there is an additional step up to the door sill, and it looked
like about 9 inches too.

6 + 9 + 9 = 24 / 4 = 6 would be good

So that would mean three steps before the sill instead of the two you
have now.

A picture is truly worth a thousand words.

Hope you will check out these pictures and give your
input. So far, I only have one bid for wood steps and
hand rail,which is fine with me. (see earlier in this thread).

I thought this was an additional bid since the thread started. The
guy is asking 4600 for WOOD steps!!!!! I rarely hire anyone to do
anything, but that strikes me as ridiculous to the absurd. Is he
making them out of ebony and teak?

Wood steps he can mostly build at home and assemble at your place!
Plus removal of the old steps.

I see below it is a she. Same comments.

And was that a reasonable price? Less than your grant? Including I
suppose removal of the first steps. Which I suppose requires breaking
them up first, a nothing job for someone who owns an electric jack
hammer, but more work for someone who has to rent one or do it some
other way.

As I posted earlier, my grant was for $4000, and the only bid I
received was $625 over. I asked the City if they could up the grant;
am awaiting reply.

I don't think they should, but maybe they have a list of fairly priced
contractors and carpenters.

The only bidder hasn't replied to my follow-up query, so she must have
decided she's not interested.

Maybe she doesn't want to remove the old heavy steps?

*******That's why I originally posted on this NG -- asking where I
could look for a contractor/handman other than the Yellow Pages.*****

How did those suggestions turn out?


TIA for your advice.

Your bid might be fine. Is it for two steps or three? I don't have a
computer tape measure, but it seems like you need 3.

Most definitely.

OK

If one is shorter than the others, shouldn't it be the lowest step?
Or if it is custom made, will they be the same, even though that might
make each less than standard? People do standard height steps without
thinking.

If custom made -- seems like the only option -- they should be the
same.

I have maybe the least experience in many things of anyone here, but
on a good day I have ideas, some zany, and many questions. Here, I
wonder if you can buy a pre-fab 3step cement steps, and how much prep
has to be done to put it in place.

I doubt strongly if such a thing exists!

They certainly have 2-step prefab cement steps, and I'd be surpirsed
if they didn't have 3-step, but I said I wonder, to encourage others
to reply. **

With my news reader and the settings I use, this thread is 1000 posts
up from the bottom and I have to hunt for it, but another guy said
that with his newsreader, all new posts come to the fore. But no one
else is posting on this thread but you and me, so I may violate some
rule and post this here and again at the bottom with a slightly
different thread name. Look for both.

BTW for me to do this, I can't just change the Subject and post. I
have to start a blank post and copy the text into it. Otherwise there
is hidden information (in the References header) that will keep the
posts in the same thread even if the Subject changes, if that switch
is on in Agent, and probably under some circumstances in other news
clients.

And will it sink, when lighter wooden steps won't. I would think
that neither would sink, given that your current steps have packed the
earth down very well.

Agreed! After all these decades (I am the 2nd owner) it should be!

And what kind of nice railing could be built for prefab cement steps.

And I think wood will require painting every few years, but what bout
that "wood" from recycled plastic they use for decks these days. A
little more expensive but no maintenance required.
.
[...]

Because this group gets so much traffic, this post was pretty high up
from the bottom, and often I don't see followups that are this far up.
With Agent and maybe other pprograms, even if you start a new thread
with the new thread button, if it is called by the same Subject, it
will thread together and I still will see it only way high up. I call
it the Psychology of Computers, when I try to figure out how programs
I have never used work with my email and news posts.

Do you receive your posts "threaded" by Subject, or by Date?

The first post in every thread is in order by date, and the rest of
each thread follows immediately after the first. When I collapse all
the threads, I see only first posts and they are in order by date,
oldest first.

But I can change how long posts are kept, so when posts get old and
get deleted, that changes the first post in the thread and the whole
thread gets sorted to be further down. If a long time has gone by,
there can be a late-arriving post that shows up at the very bottom!

And I can Keep posts so they never disappear. And other features.

Oh, I see you use Agent also.

If by Date, mine should be near the top.

Why do you say that? I probably keep posts longer than you do so for
me this thread is in the middle.

In other groups I save posts for 2 or 3 years. In this one because
there is so much traffic, and because I dl all the bodies, I can only
save about 2000 posts at a time (without asking for help. There is
probably a way to increase something and save more), but for some
reason the earliest non=Kept post I have is about 16 days old. That
would be only 100 and something per day and we get more than that, so
I don't get it, but don't have time to figure it out now.

Because it's still sorted by the first post in the thread, this thread
is about in the middle.

If "threaded", all you have to do is click on the + and it will
unthread the posts to that Subject.

Yeah I know. I see you are using Agent also. I looked at version 2
but didn't like its appearance iirc. I like to keep all threads with
"unread" posts expanded.

Thanks for your interest and help.

aspasia

**She would need a helper to deliver them, maybe 2 helpers. Otoh, if
you bought them, the place you bought them would certainly deliver
them and would come with a helper or a maybe a portable fork-lift or
whatever worked.

If the old steps were gone when they arrived, you could probably tip
them 20 or 30 or 50 dollars and they'd deliver the steps to where they
should be. Maybe that's not so good because you'd still have to find
someone to remove the old steps, and someway to get in between the two
steps. Wooden boxes? I forget what exactly your physical shape is
like now.

I dont know where you live but in my area I got a guy in with a
construction hammer and trailer to remove an old set of front steps .
That was less than $100 for an hours work . The steps were only a few
inches thick but with dirt fill.

Then i got a kit for porch and steps . There were 6 posts to set into
the ground . The porch fastened to the posts, and the railings
fastened to the porch. the steps were about 12 x 2 cut at an angle and
there were cleats to support the stair treads, so the stairs could be
set at whatever height you needed.

Total cost for the kit was less than $500

In my experiance stairs should all be the same height for safety. If
the bottom step is very short (working top down with a standard riser
height) I would landscape a little and raise the ground level. Or
install a concrete pad two or three feet square so there is a little
step up to the pad , then a standard stairs to the porch .

If the old steps were gone when they arrived, you could probably tip
them 20 or 30 or 50 dollars and they'd deliver the steps to where they
should be. Maybe that's not so good because you'd still have to find
someone to remove the old steps, and someway to get in between the two
steps. Wooden boxes? I forget what exactly your physical shape is
like now.


Why would you remove the old steps? The new ones will cover them
completely. Just leave them in place.