Installing Granite Steps

Granite steps can really dress up the front of a home. Their natural look along with their ruggedness and low maintenance makes them an excellent alternative to other doorstep choices.

A few years back I decided to replace the prefab concrete staircase that graced my home’s entranceway with granite steps.

Installing granite steps is not a home improvement project that do-it-yourself homeowners can normally do themselves. This said,Installing Granite Steps Articles there are some aspects of the project you can do yourself.

To begin the process of installing granite suppliers granite steps, start by finding a granite stone supplier that can come to your home and assess your project. They will listen to your ideas, make some measurements, and determine the number of steps you will need for the project. They will also state, as they did in my case, that the pre-fabricated concrete steps will need to be removed and that a solid footing/foundation slab will need to be constructed to lay the granite steps on.

Removing the Prefabricated Concrete Steps After meeting with the granite stone supplier, I went to task on removing the prefabricated concrete steps. With a pair of safety glasses, work gloves and a sledge hammer I began the process of breaking up the prefabricated concrete steps. After a couple of hours of work I reduced the steps to small fist size stones. I removed the material from the site; however I kept them relatively close at hand for the next stage of the project, building the concrete footing/foundation slab. Building the Concrete Footing/Foundation Slab During the process of demolishing the prefabricated concrete steps, I observed that they had rested on a few concrete bricks, which laid flat on the fill material around the foundation.

Using a shovel and pick ax, I removed about 1.5 feet of fill material from around the foundation entrance way and replaced it with some of the broken up concrete prefabricated stones. While adding the stones, I also mixed in some of the original fill material.

Next, I drilled several 2 inch deep holes into the side of the concrete home foundation wall and slid rebar rods into them. The rebar rods, laid flat on top of the stone/file material.

I then attached several rebar rods perpendicular the other rebar rods I just installed into the concrete and tied them together with stainless steel wire.