Replace dangerous side steps

[mm]

OK, they're much bigger than I thought (yet not big enough to put an intermediate step in like I did with pavers between my stoop and front door.)

And there are two steps, not one, and the first step didn't sink wrt the second as the other guy suggested and I thought.

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.

And the first step is not shaped to make it that easy to layer wood on it. And maybe a layer of cement wouldn't be any harder, but that brings us back to my previous paragraph and the step from the top step to the door sill.

A picture is truly worth a thousand words.

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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

BTW, posts fall off binary newsgroups pretty quickly. Before my ISP changed, it was only 1 or 2 days, I think. NOw they hired a service to handle their news and went from keeping text posts 6 months to several years, so it is probably more for binary too, but I don't know how much. Or other isps.

I had in mind those websites where people post pictures of their family etc. which apparently are free too, but I have no idea how long they can stay there. I was looking at one yesterday, and pictures were disappeaaring while I looked at it. It went from 6 down to 1! I don't know if age was a reason or not.

So I don't know which are easier to use.

Also, if you get no answers, post again under a new thread with a somewhat different thread name, so that things come out at the end.

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.

[aspasia]

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

6".) Bottom riser is 6".

Also, I think there's supposed to be some kind of landing on top, which I would like them to make, if I ever get the job done.

Yeah, I ran through all those possibilities, and nothing worked except replace the whole thing.

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.

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

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

Most definitely.

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

I doubt strongly if such a thing exists!

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!

. [...]

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

If by Date, mine should be near the top.

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

Thanks for your interest and help.

aspasia

[mm]

That you said before, but then there is an additional step up to the door sill, and it looked like about 9 inches too.

6 + 9 + 9 = 24 / 3 = 8, so that might be okay. Divided by 4 = 6 would be better if you say it's supposed to be 6 inches. (That's probably what I have too, but I can't remember numbers well.)

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

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?

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

OK, I hadn't read this far when I wrote what was above, but I don't like to delete. :)

They certainly have 2-step prefab cement steps, and frankly I think they 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 very far up 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.

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.

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, 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.

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.