Concrete Steps and Stairs in Thunder Bay, ON

5-star ratings from Google

Usually two to four days on site. Steps take longer than the size suggests because there is a footing involved: the old set comes out, the footing gets excavated below frost and poured, and only then can the steps be formed on top of it. You will need another way into the house for part of that, and for about a day after the pour while the concrete gains strength.

It depends most on the footing, not on the number of risers. A footing carried below the frost line in Thunder Bay is deep, and excavating and filling it is a real share of the job. Number of risers, width, whether there is a landing, and whether a handrail is included all matter after that. If you have a quote that is dramatically cheaper than the others, ask that contractor how deep their footing goes.

Look at whether anything has moved. Crumbling edges, flaking treads, and a rough surface are salt and freeze-thaw damage, and while they look bad they do not necessarily mean the set is failing. A gap opening at the house, risers that are no longer equal, a tilt, or a void underneath all mean the footing or the ground has changed, and surface work does not touch that. We assess for free and we will tell you if the answer is to leave it.

Because they were poured tight against the foundation, or because the footing under them was not deep enough, or both. The house and the steps sit on different supports and move differently through a freeze cycle. Without a compressible isolation joint between them, that movement has nowhere to go, so either the steps pull away or they push against the wall. A gap you can see is the steps telling you which one happened.

What is worth knowing either way: lifting addresses the symptom rather than the cause. If a set has sunk because the footing is above frost depth or because water has washed material out from underneath, raising it back into position does not change the condition that moved it, and it will usually move again. Lifting makes most sense on a structurally sound set that has settled once and stopped. We will tell you honestly which situation you are in.

The structural difference is what they sit on. A poured set is built on its own footing and is monolithic with it. A precast set is manufactured elsewhere and placed on prepared bearing, which is faster and can be less expensive. Poured steps can be built to any dimension, which matters when a set has to meet an existing door threshold and an existing walk at fixed heights. Precast comes in standard sizes and the site has to accommodate them rather than the other way around.

Below the frost line, and in Thunder Bay that is deeper than almost anywhere else in Ontario. The Ontario Building Code does not publish a frost depth table. It leaves the depth to local determination based on local experience, which is why the number is set here rather than provincially. Steps built on a pad at grade rather than on a footing carried to depth are the most common reason a set fails long before it should.

It depends on the number of risers and the drop, and it is set by the Building Code rather than by preference. The practical answer is that it is worth settling at the quote stage rather than after the concrete is in, because the fixing detail changes depending on whether a rail is coming. Tell us at the assessment if you want one, or if you are replacing an existing rail, and we will make sure the steps are built to take it.

Not the first winter, and steps are the hardest place on the property to follow that rule. Concrete Ontario's guidance is that no de-icer of any type should be used on new concrete through its first winter, because the air voids in fresh concrete are still saturated and cannot relieve freezing pressure, which causes the surface to scale. Use sand for traction and keep the treads shovelled that first year. After that, plain rock salt in light applications does the least damage.