We just re-did a porch, and in order to take things from 1940 to 2020, the door has moved about 10". This means that the small brick stairs, only two steps high and about 24" wide, no longer line up with the door. I’d really like to keep them to the extent I can, and so if it’s possible to add a few courses to the left side the stairs would frame the door nicely.
I’m a pretty handy guy, but masonry isn’t my specialty. But this is a very small job. Here’s the question:
If I dig down a few inches and put a cement footer (I hesitate to call it a slab) next to what’s there and bring the top of the slab level with the bottom of the first course of brick, would it work to essentially scab on a few rows to make the steps wider? Cost of failure is low, and given how small the stairs are I’m not too worried about safety. But if it’s a fool’s effort I’d like to know that…
I’ve built a bunch of brick porch steps. Your plan sounds fine to me. Allow for the bonding course of mortar when you level the foundation. If you want to match as well as you can take a brick to the builder supply as there are dozens of colors available. Also see if the steps are built with full 8" bricks or modular 7 5/8" bricks. The best jpb would have some bricks removed from the joining line and the new ones inserted into the pattern. Also get a piece of sandstone cut to the full width for the top. Or pour a small concrete slab.
Sounds alright to me too.
I did happen across some info on specific bonding materials for additions to existing concrete/cement. Might want to treat the area that you are planning to butt the new stuff to with such stuff. Or maybe drill some holes and add rebar. So the new area will not sink or lift from the old stuff.
Shouldn’t be a problem. See how far down the footing goes for the existing stairs to match that, and a few more inches further down for gravel. If it’s not a hard pack underneath mix sand and gravel and pack it down well. Probably not an issue though. There are simple adhesives you can add to mortar and concrete to improve adhesion between new and old materials, just clean the old material well.
It’s just a few bricks, your risk is mainly appearance.
Town next door to me does not allow for brick porches. They are grandfathered in but cannot be repaired or modified. Nor can they use wood. Signs up in the bigbox stores in that town by the lumber warning DIYers. Only precast is allowed. Stupid rule. Careful about what you start.
Do they justify that rule somehow? I can see some strict regs on a tall set of stairs but the OP seems to be talking very few steps. Could you even have one step up?
I know part of it is the cracks from settling with frost heave for the cement and brick stoops. The wood ban probably harkens back to the 30-40s era porches now rotting away and might be an aesthetic thing. They also don’t want decks in the front yard presumably. I don’t deal with it so I am not positive. I don’t know how the code handles wheelchair ramps.
This is actually an enclosed three season porch on the back of the house. The old door was remarkably narrow, and hung on the corner post- which itself was maybe a 2x4 on a good day. It was falling apart, and how it held the Boston area snow loads for 80 years I’ll never know. So when we reframed it we used 2x6 with a triple on the corner, which moved the door to the left. Interestingly, the inspector did not notice (or at least, mention) the now comically off-center steps. But I think they are pretty, and they match other elements of the house, which is why I want to keep them.
We haven’t had the final inspection yet, so it’s still possible he’ll have something to say. But I’m not going to mention it if he doesn’t
And we have plenty of wood and brick steps around here.