Custom stairs for bluff side properties

In Northeast WI, we see many homes built on the beautiful bluffs boarding Lake Michigan. Home owners do not always have access to the beaches on their properties due to the difficulties involved with creating a safe and durable structure that will allow them access to the water front. Renew Restoration offers custom solutions for stairs or platforms to provide the desired water access on homeowners properties in Door County, Brown County, Kewaunee County Wisconsin and the surrounding areas.

We recently completed a custom deck and stairway for a home on Lake Michigan. This project presented several challenges for our team, as the previous stairs had been swept away by heavy rains and excessive ice shoves. The customer wanted a reasonably priced solution that would also help prevent suffering a similar loss in the future. The main issues we needed to address were the soil erosion on the face of the bluff and the destructive forces of any future ice shove events.

After assessing the stability of the ground, 6X6 treated posts were dug down as deep as possible into the firmest soil available at that level of the bluff. the 6x6 posts for the deck were set separately from the 6x6 posts for the steps leading down to the water, so that if ice shoves or erosion caused the steps to move, at least the new deck would remain unaffected.

A custom set of steel and treated wood steps was assembled offsite, the steel treated with a vinyl polymer that resists abrasion and rust before being brought onsite. On the two support posts for the steps, a steel pole was installed at the top of the steps and the stair stringers were set on the pole in a bracket that extended about 5 feet down the stringers. This bracket provided two features: 1. it allowed the entire stairway to shift up or down on a "hinge", so that it could accommodate changes to the soil on the bluff over time without damaging the 6X6 post connection to the bluff. 2. it provided the ability for the stairs to be pushed backward and upward on the bluff, separate from the deck, so that ice shoves could lift the stairs in two directions if they began to pile and add pressure at the base. Four break points were created on the custom steel stringers, so that if the other features could not accommodate the changes on the bluff, the stringers could easily break apart for minimal repairs.

The 4X4 treated stair support posts were installed on custom brackets so the stairs can be adjusted each year if the terrain changes, preventing torque type damage from eroding soil and rocks that over time could compromise their structural integrity.

Every bluff side property along Lake Michigan presents it's own challenges for installing stairs to access the water. If you are looking to add some to your property, let Renew Restoration help you create a custom solution to address your properties specific challenges!