Pouring The Concrete Landing For The Stairs

Ok, now it’s time to pour the concrete pad that will serve as the landing for the stairs. As I mentioned in part 1 of this series, this is a much bigger landing than we would normally use for deck stairs. Because this deck is low to the ground and will only have a single step we decided to make it go the entire length of the deck. Aesthetically, this was definitely the way to go, as you will see with the finished product.

Sometimes when doing concrete landings for a deck we will build the stairs first and temorarily support them and then pour the landing last. Doing it that way avoids any possible issues with the stairs and landing lining up perfectly, which can be tricky when dealing with long staircases. That method was not an option in this case and would have created more issues than it would have solved.

In this picture we see Harry applying the edge to the pad. He is using a concrete-edging-tool for the task. This type of edging tool does a beautiful job of creating the edge and leaves you with a nice rounded edge for your pad instead of a square one that is bound to chip. Because this is such a long slab we will also indent lateral lines into the pad every 4′ or so with a special tool, like the lines you see in concrete sidewalks. These lateral lines called control joints provide a weak point that allows you to determine where the concrete will crack over time instead of nature. The ground shifts, it’s a fact, and all concrete pads develop slight stress cracks. The application of control joints, aggregate underlayment and re-bar are essential to a creating a beautiful concrete pad that will stand the test of time.

Rd.com (Readers Digest) has a pretty good article on installing your own concrete sidewalk/walkway here. It’s the same idea when creating a long stair landing.

Next I’ll show off the finished product.