Entrance stairs made of ready-made concrete elements from Bruk-Bet.
From the series "Outdoor spaces - solutions, design trends 2021.
Who has not seen tiles falling off on the stairs in front of the house? To avoid this problem, build your entrance stairs from ready-made concrete elements: block or lining steps or platform slabs. Their advantage is that it is very easy and fast to build stairs from them.
The stairs leading to the entrance area or on the terrace are the showpiece of the building and the ornament of the garden. The requirements for them are very high. They should serve us without failure for many years. Be pretty and match the style of the building. Most often we adapt to the material used at the door or on the surface of the paths and driveways around the building. We can also choose a completely new material. But it is also very important that the entrance staircase be comfortable.
Dimensioning a comfortable staircase
A comfortable staircase must have the right geometry. The height and depth of the stair treads should be adapted to the average length of the human step, which is 60-65 cm. Their ratio is expressed by the formula:
2h + s = 62-65 cm
in which:
h - the height of the steps,
s - the depth of the steps.
The depth of the steps should correspond to the length of the human foot. 33-38 cm is considered comfortable.
Block steps allow you to build attractive stairs and make edging of terrace spaces
© Bruk-Bet
Comfortable height of stair treads
According to the regulations in single-family houses, the width of the run should be no less than 80 cm, and the stair treads should not be higher than 19 cm. However, stairs with steps no higher than 17 cm are considered convenient for walking. This can be accepted for the entrance to the house. But comfortable stairs leading from the terrace to the garden can have slightly lower steps, such as 12-15 cm high.
Architect block steps were used as a terrace edging
© Bruk-Bet
Ready-made stair blocks: a modern material for entrance stairs
A very good material for stairs in front of the entrance to the house or at the terrace are stair blocks made of concrete. This is a very durable material, resistant to atmospheric factors, easy to keep clean. Stair blocks have a flat cuboid shape and a decoratively finished surface. It can be smooth, sanded or blasted having anti-slip properties, which is very important for outdoor stairs in public facilities.
The color choice of stair blocks is wide and depends on the way they are finished: Terazzo, Color-mix, Metallic color, Uni-split, Realit. Moreover, they are color-complementary to slabs and pavers, so they can be nicely composed with the rest of the pavement around the house and building.
In addition to the entrance area, stair blocks can also be used to make a border for the terrace and the descent from it to the garden. The edging is needed for technical reasons - it limits and supports the terrace area, protecting it and providing a solid base for this space. On plots of land with a steep slope from stair blocks, you can build a convenient descent from higher terraces straight into the garden.
Stair blocks are an ideal material in urban zones next to public buildings, office buildings or shopping malls. They can be used to create practical pedestrian routes connecting buildings with green recreational zones often located near shopping centers as well as in multi-family housing estates. Bruk-Bet stair blocks can be ordered cut to any length according to the stair project.
Construction of stairs from concrete blocks
You can build a run from them very quickly. There is no need to make a cumbersome concrete slab. All you need is a properly shaped and compacted aggregate substructure about 30 cm thick. A layer of semi-dry concrete or sand-cement ballast is laid directly under the concrete blocks. Stairs are laid from the bottom. Successive steps should overlap
1-2 cm. In field development, individual blocks can be built up so that they overlap behind each other. The horizontal and vertical joints between the elements are filled with polyurethane sealant or left open in the case of a permeable substructure.
Stair blocks go well with terrace slabs
© Bruk-Bet
Lining steps
Many houses have reinforced concrete steps as the base of the stairs, which are finished with tiles. As already mentioned, this solution has one disadvantage. After years, the tiles fall off and the stairs need a general overhaul. At the moment, it is possible to finish such a run using cladding steps.
The steps and platform slabs have a terazzo or teratec finish that mimics granite. They match many collections of patio slabs, slabs and pavers. They coordinate perfectly with Abakus masonry slabs, which can be used to build a terrace border.
Stairs made of platform slabs
Very attractive stairs, especially in a garden with a steep slope, can be built from platform slabs. These are large-format elements measuring 160×100 cm and 6 cm thick. They have a honed terazzo or rough teratec finish in colors like Abacus slabs, with which they blend in perfectly.
Platform slabs can be used to build extremely attractive stairs, especially on plots with a steep slope
© Bruk-Bet
Platform slabs are unreinforced elements, made of self-compacting concrete with high strength - close to 50 MPa. They can be used to build cantilever stairs with a maximum overhang of 25 cm.
The maximum overhang of the platform slab in stairs is 25 cm.
© Bruk-Bet
The most important stage of installation is to carefully draw out the layout of the steps and size the shape of each slab. We cut the platform slabs according to the shape of the designed stairs, so that they fit the foundation from the foundation on which we fix them.
For more information, visit the company's BRUK-BET Sp. z o.o. page on the A&B portal.
