I completed the construction with homemade concrete steps on the side door of the studio! Well, let me get this straight. They are not complete complete. I was so determined to finish this project over the weekend and I was on track to do just that. So last night when I was outside working on the top step and suddenly the wind picked up, lightning and thunder came in and it started to rain ever so slightly, I immediately decided that I would just work in the rain and finish it.
And that’s exactly what I would have done if I hadn’t pulled the last of the concrete pavers out of my truck and immediately realized I was missing a few. And actually I was missing exactly five. Since it was already after 8:00 a.m., Home Depot was closed. *Sigh* I’m so close, y’all. Soooo close.
I’ll show you all the steps as they are now and I’ll be installing the final five pavers today. We’ll pretend the last five pavers aren’t missing and call it done for now. To be clear, the construction process is (almost) complete, but the steps don’t look finished yet. I still need to do some sealing and tweaking before it’s ready complete complete. But this is what they look like when the construction process is (almost) complete.
I told you that these steps are exposed to direct sunlight all day long and you can see what I mean in the picture above. I took this photo around 7:30 this morning and they are in direct sunlight until the sun sets in the evening. That’s one of the reasons it took so long. I need one of these pop up tents for outdoor projects as I can only work in direct sunlight as long as before I need a break, especially given the humidity we’ve had lately.
In the last post on this project I had only built the first stage which looked like this. Here too you can find all the details in the article linked above.
On a side note, Tiger is not a DIY cat. He doesn’t understand the concept of watching from a distance. Every time I’m outside working on something, he’s right there, rubbing against me, begging for scratches, headbutting my leg or arm, wanting to sniff every product I open, walking over my project, etc. He’s adorable, but my goodness, he’s slowing me down!
But back to the project. Before building the next two steps, I needed to decide what I should do to cover or seal the exposed OSB where the trim had been removed. This paneling was removed some time ago when plans were made to build wooden steps to match the porch. However, I didn’t want to add siding because I didn’t want to add more thickness where these steps would attach to the house. Instead, I chose the Semco waterproof membrane. This is the same product I used to waterproof our shower before tiling. It is a product that allows you to literally seal swimming pools before filling them with water. So I decided this would be a great option to seal the OSB without making the paneling thicker.
This product comes in a variety of colors, but this one is milky white and dries clear. I applied three coats of it and it is such a great sealer and waterproofer that it even fills the cracks where the OSB pieces meet.
While it was drying, I cut the retaining wall blocks for the next step and then attached the perimeter blocks.
Before placing the blocks, I measured 11 inches from the front of the first step to determine where these blocks should be placed, and then I used my plywood template to mark the curve so that I could safely follow the same curve for this step as the first step.
Using these retaining wall bricks took a lot of the guesswork out. For the bottom step I used three full retaining wall blocks and then a miter brick for each side. For the second step I used two solid blocks and one miter block. And for the top step (which you will see later in this post) I used a solid block and a miter block.
After getting these boundary blocks just right, I adhered them to the first step using the same Loctite PL500 polyurethane adhesive that I used throughout the project.
And then I filled the space inside the edge blocks with more blocks and filled them in where I needed them with scraps of the cut blocks. Then I glued these in place.
And then I followed the same steps as the first step: fill the voids with pea gravel to give the concrete pavers a solid surface, and then secure the concrete pavers in place.
And then I followed this exact process again for the top step. I measured back 11 inches from the front of the second step, traced the curve with my plywood pattern, and then placed the boundary blocks, the interior blocks, the pea gravel, and then the concrete pavers.
I am so disappointed that I was missing five pavers. I was hoping to have this build completely finished by bedtime last night, but that’s okay. At least the majority of it is finished and I’m really proud of the result.
Last night I took a few pictures in the dark because I was expecting it to start raining right after I entered the house and I thought the rain would make everything look chaotic. So I wanted to take photos of the steps while everything was dry.
But after all the wind, lightning, and thunder, it doesn’t look like we got a single drop of rain, aside from the light sprinkles I felt on my arms for about two minutes last night when I finished.
This meant I was able to take pictures in the early morning sunlight this morning.
As I mentioned, these steps aren’t quite finished yet, even after I put the last five pavers on the top step. I want to do a few more things to take it to the next level. But before I get to those steps, I need reassurance that we will have a few consecutive days where there is no threat of rain at all. It could be another week or so before we get to that point.
However, I’m really proud of how these have turned out so far. Let me remind you what that side door has looked like over the last few years with my scary concrete block steps. This is the picture I took right after pouring our driveway. All I had were three cinder blocks as a step down in front of that door. Not only did it not look pretty, it wasn’t exactly safe either.
And here’s what I have now.
This is a real improvement over cinder block steps!
Of course, in addition to the final work on these steps, I still need to finish the areas on each side where the OSB is still exposed. I have a few ideas for this so I’ll see which one works. I really don’t want to have to deal with siding, so I’m hoping one of my ideas works without siding. I’ll keep you posted on this as I work on the next phase of this project and take it from there built To actually finished. But here too I need a few guaranteed rain-free days in a row before I can do that. For now, I’ll consider these steps complete (after adding the final five pavers) and move on to the next project.
