concrete, brick, stone steps?

This is driving me nuts. My husband has informed me that the next project is the front steps. I've been putting it off mainly because I keep going back and forth about what I want to do, and also the lack of any "concrete" instructions on anything other than poured concrete steps. A photo of what I have to contend with can be found at this url: http://www.rosehawke.com/photos/steps.jpg
I really would like something other than "plain vanilla" concrete steps, but again, I can't seem to find any instructions. Does anybody know of any sites that might give some further info? I suspect that I'm going to end up building the steps out of concrete and then facing them with something, faux stone or thin brick or such. Comments, suggestions, enlightenment, encouragement, etc., all welcome!

 

Hi,

I guess you did several DIY (and good) projects, isn't it?

I agree with you, plain concrete steps will not look fine.

What about concrete steps with cultured stone?

For the concrete steps, go to this site
http://www.concretenetwork.com/

and write "step" in the search, you will find a lot of resources.

Then look for the stone at this site
http://www.culturedstone.com/

Hope this helps!

 

Yup. I'm about through with re-doing the hall (finally!) and then will be moving on to the steps. I'm still of two minds about this: the husband-figure says just put wooden (traditional porch steps) up as that's simpler/quicker. And in any case would look tons better than what's there now. I would still like to do masonry (BTW, your idea of the cultured stone is one I'd already had: and is at the top of my "preferred" list ... great minds think alike !) but really, really, really don't want to have to pour all of that concrete. Even with the mixer that's a lot of concrete, but yet is really not enough to bother having ready-mix delivered. Has anyone built steps out of concrete blocks and then faced them? The risers would be 8" which is not optimum, but still a heckuva lot easier. Blocks don't seem so daunting, somehow.

OBTW, it's problematical, but putting "steps" in any search gives me a *lot* of false hits like ... "Follow these *steps* to calculate..." But OTOH doing an "advanced" search with quotes limits so much that frequently I get "0" hits.

 

Hi,

I did steps with red bricks (good quality and not very new). The secret is that I didn't lay them as in a wall, I stood them on the bigger rectangle's face. The brick's resistance is higher in this way.

I wraped the bricks with wire and then I finished with a strong mortar. After some days, I covered the steps with cultured stone.

The 8" is too much, if you consider to make the steps and cover them with some kind of floor

Hope this helps