Steps and safe access in Wakefield

The front step gets more use than anything else you own

Every delivery, every school run, every visitor, every trip out to the car. It also tends to be the oldest bit of hard landscaping on a house, so it is often a worn concrete lump with a chipped nose and a lean on it. Replacing it is a small job with an effect out of proportion to its size: a bullnose stone step, a semicircle or a squared one to suit the door, with a sett or block edging round it and the path brought up to meet it properly. People notice their own front door again.

Risers

The same height every step, set out before anything is laid rather than fudged at the top

Treads

Deeper than an indoor stair, with a slight fall so water runs off instead of sitting

Nosings

Bullnose or a clean projecting edge, so the shadow line shows you where the step is

Handrails

Fixings built in as we go, not drilled into finished stone afterwards

Base

Concrete footing and a solid core, so nothing settles and puts one riser out of line

Treads

Indian stone treads over a built-up base, set to an even rise the whole way

Before we start

Free advice and a free written quotation, with no deposit

Even risers, every time

This is the whole trade secret and it is not much of a secret. Your foot learns the height of the first step and then expects it. One riser that is 20mm different from the rest is the one people trip on, and it is nearly always the last one at the top, where somebody has run out of room and taken the difference out of the final step. So the flight gets set out on paper first: total rise, divided into equal steps, treads worked back from that, and if the numbers do not come out evenly then the landing moves or the flight gets longer. Not the last riser. It costs nothing to do it in the right order.

Safe access for the elderly and anyone unsteady

This is work we take seriously, and we say so on our own site because it comes up so often. If somebody in the house uses a stick, a frame or a wheelchair, or is simply not as steady as they were, tell us at the survey and it changes the design rather than being an afterthought. Two shallow steps instead of one tall one. A wider flight so there is no aiming at it. A landing at the top with room to stand square and turn a key. Handrail fixings set solid on both sides if that is what is wanted. Lighting ducted in as we build the steps, so the treads are lit rather than the whole garden. Where there is the room and a gentler approach is the better answer than steps at all, we will say so.

Garden steps between levels

Most Wakefield back gardens that slope end up wanting two flat levels rather than one long bank, and once you have two levels you need a way between them. Garden steps are built into the retaining wall that holds the change, so the two get designed together. They can run straight, turn through a quarter with a landing, or sweep round in a curve, which takes longer to cut but looks far better dropping onto a lawn. The treads usually match the patio at the top so the whole thing reads as one piece of work rather than three separate jobs.

Grip, drainage and the winter

A step that holds water is a step that freezes. Every tread we lay has a fall on it so the water runs forward and off, and where a flight sits in permanent shade we look at where that water is arriving from before we blame the stone. Riven stone has texture built into the face, which is why it is our usual pick for treads. Keep the leaf litter and moss brushed off through autumn and a stone flight stays safe underfoot for a very long time.

Questions we get asked about this