How Build Stone Steps For A Garage Service Door

Though you lot may wish y'all could take a sledgehammer to those drab concrete steps tarnishing your home's adjourn appeal, nosotros have a better program. Veneer them in handsome stone to turn your embarrassing entry into a welcoming focal point. This Former House senior technical editor Marker Powers volition tell you lot it takes at least i strong buddy to place the bluestone tread caps and that you should check your local codes near riser heights. He'll as well show you the simplest mode to tackle this value-boosting projection.

Granite veneer: New England Thinstones' Chesterfield Square & Rectangle, near $12.fifty per square pes, and corner stones, about $15 per linear human foot; New England Thinstones. Treads: 1½-inch thermally treated bluestone, about $13 per linear human foot; Fairfield Stone and Mural Supply. Landing pavers: one-inch thermally treated bluestone, nearly $7.25 per square foot; Fairfield Stone and Mural Supply. Mortar: Quikrete Veneer Stone Mortar, about $5 for an 80-pound bag; QUIKRETE

Footstep 1

Overview Cross Section of Concrete Clad Steps

Mean solar day-to-solar day timeline

FRIDAY Prep the wall and steps (Steps two-v).

SATURDAY Install and grout the veneer stones (Steps six-13).

SUNDAY Fix the bluestone treads (Step 14-16).

HOOKY DAY* Install and grout the landing pavers (Stride 17-19).

* Extra day needed to let the mortar drying time between steps

Step two

Remove the Threshold Riser

Any trim board beneath the door must be removed and cutting to allow the new pavers to slip beneath it. Use a utility pocketknife to score effectually the board, so piece of work it loose with a pry bar. Pull out the board's nails, and ready the lath aside to be scribed, trimmed, and reinstalled afterward.

Step 3

Trim the Shingles

Likewise, shingles effectually the landing must exist trimmed to allow for the stone. Mensurate the thickness of the pavers and stones, add a little space for mortar, and utilize a board to scribe the shingles. Cut them using several passes with a utility pocketknife.

Footstep 4

Install the Lath

For the mortar to grab, y'all must either scarify the physical with a grinder or add a scratch coat, similar we did. First, lay lath over the landing and steps, and use can snips to trim sections for the sides that overlap the steps past 2 inches. Before cut it, make sure the lath is oriented correctly: with the cheese-grater-like "cups" facing up and so that the scales feel rough as you lot run your hand away from the door and down the side. Use a powder-actuated nailer and a hammer to smash downwardly the lath every 6 to viii inches.

Stride v

Add the Scratch Coat

Mix mortar to the consistency of warm, creamy peanut butter, and use a finishing trowel to use it to the board. Pull the mortar downwards to fill the cups, then work in a fanning motion to create a ½-inch-thick layer. Now use the notched side of the trowel to comb the mortar horizontally, creating grooves. Allow the scratch glaze to dry at least overnight—24 hours is best.

Tip: To divert water from the house, run self-adhesive flashing from the lip of the threshold down onto the landing. At the sides, tuck it under the shingles by several inches.

Step half dozen

Fit the Stones

Dry-fit stones against the risers with an L-shaped corner rock at each stop; go out a finger'south-width gap between them for mortar. Group the riser stones and set them aside. Mensurate the side profile of the steps, and use painter's tape to outline it on a canvas drop material. Start with the L-shaped corner blocks from the risers, then adapt the larger stones a finger's width apart, with staggered joints.

Step vii

Score the Cutlines

Mark cutlines on the back of the stones. Using a grinder fitted with a diamond masonry blade, score the line halfway through the thickness of each rock.

Stride 8

Break the Stones

Place a mason's chisel in the score line at one end, angled slightly toward the waste material side. Strike the chisel with a maul to break the stone cleanly. Use a brick hammer to bit off whatsoever excess. Working on a soft surface, similar grass, will help evenly back up the rough face of the stone and reduce the take chances of cracking.

Stride 9

Apply Mortar

Get started by using a chip castor to apply a thin coat of acrylic bonding agent to the installation area to give it extra catch. Then mix mortar to the consistency of warm, creamy peanut butter. Using a brick trowel, utilize a ½- to ¾-inch layer to the back of a corner stone on the first riser, leaving a bit extra in the corner. Employ the tip of the trowel to create a horizontal furrow on the buttered side that will help lock the rock in place.

Step 10

Clad the Commencement Riser

Press the stone into identify, wiggling it in tight to create a vacuum behind information technology. Each riser veneer should be flush with the top of a stair. Be quick with your trowel to keep oozing mortar from staining the stone'due south face. Once the stone is set, get out information technology alone; disrupting it could break the vacuum, forcing you to commencement over. Working from left to right, install the riser stones with their faces relatively flush, using a thicker layer of mortar for thinner stones.

Step 11

Clad the Sides

Follow the aforementioned procedure to install the stones that are in line with the riser on the sides of the landing. And so install the corner stones on the 2d riser, and and so on. Permit some time between levels. You tin utilise pocket-size chunks of waste matter between the stones to go along their spacing; just recall to remove them earlier the mortar sets.

Step 12

Grout the Stones

Fill up the grout lines. Clear out any loose chunks of mortar. Mix the mortar to the consistency of pudding. Fill a grout bag halfway, and twist the open up end like a staff of life sack to release air bubbles and force mortar out the tip. Now concord the tip betwixt the joints and squeeze mortar into them. Work from bottom to acme, drawing the purse upwards through the vertical joints and then pulling information technology across the horizontal joints to fill them.

Pace thirteen

Strike the Grout Lines

Allow the grout to cure until pressing information technology with a finger leaves a dent but doesn't break through the surface. Now apply a striking tool to shape the grout.

Pace 14

Lay the Mortar Bed

First, mark the middle of each tread and the center of each riser with a slice of painter's record. Mix mortar until it's thick enough to hold its shape when balled up, and trowel it onto the first pace in a ¾-inch layer. Using a 4-foot level to check your work, create a mortar bed that'southward level side to side, with a light taper toward the front lip.

Footstep fifteen

Add a Slurry Mix

Make X's in the mortar bed with the trowel's border, and pour a soupy mortar mix onto it to allow for tread aligning.

Step xvi

Fix the Tread

Use the tape to center the showtime tread, and gear up it in place, flamed edge outward. Check for an equal overhang on the sides and for level side to side. You want a very slight gradient toward the front, to shed h2o, but no more than than 1/xvi inch per foot. Working out from the center, strike the tread with a rubber mallet to set the stone. Ready the remaining treads, maintaining a uniform front overhang and acme in a higher place the previous tread. Check your local codes for stair heights, and to keep people from tripping, make sure the pinnacle of each riser is inside 3/eight inch of the others.

Pace 17

Install the Perimeter Treads

Follow Steps 14 and 15 to create a mortar bed on the landing, and identify the perimeter treads with the flamed edges exposed and overhanging evenly. Use a straightedge to make sure the overhang matches that of the top stair tread. Use a rubber mallet to ready the perimeter treads flush with the back edge of the top stair tread, maintaining the 1/xvi-inch-per-human foot pitch all the way back to the house. Permit the treads to set overnight.

Step 18

Add the Interior Pavers

Build upward mortar beds and install the interior pavers the aforementioned manner. Continue them flush with the surrounding treads, following the h2o-shedding pitch, and leave uniform grout lines.

Pace 19

Grout the Joints

Advisedly fill the grout lines with mortar and use the striking tool to shape a clean, curved seam just below the surface of the stones. Stop by scribing and cutting the beneath-door trim to get out a ¼-inch gap beneath it, and reinstalling it.