This home once had a “mother-in-law” apartment in the upstairs rear wing, with a funky set of exterior stairs in the tight space between the house and the garage. The owners asked me to remove the stairs and landing, replace the second floor door with a window, and design and build a new doorway, deck and stairs that would give them access to the rear yard. The photos below are “before and after” with just a bit of finish work left to do. Thanks to Tim Gillette for his assistance and attention to detail.
We removed this narrow stairway between the house and garage, leading to a door and landing on the second floor. These stairs do not meet the building code.The new door from the living room, deck and short front steps replacing the stairway in the photo above.Rear view of the stairway we removedMy clients now have a new door, deck and stairs leading to the backyard, compliant with the International Building Code and the DCA 6 Prescriptive Residential Deck Construction Guide. We were able to reuse concrete post footings from the earlier deck, one of which had not been in use.Calculating the run and rise of the steps was complicated by the grade of the yard as it slopes away from the garage. We poured the 3′ landing after installing the steps, and will contour the landscape to assure proper drainage.
Gordon Harris 