Need ideas for outside steps (granite, sink, stone, build)

[digitalgpbandit]

I need to do something with the stairs in the front of my house as they are sunken in. Everytime it rains they fill up with water especially the top step and the bottom step and I feel like they sink in more everytime. On days with very heavy rains the water over flows and floods my yard in front of the stairs. My dad is 58 years old and has arthritis in his knees and has some trouble walking stairs to begin with. He can't walk these stairs at all. I've gotten estimates up to $6000 to fix my stairs.

Everyone I've gotten estimates from has told me different things on these...fill them with cement, fill them with sand, the wood is good, the wood is going to go bad, you need to take them out totally and do stone steps with retaining walls, take them out and build a ramp if your dad can't walk it, you can't put a ramp there.

I just don't know what to belive. I just want stairs or a ramp that my dad will be able to walk. What should I do with these stairs?

http://imageshack.us/f/834/ju34.jpg/

[Pitt Chick]

If those were mine...
I would replace the entire thing.
The wood gets slippery when wet and will eventually rot out, so it would have bee replaced along ago.



Replace them with.... ? I don't know in your case as I don't know your house and yard.
Simple concrete with a handrail for dad could work, along with a myriad of other possibilities.

[K'ledgeBldr]

Cheap version- fill with pea gravel and call it a day.
Better version- excavate the fill inside the timbers to pour about 4" of concrete.

The best solution- replace all of it with granite slabs. A very popular from of steps in the NE- especially New England. Once placed (with the right pitch) will be good for 100's of years.