Rebuilt My Back Stairs

So here are my slanty shanty back steps. They were built in 1950 and Im pretty sure they havent been touched since beyond covering up problems with layers and layers of paint.

Side view of the steps. You can see on the posts that I started using paint stripper to see what I am dealing with.

The steps were in obvious disrepair since we moved in and was on our enormous to-do list. But what made this project our new priority was we got new concrete installed so for a while the slab at the bottom of the stairs was unsupported by surrounding concrete. I was a dummy and didn't stop myself or my family from using the stairs while it was unsupported which Im sure added to the slab moving to become out of level and the stairs started pulling away from the house.

As i started pulling the stairs apart I uncovered lots of rot.

So two-part epoxy wood filler to the rescue! Treated the rot with a hardener first and then slathered the putty on. This stuff is supposed to be stronger than wood.

This notch in the post that received the joist is totally rotted.

I dug out all the rot and sprayed it down with hardener...

then i routed the notch flat to receive a patch

I used a piece of a old growth wood to patch the notch. Plenty of glue and a super tight fit...

Im confident this is now a strong post again.

With the posts repaired and plumb i got the space ready to start rebuilding.

I was planning on taking all my design cues from the previous stairs (it wasnt a bad design, just rotted). Like the platform at the top of the stairs is on a slight grade to allow water runoff.

I did decide to not notch the posts and opted to attached the landing to the posts with lag screws.

It cannot be overstated how much I suck at miter cuts.

My main reason for using the old stairs as the basis for all my design decisions was the stringers. The math for these are insane so I figured I would be safe using an old stringer as a template and adjusting the last riser to accommodate the slope of the bottom pad.

I was wrong. The rise of each step in the old stringers were all over the place. I ended up using the old measurements as a starting point and evened them out.

Math is hard.

I installed trim and facia using PVC boards for rot resistance.

And this is Josie. She is a good girl.

Heres the finished stairs, all the blocking in, all the gaps filled in, all painted ready for the treads.

Taking inspiration from an episode of This Old House, I opted to use Ipe 5/4 hardwood boards. Not cheap (even before covid) but I wanted them to look nice.

At this point I completely lost my mind and started making an insane number of mistakes in my measurements. My solution was just glue the cutoffs back on, sand them and keep moving.

It doesn't look the best but at this point i was just about moving forward.

Heres another mistake. Theres a reason why when you make a framing measurement, you make a mark to indicate on which side of your measurement to place the board. Here is an example of what it looks like when you place one end of your board on the wrong side of a measurement.

Luckily it was an easy fix.

For the Ipe boards I used a system that countersinks the screw holes and then cover the screws with plugs. After the glue dries, I used a Japanese hand saw to trim back the proud plugs and then sanded everything.

I ended up finishing the Ipe with a marine-grade SPAR urethane. I could have gone with IPE oil but I wanted to try this. If it fails too soon I can always sand it back and use something else.

It will never look this good again (until i refinish it)

And here's the final stairs after I installed a pre-fab railing system. I went with pre-fab because this project was running long and I needed to get it done.

Unfortunately, i was wrong again. Besides having very little ability to make corrections has I went, I had to make multiple online orders to get the parts I needed which dragged out the timeline.

But I like the end results. A good upgrade for the house.