Building a step up to a door

JobAndKnock said:

What I am saying is that because of the potential trip hazard presented by the threshold in the door way your top step must, in effect, be a landing or "safe area" where a user can pause. Ideally this requires a width of 900mm (front to back), or in any case at least 600mm, and at the same height as the top of the threshold to minimise trip risk. This is called design, and it isn't just a case of blindly copying what is already there. If you don't have that "safe srea" you are creating a trip risk for an elderly person, and a trip at the top of a flight of steps isn't going to end well for them (or you as you could be found to be negligent)

I smashed myself up on a motor bike many years ago and for quite a while I had to wear a brace on one leg. That taught me first hand about mobility issues, and the need to design with due diligence for the disabled, elderly and mobility impaired. If you cannot understand this need turn the job down and walk away - if you get this one wrong you could end up injuring someone, or worse

BTW 6ft wide is too wide.. Elderly people potentially need to.be able to get 2 hands on rails - look at your own stairs at home. Like as not they will be 900 to 1200mm wide

Thunderbolts are a one time fixing. They were never designed to be screwed in and taken out repeatedly (they can fail quite quickly). We only ever use them for vertical fixing due to problems there are calculating/testing pull out loading (when scaffies use them they are apparently required by law to test and periodically retest them). Resin anchors are far better but can be problematic in a single skin of brick making a vertical fixing into a concrete block or pad much safer

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JobAndKnock said:

Actually I'm in my sixties, past retirement age, and I'm classed as elderly. They may not be elderly now, but they are rapidly approaching that point. And what you seem blissfully unaware of is that whatever you build may be there for maybe 10 years or more. You have to design stuff like this not just for the here and now...

I never said anything about it being difficult to fix handrails. What I said was that your design needs TWO handrails. As a joiner I'd fix them to the structure. It's really simple to do, firmly, properly.

To date you have not come up with a design which makes any sense to me and so far you haven't produced a sketch or drawing which you could present to your client for approval (surely this is necessary?) or which would allow you to start estimating materials and labour. You can't just make stuff like this on the fly, you need to visualise it so that you can "sanity check" your ideas. You do need to check whether or not there are any relevant regulations which you need to follow (BTW there are) so a drawing with dimensions is also the only way to be able to check what you are doing is right. Have you, for example, looked up the legal requirements for the going on stairs? Or even looked at and measured up your own stairs at home? Do you understand how to calculate going? Are you aware that if the stairs are too steep, or the treads are too narrow, they increase the fall risk? That' why we have regulations

This isn't like swinging a door or siliconing a kitchen sink. But neither is it rocket science. However, you are now into an area where a lot more understanding is required

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Keitai said:

Been thinking about the rise (height) on steps . Think the regs say no more than 7 inches high. Yet these are 8 inches . Is that a liability case against the landscaper? Not me.View attachment 244411

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