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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Photo - Landscape Timber Stairs


Here are those stairs in construction.
Photos by Doug Kalal, taken at a client's garden in Rancho Bernardo.

23 comments:

  1. Hi Doug! I have a question. I read that the treatment of landscape timbers is now less toxic than it used to be. Can you comment on that?

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  2. Hi Muriel, Up until 10 years ago, pressure treated wood was soaked in a chemical that used arsenic as it's base. Due to concerns about the impact on humans, that chemical was eliminated. Now the wood used for landscape timber stairs are treated with a copper based chemical, which is supposed to be safer. Here is a great article on the subject. http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infxtra/infpre.html

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  3. what are these stairs filled with...? It's not brick like the DIY. Thanks!

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  4. The stairs in the photo are filled with decomposed granite that has a stabilizer mixed in.

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  5. is the weed growth a problem in the DG, or does the stabilizer help with weed growth?

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  6. Before putting down the decomposed granite, I recommend laying a heavy duty weed block underneath. The stabilizer does help because it causes the dg to form a harder surface. That in turn keep soil and weeds from finding anchor points to sprout.

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  7. How did you tie them together? It doesnt look like the faces have bolts or rebar to hold together or into the ground?

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    Replies
    1. My guess is rebar sticks up from the stair underneath and goes into a hole drilled part of the way through the stair

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  8. Fences are good for garden. I prefer garden fences than concrete fences. You must always study about fences and their maintenance. The blog was good to give some insight about timber garden fence panels.
    treated timber depth of rail

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  9. Hi Doug, how did you anchor these to the ground? Did you just lay them directly on the dirt? Any insight you could provide I would greatly appreciate it. These are awesome by the way.

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  10. Hi Doug,
    8x10 landscape timbers....where did you find these?

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    Replies
    1. The timbers in the photo are 4" x 6" which are pretty easy to find.

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  11. I'm thinking of doing this in a area under a very large Tamrac tree to get down around it's roots😄

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  12. We live in an area that is all rock. We put down some soil, but nothing deep enough to dig. Will this work for us?

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  13. Where can one find the stabilizer you mentioned for the decomposed granite?

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  14. It can be ordered wherever you buy the DG from. The DG will come pre-mixed with the stabilizer.

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  15. Doug, Question about curved stairs and the measurements needed to make them work. I was wondering if you toed in the side rails so that the tread/riser that sits at a diagonal across those rails spans the width of the rails. From what I see, the bigger the curve/turn the next step makes, the more I would need to toe in the rails so that next tread/riser makes full contact with those rails. Is this correct or am I missing something or is there a better way to do this? Thanks!

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  16. Looks great. Did you use road base underneath DG? The garden store says I should but the person who may help me says not necessary. I have 27 steps on side of my house that slope down. Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, roadbase will compact more uniformly that fill dirt

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  17. Do you what kind of wood you used for this? We like the color.
    Thank you!

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  18. It was a special type of pressure treated wood, Redwood works well also

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