Rustic Hillside Stairway Made of Retaining Wall Blocks

DIY, hillside stairway, concrete blocks, retaining wall, backyard project, garden, staircase in hill

Rustic hillside stairway made of concrete retaining wall caps

As you may already know, like Laura Ingalls, I live somewhere in the "Big Woods" of Wisconsin. And we're blessed to own a little piece of those Big Woods. One thing you might not know is that the Big Woods can be very hilly, too. Our back yard is basically a steep, wooded hill going up to a ridge. And for over a decade I have wanted to build a stairway into the hill to give us access to the ridge above.

And now I have finally done it! Let me show you how:

THE MEASUREMENTS

Like my drawing? It's so spiffy, I'm thinking of sending this to my alumni magazine. Caption: "Erin, class of '04, personally designed and built her backyard stairway relying heavily on the skills she learned at Michigan, CLEARLY demonstrated here."

First, I had to determine how far up and how far out the ridge was from the base of the hill. This is called the Rise and the Run. (I'm guessing you already know that, or you wouldn't be searching DIY stairways!)

I didn't want to buy any special supplies, so to figure this out, I used what I had on hand:

-large step ladder

-4" level

-tape measure

-long rope

-a couple blocks or bricks

-two kids

I sent one kid up the hill with one end of the rope. I placed the ladder at the base of the hill with the level and blocks on top. I stood at the top holding the rope taught, and using the blocks, made the level and rope even in height to ensure we were, in fact, holding the rope level. From that point I measured down with the tape measure.

The second kid was supposed to be helping with this, but instead she spent the time yelling at me from the ground, angry that she wasn't the one sent up the hill and demanding fruit bites for restitution.

But in the end, I got the measurements, and that's all that matters.

The results:

Rise: 14 1/2'

Run: 40'

THE PARAMETERS

Next I laid out some rules for myself and this project. I called these "The Illities and Icity". As in:

Durability--After doing all this work, I wanted this stairway to last longer than me. In fact, as I breathe my last breath, I want to look out at my hill and say, "Well, at least my stairs are still here. Good-bye."

Accessibility--I wanted the materials I used to be something I could easily find at a local supplier in town, so that if and when I ran out of materials (which is inevitable during a project like this), I could just hop into town and pick up some more.

Affordability--If money were no object, I wouldn't be doing this. I'd be hiring someone else to build a staircase for me out of locally quarried limestone, designed to look as though it were a magical, naturally occurring feature of the landscape. But money was definitely a factor for me, as I guess it is for you (again, would you be looking at DIY stairways if you could just hire someone?) So I was looking for materials that were--dare I say?--cheap.

Portability--I was making this entirely by myself, so I needed to be using materials that I could load at the store, unload from my van back at home, and haul by hand up and down this hillside. So I had a limit of about 40 pounds per stone.

And now for the Icity--as in SIMPLICITY

I wanted this project to be simple. No cutting or splitting of stones, Nothing that couldn't be done with basic hand tools.

THE MATERIALS

I chose an extra large retaining wall cap sold at our local home improvement store. It measures 18" on the wide side, 12" on the narrow side, 13" deep, and 3.5" tall. It came in four color choices. I went with Sienna, which was a mix of charcoal, tan, and terra cotta. (note: In NO WAY is it as colorful in person as they show it here.)

The cost was about $6.50 each.

I laid these two for each step, making alternating parallelograms as I progressed up the hill.

Other materials included:

Multipurpose gravel

Leveling sand

Tools:

Big shovel

Small shovel

Putty Knife

Small level

Rubber mallet

Hand saw

Tape measure

Gloves

Shoes, pants, shirt, undies, ...probably, but that's your call.

THE PLAN

Now for the fun part.

I had my hill's rise and run, and my stone size, so then I just had to do some simple math to divide the rise into even parts using the stone's height.

And then I took that number of parts, and divided the run by that number to determine the depth of my steps.

So for me that was a riser of 3.5" and about a tread of 10".

Just a note--you have some wiggle room when it comes to the depth of the steps (run), particularly in a "rustic" situation, where you might be curving the stairs. But the height of each step (rise) must be consistent to prevent tripping.

Ideally, the rise would be between 4" and 7", because that is what feels most natural to us humans as we step. But I had to work with what I had. If God wanted me to make 7" risers, he would have made the hill a different shape. Or He would have made the concrete retaining wall caps with more choices of size.

THE EXECUTION

Now for the construction--

-Mark the space for the step.

-Dig the space about 7" down (like a little grave).

-Fill about 6" with multi-purpose gravel.

-Tamp or stomp it down to compress.

-Add leveling sand.

-Tamp or stomp down.

-Make the foundation smooth.

-Place the first stone.

-Using level, ensure the stone is level from side-to-side, and pitched slightly forward to prevent water pooling on step.

-Place second stone carefully, directly next to first.

-Check with level and adjust accordingly.

After the first step, you'll be doing all this behind the back of the previous step. I also overlapped the steps at least an inch to ensure stability.

And when you get to the top, you'll need to attach the final row with concrete adhesive, since nothing is holding them down.

DIY, hillside stairway, weekend backyard project, stone border, rocks, retaining wall

When the stairway was complete, I took the rocks I had dug out during the process and arranged them into a makeshift retaining wall at places where the hill was steep.