Building new steps with bricks.. a nuff nuff question or few ..

[benaud2]

Hi all,

I have a question about building steps (2 to be exact) using bricks. I am familiar with laying bricks but not sure what the standard method is when it comes to step making.. Essentially there will be two steps running in between two brick pillars.

My nuffter questions are as follows and I apologise in advance.. :))

Do you lay a perimeter of brick and fill with concrete (there is already a solid concrete base), OR do you fill completely with bricks and build layer by layer from the ground up OR do you lay a perimeter of brick with some cross sections such as this -> ---|-----|--- for a compromise between the two. The top will be capped by a bluestone or limestone type of thing, and the front view - brick riser etc rendered.

Also do you need to "join" the steps into the pillar when building the pillar and steps from the ground up to give it extra strength?

I would like the steps to be around the 2.5 brick width wide. If I lay two brick widths along as a step then the capping stone would overhang a little which I understand is not good as they eventually may chip/break with no support. If I lay 3 bricks width wide then it feels just a little tooo big for what I want.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanks

[hallerb]

Cant help most of your questions sorry but be SURE to use the right kind of bricks, some cant be used for pavers they absorb water spall and fall apart.

use paver type

[benaud2]

Thanks - I have a bunch of seconds bricks all good quality. They are the solid core red bricks so I assume that will be strong enough if setup correctly

[e-mail] wrote:

[benaud2]

Thanks - I have a bunch of seconds bricks all good quality. They are the solid core red bricks so I assume that will be strong enough if setup correctly

[e-mail] wrote:

[Italian]

I can help you with this step by step but first...what the heck are you talking about here?

Ok.....Ok.........I just got it...sorry. If you want brick to show on the the step riser simply lay the stone first on the step (first step at the bottom) then face the riser lay the second stone face the riser ect. Lay = industry term laying block, laying brick, laying stone....

It sounds like you dont want to "build" steps you want to "face" a set of concrete steps 2 very different things..

Are the pillars going to be resting on the steps? or are they at the top resting on the landing? In either case NO you do not have to "join them" Im just trying to get a better picture of what you are doing.

If each step if going to be capped you would only need to put the brick on the face of the "riser" (the part at the front of your shoe) as this is the only area that would be visable correct? Also a little bit of an over hang is not going to be a problem with both materials you have listed. If you are under a couple of inches (2) this is fine. You also have the option to cut the stone or have them cut to size from your suplier.

[e-mail] wrote:

[benaud2]

Thanks so much.., I am glad you understood what I was talking about.

Italian wrote:

Ideally this is what I am trying to confirm as what method is best. Do I set a croncrete block in the shape of the two steps (since it will be rendered and capped with bluestone etc it does not matter re the material used) or do I pour concrete to fill in a perimeter of bricks to give brick steps extra strength or do I make a solid brick set of two steps. Not sure which way is stronger/cost effective etc. Probably the best option I can see materials/effort wise is to do a hollow brick perimeter - leaving it hollow because the capping stones will cover over the top. My only concern here is strength.

The pillars will be resting on the concrete base so No they do not need the steps to be laid out. The top step will go between the pillars, the bottom step will sort of wrap around the front base of the pillars. I was only going to 'join' them into the pillars so there would be additional strength and reduce any movement. But if that is not required then bonus.

Yes that is correct. I am happy to simply brick in the shell - the risers - and have enough support for the capping stones with a hollow middle but how strong would that be? If a step comprised of two 'walls' with about a single brick width hollow in the middle and a capping stone of around an 1/2 to an inch or just under (around 1.5 - 2 cm) as the tread would this be strong enough?

Also a little bit of an

Thanks for that, I was hoping a very slight overhang would be allowed, but was told by a supplier that this was not a good idea due to the breakage..

Thanks again