My late father-in-law was a plasterer, stone mason and cement finisher. He had a file box of recipes for different applications. There is one set of church steps in town that he patched about 25 years ago and they still are holding up. Anyway I helped him a few times with steps. The one trick that I learned was to cut a 45 degree along the bottom of the riser. That allows you to totally finish the top of each step. If you don't when you remove the forms you have a 1.5 " area along the back of each step to try and rub out. The concrete is thick enough not to totally flow out from under each riser. Just make sure that the form is secured well enough. A few hundred pounds of wet cement can make an ugly mess if it gets away. He told me a few horror stories. When we did my back steps he used 3/4" plywood for the sides and 2"x8" for the risers and countless 2"x4" side braces. Lenny
----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Rossi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 1:26 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] pouring cement stairs. Anyone ever poured a set of cement stairs? One future project for me might be to rip out my front steps up to my porch. They are cement but in pretty bad shape. Many people in the neighborhood have had their's patched, but within a couple of years, they are in just as bad condition. The patches just don't hold up. So, I was thinking about just starting over. So, do you build a form that just has the sides and risers there, but no treads so that you can use a float or trowel to smooth over the tread? If so, doesn't the weight of the cement from the riser above force the cement in the lower tread to overflow? Or is cement thick enough to resist the pressure? Or, is this not how you do it at all? There are four steps up to my front porch. There are sloping cheek walls on either side of the steps. I assume that the cement itself is not solid all the way threw to the ground, but poured over rubble? Is that correct? -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081 To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links To listen to the show archives go to link http://acbradio.org/handyman.html or ftp://ftp.acbradio.org/acbradio-archives/handyman/ The Pod Cast address for the Blind Handy Man Show is. http://www.acbradio.org/news/xml/podcast.php?pgm=saturday The Pod Cast address for the Cooking In The Dark Show is. http://www.gcast.com/u/cookingindark/main.xml Visit The Blind Handy Man Files Page To Review Contributions From Various List Members At The Following address: http://www.jaws-users.com/handyman/ Visit the new archives page at the following address http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ For a complete list of email commands pertaining to the Blind Handy Man list just send a blank message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/blindhandyman/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
