Hello,

My garage is on a slope and there were steps made from timber decking
but they have seen better days. I was going to make a small flight of
steps with bricks and paving slabs. The steps would be about 800mm
wide and 600mm high (that's in total, not per step). I was hoping to
make the riser two bricks high and have three steps.

I know I need to pour a concrete foundation beneath the bricks but I
am unsure how deep. I have found various web sites via google and they
all give different answers. I find answers from 100mm to 200mm. I have
to say I have never found anything that substantial under garden walls
or garden steps but perhaps they haven't been built properly!

What does the group think?

Thanks,
Stephen.

On 09/10/15 10:05, Stephen wrote:
Hello,

My garage is on a slope and there were steps made from timber decking
but they have seen better days. I was going to make a small flight of
steps with bricks and paving slabs. The steps would be about 800mm
wide and 600mm high (that's in total, not per step). I was hoping to
make the riser two bricks high and have three steps.

I know I need to pour a concrete foundation beneath the bricks but I
am unsure how deep. I have found various web sites via google and they
all give different answers. I find answers from 100mm to 200mm. I have
to say I have never found anything that substantial under garden walls
or garden steps but perhaps they haven't been built properly!

What does the group think?

Thanks,
Stephen.


One one hand things have been built on compacted earth and survived. In
other cases, things done so will move a bit and may crack.

Me: I'd dig it out to 12", ram 6-8" hardcore in then add 3-4" of
concrete - not even all over unless you feel like it, but around the
base line of the bricks.

That should be incredibly solid.

Thanks everyone for the help. In the end I put about 4 inches of
concrete in. By the time I had mixed 200kg, my back wasn't in the mood
to do any more!

I did think that next time I should use a cement mixer but even then
you have to shovel the stuff in.

On 09/10/15 10:05, Stephen wrote:
Hello,

My garage is on a slope and there were steps made from timber decking
but they have seen better days. I was going to make a small flight of
steps with bricks and paving slabs. The steps would be about 800mm
wide and 600mm high (that's in total, not per step). I was hoping to
make the riser two bricks high and have three steps.

I know I need to pour a concrete foundation beneath the bricks but I
am unsure how deep. I have found various web sites via google and they
all give different answers. I find answers from 100mm to 200mm. I have
to say I have never found anything that substantial under garden walls
or garden steps but perhaps they haven't been built properly!

What does the group think?

depends on what the soil is like. Clay moves a lot, sand washes away

Plenty of people will lay slabs on a mixof hardcore and sand with no
concrete at all.

You need a foundation for two purpose - first is to provide a rigid base
to stop what's built on it cracking - if you reinforce concrete, that
really works - the other reason is to prevent it sinking onto the soil.
For that just hardcore works




Thanks,
Stephen.



--
Global warming is the new Margaret Thatcher. There is no ill in the
world it's not directly responsible for.

Stephen wrote:
Hello,

My garage is on a slope

Do the cans of paint fall off the ends of the shelves?

I know I need to pour a concrete foundation beneath the bricks but I
am unsure how deep. I have found various web sites via google and they
all give different answers. I find answers from 100mm to 200mm. I have
to say I have never found anything that substantial under garden walls
or garden steps but perhaps they haven't been built properly!

It isn't a motorway is it? So just use your common. Dig down until you
find decent solid undisturbed ground. Mix the concrete as dry as you can
because that makes it stronger. Don't step the concrete leaving a neck
because that's where it will crack. Lay the concrete as a sloping ramp
and build on that (another reason for mixing it fairly dry), filling the
gaps in the first course with concrete used as mortar and bits of brick.
Further courses should be normal mortar. Make the surface of the
concrete very rough. Make the concrete a bit wider than the structure it
supports. If it moves you want it to move in one piece, not crack half
way up. I'd consider putting some steel bars in it. The cheapest way of
getting these is to buy some 10mm threaded bar from a proper fixings
shop (not B & Q etc). Use rough stone (not rounded pebbles) to fill the
gap between the sloping concrete and the flags, with an inch of coarse
sand on top for the flags to bed down into. Put a slight forward fall on
each flag so water runs off. Each flag (step) should overhang an inch or
so to provide some nosing.

Bill

On Fri, 09 Oct 2015 10:05:01 +0100, Stephen
wrote:


I know I need to pour a concrete foundation beneath the bricks but I
am unsure how deep. I have found various web sites via google and they
all give different answers. I find answers from 100mm to 200mm. I have
to say I have never found anything that substantial under garden walls
or garden steps but perhaps they haven't been built properly!

What does the group think?

http://www.pavingexpert.com/featur01.htm is usually the most reliable
reference.