Composite Decking Front Steps Complete Tutorial

i just spent the last three weeks building these beautiful new steps for our front entry i can hardly believe i did this myself with about 180 worth of materials as well as a free armadillo decking from our sponsor avon plastics let me show you how i put together these stairs with no stringers hello everyone it's melissa from welcome to the woods here i'm showing you what we had before these steps weren't centered on the door and they were too small they really bothered me but i did decide to build our new stairs at an angle so that they were modern and took up a little less space i did not know when i started this how much of a headache this would end up being but in the end i'm so glad because the angle design looks super super cool to get the angle i first had to visualize because all the math in the world could not help me figure this out precisely because construction lumber just is not precise enough for you to lay a protractor down and figure out what angle you should be cutting in fact the math initially told me i needed a 25 degree angle but after laying out the pieces and measuring what i figured i would need i decided on a 20 degree angle so that is what i'm going to be cutting for the most part to build these stairs now to cut that 20 degree angle i just laid down all the wood on my miter saw unfortunately my miter saw is kind of small and so every cut wasn't quite big enough and i had to use a hacksaw to finish it out kind of annoying but it was fine the entire framework is getting put together by three inch long deck screws these are coated to be anti-rust and for the exterior as well as my rigid drill set with a t25 driver i fall more in love with my rigid drill set every project that i do i highly recommend them it was really important when i was drilling these pieces together that i had the back too lined up with my square because i want those to be perpendicular i will say that working with 2x6 treated lumber is no joke these 2x6 were full of water from sitting outside at the lumber yard and they were super super heavy cutting them was a total pain and driving into them i broke three different drill bits during this process before i wisened up and started using titanium drill bits only so the lesson here is when you're working with treated lumber don't mess around use sharp blades strong drills and the correct bits and screws for the job you'll see that here where the joint comes to an angle i had to cut both ends of the lumber at a 20 degree so they fit together nicely and i did that on the other side as well to create a complete trapezoid here i'm flipping over my trapezoid to begin to screw in the joists the joists i just used two by fours so by flipping this over it is saving me time i'm going to use the floor in my garage as basically the level to get all the joists to be flush on top with the top of the platform does that make sense so each of these joists i cut to basically match up with where they're going to be on the trapezoid's angle this was a lot of measuring and trial and error so that each joist is spaced 12 inches apart 12 inches apart is the recommended joist spacing for the composite decking material that i'm going to be putting on the top of these steps after screwing in all of the joists on the top platform it was done and it was time to move on to the steps i created the steps a very similar way to the top except there were no perpendicular angles everything was a trapezoid so i had to cut a lot of 20 degrees and i turned each of the stairs into its own box now here you can see i'm just securing all the ends now you have to account for the thickness of the material that you're going to be laying on the steps and because my decking is about an inch thick then the first step needs to be shaved to account for that and have all the steps be even does that make sense so i'm building steps that are six and a quarter inches tall but i have to account for an inch thick decking so that made my first step be five and a quarter inches tall here you'll see me shaving down some of the two by sixes i used to build that slightly shorter box for the first step instead of measuring 12 inches again for all these joists i just put a speed square next to the joists that were on the top platform and then marked where to put the joists in each step while it probably wasn't necessary i also cut each of the 2x4 joists on each box of stairs at an angle so that they lined up perfectly with the platform on the top joists now the reason i did that is because i'm going to have some screws visible on the top of my decking and i just wanted everything to go in a straight line and look really nice now here i'm taking scraps of 2x6 that were left over and screwing them into the back of the bottom step these are going to help me rise up the box for the second step because the second step is actually going to lean on these now you'll remember the first step i shaved down to five and a quarter so it was really serendipitous that the height of these two by sixes plus the height of the two by six second step equaled a six and a quarter inch rise on the back of the second step i attached two by six pieces at an angle to kind of create a leg system as well as a couple more along the back and this gave it the same amount of rise in the back as in the front where i had those pieces of 2x6 resting against the first step a lot of the connections for the legs i was only able to achieve because i had a kreg jig mini which allowed me to drill pocket holes at a 45 degree angle install so if you're interested in getting a kreg jig mini i have one linked in the description on this video here i'm using it to drill pocket holes at a 45 degree angle in the second step that later on i will secure screws down into the support pieces i put on the back of the first step so i also am going to be drilling a ton of pocket holes using my craig jig k4 which has like the clamp system and everything to build up legs for the third step which is the big trapezoid platform i created a u-shaped leg structure for the platform five of them actually and i actually turned the two by fours different directions so you'll see here i'm attaching some of the legs with the two by fours like parallel but then i also did some of the legs where the two by fours were turned perpendicular and this is to prevent the top platform from tipping once i had all three stairs risen to their perspective heights i took a piece of outdoor rated plywood and this is three quarter inches thick and i'm drawing a line for what i want to cut out with my jigsaw to create like a door along the sides now the reason i'm not just keeping it solid is if you'll remember the corner of the area where the stairs are going to go has a faucet and the intake pipe for our furnace so because i'm using composite decking i'm not worried about that intake pipe being underneath it'll have plenty of airflow you can see them here as i move away this basket that is where i want to create a little door with that plywood on the side of the stairs and just have it kind of blocked off so i don't have any animals or whatever making homes underneath my stairs so i'm just getting things prepared here to move away the old black stairs from our front entry now these were really really heavy and i cannot believe i'm telling you this right now but i basically move these by myself here's how i did it initially i tried to get it away from the house and i couldn't my husband has been working from home so when he was on a very quick short break i think he had like five minutes i asked him to come outside and help me and we moved the steps maybe six inches to a foot away from the house and then he had to go back inside how i moved the steps was i grabbed a little 2x4 and i grabbed my dolly so i used the dolly and i shoved it underneath the front of the steps and then i tilted the steps up slightly with the dolly just to slide the 2x4 block under there with my feet then i had space to get the dolly out of the way and lift up get my fingers under there and lift up the stairs this was very heavy what was even worse was when i had the stairs on their side trying to figure out how to scooch them out of the way i had to use my whole body especially the strongest part of my body which was my hips and legs to push against the house and a lot of adrenaline helped with this to get these stairs moved i would say these were hundreds of pounds but if i can do it anybody can do it and no i did not hurt myself i was fine the next day then i just gave the area a clean sweep and it was time to assemble my new stairs yay so i brought in the steps first the two steps and i'm going to be attaching these like i showed you earlier with the pocket holes that i pre-drilled i love to do my projects myself but unfortunately i needed my husband's help again during his next five minute break to bring in the top platform because it was just really large i guess it was okay we make a pretty good team the area where the faucet was unfortunately was obstructed by one of my legs and so i had to cut out more of it than i wanted in order for the platform to fit where it needed to go i used my oscillating multi-tool which you just saw and cut out part of the leg fortunately it was still pretty sturdy now we're going to make this beautiful with this armadillo decking in the color campfire thank you to avon plastics who sponsored this product for us composite decking is maintenance free and takes these special screws they have color matched heads so that they're nearly invisible when put in and they have two different thread types you can see that hold the screw into the composite decking as well as into your framework it's best to pre-drill on this composite decking before installing these screws in order to prevent mushrooming which happens because composite decking is theoretically just made of plastic it doesn't behave the same as wood even though you can cut it just like wood i would recommend getting fine toothed blades and making sure that you are not over driving screws because they can easily get stripped in this type of material so i am using my impact driver here but i'm taking it really slow the reason that i made the dimension of my steps to be six and a quarter inch rise is because that accounted for the thickness of this material and the seven and a quarter inch tall riser boards that came with the decking so it's all going to work out really great you can see here that i'm using a little spacer to screw down the edge of my first board for the top platform this edge needs to get screwed down but the other ones don't because i'm going to be using turbo clips more on that later i'm just going to pause here and show you this because it's a funny clip i accidentally recorded of my kids walking by this is how you work with kids they're constantly in the way i get that question a lot anyway all the boards for the top platform i cut at an angle to go against the house side and then i am actually using these turbo clips like i mentioned earlier there's strip of screws that are ready to go in these plastic spacers that help you perfectly space out and secure down your decking boards without having to screw down in the top so it kind of just looks like they're floating and it's so beautiful the installation goes really fast when each of your turbo clips are screwed in you just lay the next board next to it and push the groove into the turbo clip and then screw down your next line it's important to tap with a rubber mallet as well just to make sure all your spacing's even now this was really tricky when i got to the angle where i met the house by the front door i used my jigsaw again and i set up this straight edge for myself to cut this really tricky angle it's a 20 degree angle where all the ends of the board meet the house but then on the side where it meets the front door it was like a 20 degree angle the other way does that even make sense it was a very very sharp angle you see that and then i also had to notch out there by where the threshold for the door bumps out when i figured out the angle i made a cardboard template which i'm showing you here just so i didn't have to measure every time and i could repeat that angle again and again so i laid the whole top step this way and um this is the corner what i did was i got one turbo clip in there to hold down that last board and then that little corner i just stuck a screw in there to hold it down and make it safe if you're still watching at this point kudos to you and you might like to know that i brought along my instagram audience in behind the scenes footage of building these so go ahead and follow me on instagram if you would like the link is in the description on this video here i'm using my table saw to rip down the riser board for the bottom you'll remember that that one was height adjusted so the riser board had to be as well and with the riser board of course i pre-drilled all of my holes super super important sometimes these decking boards would be a bit bowed but fortunately they're very malleable so you can see i'm using a few different tools to kind of get the spacing even throughout before i pre-drill and then i screw down to hold it into place into the joists and i just move my spacers as i go and keep drilling down and that by the end my boards were like perfectly spaced and it all looked great for the steps themselves i had a ton of pre-drilling and screws to install because the turbo clips are not rated for steps overall i really loved working with this product and i hope it's as durable as they say you know one thing that i like the most about it is that it's made from 95 recycled material and avon plastics where i got it from told me that they process a billion plastic bottles a year to make these products so i think that is super super impressive here i am using my jigsaw again just to shear off the ends of all the boards i didn't cut these individually before install because i thought this would be easier to just run a straight path i used my oscillating multi-tool again to finish the cut near the house where the jigsaw couldn't reach at this point the entire top of the stairs was covered but i'm going to install some hinges to create that door on the side that we talked about i made the door as small as i could because initially i was planning to do the whole thing swinging open with plywood as you can see here but it ended up being too heavy with the riser boards on top and just too long so i cut it down into three pieces one piece is closing off the side of the two bottom stairs and then another piece is going to go up here where i have a 2x6 obstructing the entrance anyway so then i'm covering it in riser board and this is covering up all the edges of the cut pieces of decking that go along the top and this is going to look so nice now my only cut edge showing is along the front for the rest of the door i needed a vertical cut so i used my scroll saw because it was the thinnest blade that i had and that's going to make that cut less noticeable you'll see what i mean here in a minute so the first piece gets attached to the side of the step itself the other part of the opening is going to be the door that swings open so this piece of plywood is going to be my door and this will allow me to access the faucet this is where i'm going to attach my hinges and then i install the other piece of riser board to the piece of plywood hopefully making the cut seam line up really nice and be pretty invisible i don't even know if you noticed until i'm calling it out here but did you see that i even cut the edge of the riser board at that 20 degree angle so that it becomes flush with the front of the stair seriously you guys i had no clue when i was making these um at an angle it was going to be so complicated anyway once i had the door put together it looked pretty good but i needed a latch because it didn't stay closed on its own of course so i installed a little old-timey cabinet latch that i just had laying around you could also use a powerful magnet for something like this finally after three weeks of work i was done with all of my cutting and man did i have a big bag of sawdust to show for it i gathered all of this just to throw away because it's technically not wood that's biodegradable i just put it in a bag and put it in my trash the finishing touch was mixing up a paint color that was going to match i used some red some orange and some black to make this brown and just painted the edges of all of the cut seams and that was it i'm done and this is how i felt there's nothing like that feeling of accomplishment when you complete a diy that you weren't completely sure you could pull off these stairs are one of the most complicated things i have ever built and i hope you're impressed with all of the angles that i figured out and the beauty of this design i love how they come up to our front door i love how precisely i tried to cut everything i think i did a pretty good job if i do say so myself and more than anything i love the beautiful decking that i got from armadillo decking the color is just perfect to set off my neutral black and white house bring some warmth and some welcome into our entry so here i'm just showing you how my little door works to sneak in there and hook up the hose to the faucet when need be also i'd like to know in the comments would you ever attempt to build something like this let me know below if i inspired you and thank you guys so much for watching my stairs build i hope that if you were impressed you click share on this video we'll see you next time on welcome to the woods

Channel: Welcome to the Woods

Views: 2,121,705

Rating: 4.7672391 out of 5

Keywords: composite decking steps, composite decking stairs, composite decking, front steps, how to build front steps, how to build composite decking steps, how to build front stairs, how to build composite decking stair, porch steps, front porch steps, porch stairs, front porch stairs, armadillo decking, install armadillo decking, composite steps, composite stairs, composite front steps, composite front stairs, how to build porch steps, front steps tutorial

Id: aM8snYZla4Y

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020