I've build an outdoor staircase to make it easier to go to the garden.

Step 1: Materials and Equipment

equipment I used for this job:

- angel grinder with diamantcoated disc

- a good powerdrill

- impact driver

- wood drill 4mm, 12mm

- track saw

- mitter saw

- jigsaw

materials:

- 3 oregon beams 220mm*70mm 5400mm long

- 20 Talie hardwood boards 140**22mm 2750mm long

- 20 oregon beams 60mm*60mm 3000mm long

- Tec 7 tube chemical anchor

- Tec 7

- iron brackets

- inox screws

- aquastop 1L

- aquaband

Step 2: The Before Situation

the situation is as followed: my house has a garage going underneat the entire house (aka my workshop) so the garden is at a lower level than the kitchen, livingroom,... I have a small deck (about 3meter by 3 meter) next to my kitchen but to get to the garden you needed to go back to the entrance hall and then go down the stairs, go through the entire garage/workshop to get to the garden. when you have 2 kids that's not an ideal situation...

so, a staircase was needed to go to and from the garden easier. I had build a fence to keep any kids from falling down on the deck but this was no longer needed.

Step 3: Seek and Destroy

first order of business was to cut out the section where the stairs were going to go. the temporary fence had to go because that was going to be replaced anyway. I used an angel grinder to make the straight cuts and a hamer and chisel to knock out the rest.

Step 4: Putting in a Concrete Slab for the Stairs

after the destruction I sealed the gap I created on the deck

I then had to pour a concrete slab on the ground floor for the stairs. after grinding off some concrete lefovers from the previous owners (what were they thinking...) I made a wooden template for the concrete and poured quick drying concrete in the template.

the concrete slab is raised up to the level my downstairs deck will be at in the future.

Step 5: Stringer Time!

I put my stairs in at a 45° angle. this is more than confortable for everyday home use, when building stairs in highly used parts a 41° angle is more advised.

I sketched the stringers out in sketch up first (which I do with everything) to make it easier to make the cuts. When you ever make a staircase the stringers are the most important part of the whole staircase, make sure you get this right!! If you're not sure get some help..like I did...

Step 6: Step Up

after cutting out the first stringer and approving of that one I cut out 2 more stringers. I secured the stringers to the wall with the iron angle brackets, in combination with the chemical anchor it makes a more than solid connection.

the stringers are oregon beams which I will still need to make weatherproof the steps are "tali" hardwood. I left a small gap between the steps layout to insure the wood would dry out quickly when it's been raining.

Step 7: Reinforcing the Stairs

after going up and down the stairs a few times I still found them to bit a bit shaky...so I reinforced the staircase with some additional oregon beams. I wrapped the bottom of beams with aquaband to make sure no floor water would get into the wood. secured the beams to the stringers with heavy duty 160mm screws and used 2 leftover angel bracket to secure the beams to the floor. This made the staircase sturdy as ... ;-)

Step 8: The Railing

I used the 60mm*60mm oregon beams to make the raisers for the railing, this was a pretty foreward job, as the angle of the stingers are the same for the raisers...45°

Step 9: Finishing

the finishing consited of using the remaining tali hardwoord to finsh top and sides of the railing. these are the parts that will get the most wear and tear so I chose to make sure that those parts are well and truly protected.

top tips:

- when doing this kind of outside woodwork, always use inox screws, not inox cotted screws but real inox screws. I know they cost more then the regular screws but it will be worth it in the long run.

- I used decking inox screws to attach the steps to the stringers makes it al lot easier and faster to work because you don't need to pre-drill all the holes.