Dirt erosion underneath concrete front steps, fill with gravel?

NewHomeDIYGuy

Hello,

We have poured concrete front steps that lead into our house from the ground level, and I've always noticed how there's dirt missing underneath them, but finally getting around to addressing the issue. The home was built in '85, and fortunately the stairs haven't sunk yet *knock on wood*, but I'm wondering what can be done to prevent the erosion from getting any worse, and possibly filling in the void created by some soil erosion.

I wouldn't classify the erosion as terrible (to my untrained eyes), but I'll post up a picture later. The house has proper drainage with gutters working properly and long black tubes to carry the water away from the house. However, I would like to do what's best to try and fill in the void underneath part of the concrete steps, to avoid them sinking down the road.

Can I buy bags of a certain kind of gravel and fill in underneath the steps vs. just dirt? Any advice is greatly appreciated. There could've been a problem w/ water drainage at some point that caused the erosion (I just bought the house a year ago), but drainage definitely isn't a problem now.

Edit: Pictures uploaded

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NewHomeDIYGuy

I uploaded the pictures so you can see what I mean. It looks like the dirt has receded slightly (a few inches), as the mulch is now a couple inches below the brick line. Would more mulch/dirt be fine to raise the level closest to the house by the brick? Regarding the steps, you can see from the picture where there is dirt missing underneath the steps. I should've moved some of those bricks for the picture, but it's missing dirt behind them as well. Thanks for any advice!

jimmy21

It looks like the problem is just that it was poured on top of the ground instead of being dug out a few inches and then being back filled after. I would suggest packing dirt/rock under as well as you can. Use an ax handle or whatever and pack it up in there. Then back fill a little bit with soil. So the concrete is buried by a few inches

Actually looking at the pics. It was probably buried at one point and someone removed too much dirt. Add some dirt back