Death by Stoop

[alldayrj]

of all the dumb things I've done in my life, didn't see this one coming.
feel free to point me to a masonry forum but for now you guys are the best I got lol
here's the scoop
Doing a new stoop. plan is to rip off the brick veneer, determine if the footings good, If not, pour a new one and brick it back up with bluestone treads and a new rail
heres the progression
9am



10 am



I jammed a breaker bar down in the crack and pried the sides off in a big slab. noticed the concrete block on top two courses are loose. no biggie, gotta re-lay those.

[alldayrj]

Had the sidewalks all cleaned off. Then me and dad are doing some layout, measuring, leveling etc.

I look at where the stoop meets the house and I see pure beach sand pouring out like a scene from "The Mummy" or something. Then I'm like, is that moving? I grab dad and we both step back and WHAM!
definitely did not see this coming. full of wet fine beach sand. Almost wiped out my truck parked at the curb, pancaked a wheelbarrel - blew out the tub and legs and shattered the handles.
Guess it could have been worse if we were under that 5x5 8" thick landing slab


how we had to leave it for the night - regroup with a new plan in the morning

Be careful out there guys, its not always the 30k lb dump truck or 10k lb skid steer trying to kill you!

[DVS Hardscaper]

Looks like a neighborhood you see them going into on the old TV show 'cops'.

But yeah, we usually start from the top and work down........

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[alldayrj]

Its Long Beach NY, this little house is prob a half a mill lol
What do you mean top down? The plan was to leave the block and landing
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[sven1277]

The sad thing is that a lot of effort went into that job originally and its still ugly

[SDLandscapes VT]

had a similar close call last weekend working on my own house. I was removing the poured concrete front stoop--started with the jackhammer at the bottom step--busted the step cleared with the skid steer. I repeated the process for all five steps--breaking off and clearing the sand fill with the skid steer. I then came to a block wall--I assumed that the wall was filled on the interior with more sand fill---wrong the block footers went all the way to the base of the basement block wall and there was a void about 11' from the top of the stoop--a previous owner of the house even blocked up a hole in the basement wall they had leading to the space under the steps. Fortunately I saw the void before I jack-hammered myself into the pit----couldn't agree with you more got to be safe out there.

[alldayrj]

Haha the whole block has these ugly stoops. Hopefully when they see this one done they will do theirs too.

Builders do some weird stuff. Just when you think you've seen it all or got it figured out
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[alldayrj]

well guys here is a sad update. The homeowner sent me this picture about 2 weeks ago. the railing contractor finally installed the rails and she did a small planting and rock garden in front.

all was well until Hurricane Sandy. Being that she was in Long Beach I texted her to make sure she was ok after the storm and found out that her house had burned down. A friend was watching videos of some of the wreckage and came across this one and forwarded it to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtCKv...are_video_user
look at the :30 second mark. not sure what will happen with the house as far as rebuilding but its all a little sobering while running the rat race. Its strange upsetting to think I've been in that house and know those neighbors.

[cgaengineer]

Man that's crazy! I watched video and can't believe the destruction.
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[alldayrj]

Its pretty gross. The beaches and boardwalks are gone. Not sure if it will ever be the same
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