Cabin Stair Repair (Sunday, August 5th, 2018)

The main stairs on Steve's family cabin were built in about 1973, and had seen many years of snow and sun.  They had become very soft and unsturdy, so one of our goals for this trip to Colorado was to rebuild them.  

Steve and his mom and dad went up to the cabin on Thursday and started tearing out the old steps.  It was a big, messy job, since much of the wood had rotted and was full of mold.  But they got it all torn out, and then the thinking began.

The old stairs were very uneven, and had a wall foundation that would dictate the grade of the new stairs, so Steve and his dad really had to do some calculating to make the new stairs fit into the old space.  

He and his dad built three new stair jacks, thinking that the first one would be the hardest, then the other two could be made from the pattern of the first, but unfortunately, it wasn't that easy.  None of the area around the rock base was uniform, so each stair jack had to be hand cut to its own specifications.

By the time our daughter and I got to the cabin, the new stair jacks were in place and supported and were ready for a coat of primer.

and then a coat of paint.

Once they were primed and painted, Steve and his dad went back to work, cutting the stair treads.  But once again, since the stairs weren't build to a normal stair specification, pieces of Trex had to be ripped to make the treads fit.

The finished result was beautiful and should last for many years to come.  Steve and his dad did a great job!