Hey all. I'm looking for some advice on these steps I'm building. This job sucks and I never want to do this again, so I want to make sure this lasts. Would drainage gravel be overkill here, or is it sufficient enough to just fill with crusher dust or something nicer?
Timber is rated for in ground use. The foundation is about 100mm (4") of compacted crusher dust/roadbase.
Slide placement was for me, so don't knock it 😀
by things_i_make
5 Comments
You don’t want water soaking INTO the stairs.
Stick with the crushed rock so the water flows away from the stairs.
Drain rock is unnecessary. The base rock that’s already there is fine. With timber tie steps I usually just tamp the soil, lay down non-woven geotech landscape fabric then add 3/8 crushed gravel. Then tamp the gravel.
I would personally do 5/8 clear or some other crushed clear rock, capped with 2-3” 5/8-, tamped in, but since you already started with the minus I would just fill it with that and compact.
I would have personally filled the whole thing with some sort of clear with a drain at the bottom. Cap it off with minus and compact
What makes that gravel “drainage gravel”
I’d throw a slotted ag pipe at the base behind the steps and run it to somewhere it can daylight, water sitting against the back of those will rot them out way faster than the gravel choice alone will matter.