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Concrete Stair Riser Fix

4K views 13 replies 5 participants last post by  Guap0_ 
#1 ·
My house has concrete stair access at my front door. There are 6 risers total. The bottom 5 risers are 7 1/2". The top riser that steps onto my front porch is 12 1/2". I don't know how this happened, it was like this when I moved in last year. Short of completely removing & replacing the existing concrete stairs, does anyone have a suggestion or idea to even out these risers? The risers need to be reworked to be around 8 5/16" (6 equal risers) to rise 50" total. I know that 8 5/16" is still above what is normally allowed, but until I can replace the entire stair system, I think it's better that they are all equal rather than having one huge riser. Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Boards shimmed to proper height or cut to proper thickness and tapconned to the existing steps. The first step only needs to raise 1-1/16 but the next one needs 2x 1-1/16 then 3x 1-1/16 etc.
Or a proper stringer tapconned to each side of the steps and wooden boards applied for treads.
 
#6 ·
Here is a photo, although the view is somewhat obstructed from bushes. At the bottom where the picture cuts off, it sort of turns to the left and turns into a spiral sort of stair. I don't really want to add another tread at this point because I don't want to extend the stairs out any further. It might just be the best idea now though, to fix it right if I'm going to spend the time to do it. You can see the whole stair has dropped at the top, there's a full 8" course of CMU (or more) plus the thickness of the slab. This must have happened because of settling because the handrail height at the porch nosing is much shorter than it is at the bottom tread nosing. At the bottom nosing point, the handrail is standard 36" tall.
 

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#10 ·
You can see the whole stair has dropped at the top.
I agree. That's what it looks like to me. Look at the color of the top riser. It's darker than the rest of the stoop. I think that it was patched/re-done at a later date. That's why you have a 12 1/2" riser. If you add more weight, wood or concrete, it might sink some more. I wonder if it can be lifted in some way (mud jacked) & proper footings added?
 
#11 ·
The stoop is a block wall, some fool could have done the math before the top cap was poured, the stairs and cap may have been poured at the same time. Usually when the stairs sink you can see evidence on the wall where it was.
 
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