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How to Build Concrete and Brick Garden Steps

© Howard Deutch

Building steps down a steeply sloping lawn requires only slabs of pebble encrusted concrete and bricks.

Constructing the Steps

Purchase steps made of cast concrete with pebbles embedded in one surface for decoration and traction. You may also stain them using a mixture of linseed oil thinned with a petroleum-based solvent (kerosene could also be used) and standard wood stain.

The linseed oil helps prevent spalling (surface peeling) from moisture penetration and the freezing and thawing of Zone 5 weather. Add wood stain judiciously. Remember that the color is much darker before the solvent evaporates.

Heavy clay soil provides an ideal firm base for the slab steps. Excavate the slope two steps and one riser at a time and fit the steps one at a time. Use bricks as the risers. Have the steps overhang the risers by about a half inch. If the slope is gentle, the bricks used as risers may be laid face down.

Some sort of side support is required to prevent the earth from collapsing into the inside corner of the steps below ground level. Try strips of backer board, a sheet of concrete nominally one half inch thick with both surfaces reinforced with cloth mesh. It is generally used in place of gypsum wallboard to enclose wet areas such as tub or shower stalls. It cuts readily with a power saw and a masonry-cutting blade. In the absence of a power saw, you may use pressure-treated lumber, certified for ground contact.

Adding a Handrail

There are many types of  wrought iron or galvanized pipe railings. Securely anchor the uprights in concrete.

Dig holes 8 inches in diameter and 8 inches deep for the supports. Use fast-setting post support concrete. The railing must be supported while the concrete is added and until it sets.

Use a level to make sure the posts are vertical before the concrete sets.