Stairs to Lake Wisconsin

The new lake house is generally in very good condition for a house that has had a single owner since 1973. However, the stairs that lead from the house down to the lake have seen better days. Down by the water, they are in pretty good shape:

However, the closer to the house you get, the rougher the stairs (and especially the railing) get. Part of the stairs do not have railing at all. Therefore, I have started building new railing (and eventually new steps). I’m using treated cedar 4×4’s and 2×4’s for the wood (and no-mix concrete for post setting to anchor them into the ground), which were easily hauled up to the lake house in the F250.

I setup a work area near the truck, which primarily consisted of my miter saw and table. I used a miter saw instead of a table saw because it made the angled cuts required on both the posts and the railing easy.

After cutting the posts, I used a shovel to dig the post holes, and then set the posts, making sure that they were level and at the same height on either side of the path down to the lake:

Once the first view posts were in, adding more posts was easier because there was a solid, concrete-anchored base to attach the subsequent railing to. Currently, I am still working my way down the path towards the lake, after making the first turn and heading downhill.

I will post more as the project continues. I am going to add at least one additional parallel level of railing below the top rail. My goal is to get the full railing and steps, which zig-zag down roughly 50 feet of bluff, done by the end of the summer to coincide with the installation of the dock.