The projects of most of the homes include front entry steps or a porch. Mostly they are built in the process of General construction, periodically situations arise when a porch is equipped with separately. Despite the diversity of forms and variants of arrangement of steps, there are a number of constant parameters, which should be paid attention when building structures.
Design options input group ↑
To provide a convenient entrance can be different. In addition to reliability and comfort, the porch should fit the architectural style of the building. Thinking about the material choice is often stopped on the steps of the concrete. The reasons for this decision are many. Despite the high costs during the construction, steps to the porch made of concrete have significant advantages, including:
- Long service life with minimal cost of cosmetic repairs.
- Resistance to external factors. Concrete steps are not susceptible to rotting or insect damage like wooden counterparts. They will eventually emit an unpleasant squeaking.
- Noiselessness design. Stage of concrete do not produce the hum when walking, as in the case of application for porch metal.
- A wide range of finishes allows you to choose the option most appropriate to the overall façade of the building.
Depending on the size of the house and the functions conferred on the steps to the porch, a concrete structure can take different forms:
- Small buildings or homes with simple architecture often equipped with traditional porch concrete square or rectangular shape. This option is acceptable if the design plays the role of a secondary entrance in luxury building.
- Application in the design of ornate lines, arched openings will be in harmony with concrete stairs semicircular in shape or made in the form of a spiral staircase.
- The availability of free space in front of the entrance also allows you to equip the trapezoidal design of concrete. The main thing – to live in the house was convenient to use it..
Another point, which is stipulated in the design stages for the porch – the presence of handrails and canopy. The answer to the first question is quite simple: if the number of steps is greater than three, for comfortable movement of the railing is better to install. The arrangement of the canopy also preferably, its main purpose is to protect the porch from the concrete from precipitation, because the ice-covered steps will not bring joy to the inhabitants of the house.
Recommended settings ↑
Correctly matched the steepness of the steps and size of steps of concrete will ensure comfortable use of the porch. What you should pay attention in the first place?
The incline of the stairs ↑
The ratio of the height of the steps to their horizontal projection is optimal in the range of 1/2 to 1/1. 75. If we translate these proportions into degrees, beyond the limit angle is 45on. Exceeding the recommended standards will definitely lead to inconvenience in operation. porch and fraught with creating traumatic situations.
Periodically flashed tips to the stage of concrete had a slight slope to ensure runoff of precipitation. This is very impractical. A sound approach when building a porch provides for a visor or sunshade that has a function of protection from rain. And on the steps of the slant chance to slip only increases.
The sizes of steps ↑
The minimum depth of the step is calculated from the position that it can fully fit the foot of an adult, that is, the starting count of 25 see More – please, less not worth it. The height of the steps to the porch in the range of 12-20 cm in a nursing home or grown-up tenants limiting lifting to 15 cm, for comfortable movement the most viable option lies in the range 14-17 cm.
To determine the number of steps required to do a simple calculation:
- Calculates the height of the porch is the distance from the base to the front door minus five inches for ease of opening.
- The obtained result is divided by the selected height of the stairs from concrete.
- The porch is customary to arrange an odd number of steps, so if you need an even number adjusted by changing the height in the big or smaller party.
To determine the minimum width of stairs made of concrete simple enough, she pushes off from the door width plus 15 cm on each side, but not less than 1 m. This will be enough for the simultaneous movement of two people in the field of doorway. The maximum size of a porch depends solely on the personal preferences of the owner of the structure.
Monolithic stage ↑
The construction stages of concrete is in two ways:
- This can be a monolithic construction, the fill of which produced directly at the site of construction.
- There are assorted options when the formation of each stage of concrete is carried out separately, and then the items going to the stairs.
Every process has significant differences. A monolithic method is mainly used in the case of construction of a porch or the formation of the stairs to the basement. Prefabricated prefer when connecting the floors or the arrangement of the ascent to the attic. We will focus in more detail on the description of the monolithic construction of concrete porch.
The construction of Foundation ↑
First we need the area under the Foundation clean of debris and foreign objects, then transferred to trench. The depth of Foundation is recommended to be done at the same level with the main building, in any case, it should be below the frost line of the soil at the 20-30 cm Size pits exceed the dimensions of the future front porch of concrete is 25 cm on each side.
On the bottom of the pit is formed to prevent ingress of groundwater, its composition and the manner of stacking the following:
- Wet sand 15 cm thick.
- The layer of gravel 20 cm in height leveled and thoroughly compacted in the sand.
- Repeat a layer of sand 10 cm.
- After the next compaction all are filled with water, this will ensure the filling of the voids among the gravel sand.
- The basic Foundation waterproofing is carried out using roofing felt.
Prepared «pillow» lay the reinforcing mesh, the cell size depending on the dimensions of steps for the porch ranges from 10×10 cm to 15×20 cm In the final stage of the Foundation is filled with concrete mortar. It must flatten and remove air bubbles using a metal rod. The grout hardens in a few days, this time can be spent on the construction of the formwork for the steps of the porch.
The formation of the formwork ↑
Depending on the construction stages of concrete, for formwork use edged boards, plywood or tin sheets (in the case of forming a rounded steps). The process includes the following steps:
- When building a porch out of concrete dimensions on a sheet of plywood is applied, starting from the bottom rung.
- To start the tread and risers are drawn at a right angle, at the final stage of their contour adjusted to the slope of the bottom edge of the inside should be 15on.
- In the absence in the draft stages of the concrete canopy at the top of the porch provides a slight slope for water runoff. Expect roughly 30 cm in length 6 mm bevel.
- Using angle grinding machine all details of the future of the porch are cut.
After the connection with nails of all elements of the formwork for the steps, move on to installing it. Frame porch feature of concrete near the Foundation of the house with a gap of 1 cm. edge of the construction stages are fixed braces with stakes.
Concrete porch ↑
Before concreting the porch of the formwork is treated with grease from the inside to it is not stuck in the concrete mortar. To increase the strength of the steps necessary to build a frame out of rebar. To do this, metal rods are cut in accordance with sizes of a porch made of concrete and are connected by a wire. The gap between the reinforcing grid is about 15 cm. in the presence of the project, steps for porch railings, rebar binding is accompanied by a placed embedded elements.
To reduce the consumption of concrete and to increase the reliability of the steps will help add to the design of the stones or broken bricks. The fill levels are produced immediately after a batch, it will prevent the deterioration of concrete strength. Reliability of steps to the porch directly depends on how carefully will a stamped concrete solution. Removal of voids with metal stake is a prerequisite.
After pouring all formworks design steps for the porch is covered with polyethylene to reduce moisture evaporation from the concrete mortar. The final strength he gains 4 weeks after completion of the work.
Conclusion ↑
To make the porch out of concrete completed form is capable of decorative finish. The simplest option is to resort to standard painting. Much more effective stage look tiled. Looks original porch of concrete, which at the stage of pouring concrete, has issued an interesting pattern of pebbles. The choice depends on the overall look of the home and the financial capacity of the owners of the buildings.
