The K-Zone: A porch too far: Building the doorstep
Stepping up to the mark
This part of the construction was, mercifully, relatively straightforward,
and gave me an opportunity to use up some of the huge stack of
paving blocks I had pulled up to lay the foundation slab.
To make
the doorstep I dug a hole in front of the porch about six inches
deep and about six inches larger than the doorstep was expected
to be, put in about an inch of gravel and sharp sand, tamped it down, and poured in about an inch of mortar. Then I put down a complete
layer of paving blocks to make a solid base. Then I built a stepped
brick wall on top of this in the shape of the doorstep. This is a fairly
substantial construction for something as simple as a doorstep,
but it will come in for a heck of a lot of stress with people stamping
up and down it, so it seemed sensible to over-engineer it a bit.
I made the doorstep as a small brick wall, filled with compacted rubble
and sand
When the brickwork mortar had cured enough to take some abuse (about two
days), I filled the whole structure with rubble and sand and stamped
it down vigorously. Then I mortared two pairs of Wickes cheapo paving
slabs on top, and job's a good'un.
Cheap and moderately cheerful paving slabs complete the job
