Neighbour's steps

My neighbour, having made the world's worst letter box out of bits of rough-sawn bits of fence timber attached to a concrete fence with a bent nail, has now decided to make his version of steps up a six metre bank. Here's my steps that I prepared earlier:

Better than some council made stuff in woodland at first glance

He is making little rectangular boxes out of the same timber and pegging them into the soil. I await what happens up the top where it gets really steep. I hope he has a hand rail.

Errr.... Whats that up the RHS then?

Set up the motion detect cameras and await the footage. Post to Youtube and enjoy

Those are the steps that I built. The neighbour's steps and letterbox are too horrible to show, and maybe I shouldn't show them anyway. He's made four steps out of 40 so far.

How big is "little". How big and how mnay are the pegs?

Filled boxes can work, but looking at the bank at your steps the pegs will have to go a good 18" into firm, rather than leaf litter, ground to be effective.

Colin Bignell

Indeed.

Are they worse than this?

No? Then they're not too horrible to show. Yes? Then they _need_ to be seen.

Won't somebody complain about his privacy being breached? What I don't understand is why someone in a five million dollar house would try to make his own letterbox. Although I am going to make my own letterbox one day, but then it's going to look amazing!

Obviously not got an angle grinder, just a saw?

From your description these steps sound more like ornimental than functional. Brian

Are you waiting for a big block of iron to angle grind into a letter box or are you going into casting?

If your laws are the same as ours, you should be OK if you take a photo from public land. That should, at least, allow us a view of the letterbox.

Obviously he wanted something unique.

That I don't doubt. I also suspect it might look like a tram.

Colin Bignell

Those are the steps that I built. The neighbour's steps and letterbox are too horrible to show, and maybe I shouldn't show them anyway. He's made four steps out of 40 so far.

What's the point of referencing someone's c*ck up only to link a picture to what *isn't* their work ??

You need more alcohol

No point in posting pictures of your steps Matty, we want to see his.

How about taking a few pictures each day to record his progress and stitching them into a time-lapse video on youtube.

The rectangular boxes are (outside) 600mm x 350mm and 150mm high and have a peg in each corner. Since the boxes overlap, the steps will have a 260mm tread 600 wide and 150mm high. I suppose that could work. But up the top the slope is almost vertical. If I were him I would make several sections of about 10 steps with side rails and peg all that into the ground.

Actually I wanted to make it look like my house. But maybe that would look kitsch. What kind of letterbox did colonial houses have?

OK here's the letterbox

Rustic

Will be fine when planted with Japanese Knotweed to tie it into the earth bank

I think I prefer a tram. You could have a double decker with an open driving position that acts as the letter slot.

A hole in the ground for the forked stick?

Well, that is unique.

That will be interesting when the nails rust through.

Colin Bignell

But atleast he is trying.

Baz

He could grow tulips in them.

Has he given the slightest thought to decay? Is that wood treated in any way at all? Even if it is, surely the local wood-loving creatures will eventually do for it.

Here in NZ we are allowed to treat timber with copper and chrome and arsenic. H3 treatment is OK outside but not in soil. H4 lasts for many years in soil. I suspect he is using H3 timber. My steps are H4. A building contractor has had a look at the steps and gone away. The steps have now been removed, and new ones made. I can't see any improvement.