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hey John bring that wheelbarrow in Pock
it right over there let me show you what
I've done I measured the concrete patio
and it measured 9 ft wide so I found the
center point which is
46 now our Granite stairs are 4T wide so
I measured 2 feet on each side of the
center line then I added a little bit
more 3 in to help support the granite so
this is the width of the hole we're
going to be digging you ready to get
started absolutely
how much deeper we got to go here Roger
well John I can't answer that question
fire right now because see this I found
on my shovel yeah Clay now we can't have
that underneath the stairs why is that
because it HS water it'll freeze and
expand and cause our stairs to move in
the winter time so we have to dig down
below that clay
level John take a look here we're down
about 30 in and if you look right here
you can see where the clay layer ends
and now we're down into a grally soil
which will drain really well the good
news is we're done digging oh that is
good
news all right John what we're going to
do now is we're going to put three
quarter Stone into our hole this will
help drain away the water but it'll also
compact really hard underneath our
Granite steps now I'm going to dump this
in we're going to put in a 4 to 5 in
layer and then compact
it we're going to be putting in over 2
fet of stone in here now the key is to
get it compacted so that the stairs
don't settle now we could use a good
oldfashioned hand compactor but it's
really hard to get everything 100%
compact so what we're going to use today
is called a jumping jack it's got a
motor on it which drives a piston which
makes this plate go up and down so if
you give me a hand lowering it down in
I'll show you how it works okay
ready good I'll get it started then
John grab the corner of this landscape
fabric and we're going to lay that down
right on top of our Stone what's this
for Roger well our next step is to put
down stone dust and that's this material
here now you can see this is what we're
going to lay the granite on but if we
didn't put this fabric down it would go
down into the Stone and clog it and if
it settled too much our Granite stairs
would go down so now we're just going to
put on a whole layer of stone dust
sounds
great each one of the Granite steps
measures 7 in thick now my setting bed
is 21 1/2 in below the top of the patio
what's going to happen is we're going to
step off the patio 7 in to the first
Granite step off the first Granite step
7 in to the second off the second 7 in
to ground level okay Roger you've given
me 37 in which makes 21 in but you said
the setting bed was 21 1 12 in below the
level why the extra half inch each
Granite stair is going to be higher by a
quarter of an inch in the back so that
when it rains the water will run off it
and away from the house and now we're
ready to set our first step sounds good
unsorted these all right keep that in 2
or 3 in from the end slide it
in that's perfect do the other side
foring okay slide that wood
out I'm going to let this end down I'll
bring the wood up I want you to set it
up for a fulcrum
again all right take that okay take lay
that down John catch the bottom of the
stone right in the
middle okay lift
up okay now just lift up and set it down
all right now we got to take some
measurements John we've aligned the
center line of the step with the center
line of the porch oh that's good that'll
ensure that the steps are right in the
center of the porch right now we have
from the face of the porch to the face
of the Bottom Stone 22 in now we're
going to have two steps so we're going
to have two 11in Treads okay but what's
going to fill in back here behind the
steps that's we get some more Stone and
fill in that and get ready for our next
step okay
John that looks really good now instead
of installing a big heavy expensive
piece of granite which would run all the
way to the foundation we're going to use
cheeks or fillers like I have installed
on that end and this one's going to go
in here now that's going to support the
next steer we simply tap them down into
place we'll finish off our Stone a piece
of fabric and stone dust and we're ready
for the last
step all right just put that Fab on top
of it John and get some stone dust while
you're doing that I'm going to drive a
piece of Rod right down next to this
cheek to keep it from kicking
out all right slide your end in mine
coming in going to come off the forks
all right ready yep okay now we just
going
to you
in pretty good looks like it's got to
come a little bit to
Me Maybe it's almost there yeah a little
bit ready one two three okay I think
we're good okay all right let me check
the pitch on
these that looks good that that looks
good now the key is when you're setting
this bottom step to shim it up with a
little bit of stone dust so it has pitch
then when you lay this next step on it
has the same exact pitch and over here
we overlap the bottom step and it helps
to hide that joint
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