Wednesday, May 24, 2023

More Than a Facelift - The Front Stair Project

We love the front entrance to our house.  The pediment and columns are one of the few decorative features on the front.  And while we liked the stone stairs, we immediately noticed they had lots of cracks in the mortar.  Our fingers were crossed that it would just be a repointing job. 

No such luck (seriously, we haven't had luck on our side on this project!!).  Evidently the steps had been repaired over the years and fixing them was no simple matter.  There were lots of suggestions on how to fix them, but we really wanted to keep the original stone and old house look.


Thankfully Chase from CPC Masonry has experience with restoring old steps and wanted to retain that old world charm.  He carefully measured the original staircase and took photos so it could be put together just the way it was.

And it was a big job.  He needed to dig back to where the stairs were still completely solid.  As he pulled them apart we discovered the stairs, which had been exposed to the elements for many decades, were in bad shape.

Yeah, it was a mess.....

Thankfully, the very top and sides were still pretty solid.  

Freeze and thaw cycles over the years had degraded the top layers

He carefully started the reassembly process, making sure it matched the original.  It was a big job! 



One of our favorite features of the stairs were the stone posts which hold up the columns to the porch roof.   Chase did a fabulous job recreating them to the exact dimensions of the original posts.

And the finished product looks amazing! This is probably how the steps looked when they were new. Aren't they great?  Now the pressure is on me to get the old wood columns cleaned up and ready to be reinstalled.  I can't wait to see how it looks with everything back in place! 


They look like new!!

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3 comments:

  1. Looks amazing !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks like such a great job. You never know how it’s going to go. But you have to restore things correctly.

    ReplyDelete

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