Masonry stairs to deck

rocks911

I am wanting to build a set of steps to access a retaining wall. My back yard has a pool with a concrete/aggregate deck and the deck leads to a stone retaing wall about 3' high. The wall divides an upper area where I am going to put a hot tub. I would like to construct a set of stairs to access the upper area. There would be probably 2 treads and the the top of the wall would act as the landing. Pretty simple stuff I'm sure but I've not done much in the area of masonry so I'm not sure how to proceed.

There is a decorative course of smaller stone, a few inches tall, that runs along the bottom of the wall that had cracked badly and was pulling away from the retaining wall which I "fixed" last year. It's just as bad this year. Apparently I was supposed to use some kind of product that causes the decorative stone to adhere to the existing stone wall. I simply "buttered" two sides of the stone with mortar and slapped them in place. Well they're cracked again. I might just eliminate them entirely, they're just used to conceal where the deck ends but I can just as easily clean out the seam and fill it with the same material that I used for the pool seal, I'm pretty good at that. I mention this because I was wondering what I'm supposed to use to get the two surfaces to bond well. I hope this makes sense to someone, but is there something applied, some sakrete product or something similar that you wash onto the surfaces before mortaring stones in place?

Is there a site that explains how to build these stairs? Or could someone explain how to do it?

I suppose something like haydite block with stone attached would work for the stairs?

rocks911

Alright lets try something simpler.

Lets say I will use haydite block as the treads, how do I adhere a block to my deck so it will stay put and not crack?

rocks911

Underwhelmed

43harley45

Check out Epobond or Duracrete at info@lmcc.com . or here in Canada I used to sprinkle a product called seal bond where I was going to put mortar (that also had seal bond in the mixture) to start joining brick to concrete or stone. On the Internet there is information on making your own mortar which is stronger than the store bought mixtures. The store bought mixtures are good when fresh and properly stored.....it's just that YOU don't know how fresh or if it has been stored properly.

A case in point......I bought caulking from HomeDepot. It is cold up here and if Caulking freezes it's no good...comes out in chunks. I had bought a case and they refused to replace it because 'they' said it had been properly warehoused.....their warehouse is not heated.

Good luck
Doran

TRUEPRO

Call professional to build them. Trust. Your looking at around $450 for everything including 8" footer.