Broken steps over basemnlent offset

9 years ago

I have a 1956 rambler. We recently removed an old well from under the front steps. This well was housed in a basement offset. The front steps make the cover of the room. While removing the well, we broke a chunk of the concrete step. There is now a gaping hole leading right into the cold room below.

The steps have been cracked and leaky since I bought the place 5 years ago. The sidewalk leading up to the steps has sunk over half a foot below the foundation. We would like to remove the steps completely and build an inviting wood porch with stairs running along the front edge to cover the sunken concrete.

The problems:

1. How to waterproof the room? if we remove the steps, we need to make a new 'roof'.

2. The city water main and whole house shutoff are in the room and run up to the top of the ceiling. Filling the room or seali g it off are not viable options.

3. Laying decking directly on top of the existing concrete steps will make the level too high and ompede with the storm door opening and make an unsafe entrance over the threshold.

Any ideas???

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Comments (2)

User
9 years ago
Do you need access from outside, or are these valves opened and closed from the basement?

If the valves are accessible from the basement, yes, remove the steps completely and build a wood
porch with stairs running along the front edge to cover the sunken
concrete.

And make it wider and deeper than the current steps as a nice entry porch. The size test is this: can a visitor stand on your porch and open the door to come in without having to back off the porch and fall down the steps to get out of the way of the door? If they can't, you need a bigger porch.

Making a new waterproof "roof" would be simple ... it's just going to be a flat roof but at ground level. A rot-proof wooden frame around the top edge of the room with a "lid" of metal over it would work, sloping slightly away from the house and well-caulked around the edges. (like a shoebox, with the metal being the lid). A sheet-metal fabricator could make one easily because they have the tools to bend the metal.

Then build the porch over it.
amyjoy227 thanked User
amyjoy227
Original Author
9 years ago
We are thinking along those lines. 8x8 for the porch. The shutoffs are accessed from the basement. Being in MN we have to insulate the room, but that should be fairly simple with the construction you described and the pink foam board insulation. Thank you!
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