Steps

Over the last few weekends I've spent some time levelling our car park. It was a gentle slope following the contours down towards the veggie patch. Lots of cut & fill with the excavator, and the result is that it's now levellish(?).

However, the cut has meant that we need some steps.... so today's job was to smarten up the stepp bank and install some steps. This is the start of the set-out... making sure they're straight, square, level and with even treads....

It all came together quickly, once the set out was done.... cut out five rebates in each stringer for the five risers. As the rebate would be buried, I used an axe instead of a chisel... a lot quicker. Then set the stringers in place, and nailed the top & bottom riser in place.... a few small adjustments to the stringers to ensure they were still square, straight and even. Then hammered in four short hardwood posts and nailed the stringers to them... this will make sure the whole structure doesn't slowly migrate down the slope. And the 3 intermediate risers were easy to slot in.

And by lunchtime, the finished product looked like this.

Raking the soil level, and topped with 50mm of mulch making it look almost professional! I also managed a bit of stonework around both sides to blend it in with the landscape.

I now need to find a way of getting the wheelbarrow up the steps or find an alternative route.