Building a deck isn’t often the most complex project in the world. But it’s still not something you want to “wing” – especially when it’s time to set your deck stairs.
Sure, lots of people end up setting their deck steps right down on the grass. But that’s a nightmare for a bunch of different reasons we touch on in a moment. You want to solidly set your deck stairs on top of footings and not just to be compliant with the building code.
In the rest of this guide we go over (almost) everything you need to know about deck step footings and why they are so important.
Ready to jump in?
Answer To The Question Do You Need Footings for Deck Stairs:
Right out of the gate it’s important to break down the difference between actual footings and a “landing pad”.
All throughout the United States (and Canada, too) building codes require your deck stairs to terminate on top of a landing pad of some kind.
Most of the time this landing pad is simply a poured slab of concrete. Sometimes, though, it’s just a couple of pavers or bricks drop down on the ground with the steps set on top of them. You can use a whole bunch of different materials so long as the local code allows it.
Footings, though, are an entirely different animal altogether.
Footings go deep underground (generally beneath the frost line, which is at a different depth in different parts across the country), are almost always poured into long cardboard tubes and allowed to cure before the deck stairs are set directly into them.
Of course, you also have a lot of applications that do a bit of a hybrid combination between landing pads and footings.
We touch a little more on that in just a moment.
Right now, though, just understand that there’s a big difference between a landing pad and footings – and a lot of local building codes are requiring deck stair footings to eliminate movement altogether.
You might have been able to get away with a landing pad alone in the past. But new permitted work almost always requires full on footings to really anchor those steps in place.
Footing Options to Consider
Now that we’ve gone over the basics, it’s important to highlight a couple of different footing options you are going to want to consider.
Landing Pads
For starters, we have the traditional “landing pad” option we mentioned a moment ago.
In localities where this is still allowed by code you generally only need to pour a 36 inch wide landing (or a little wider, depending on the steps you’ve built) to support the stairs for your deck.
This is a really cheap, really easy, and relatively reliable solution for giving your steps a better place to terminate than sitting atop uneven and “unreliable” ground prone to shift and change with the seasons.
The trouble with this kind of landing pad, though, is that there’s no real anchor between the steps themselves and the pad. This means that your steps are always going to want to “creep” away from the deck, potentially pulling out your fasteners – especially if you used nails – and making your steps unsafe over time.
Wooden landing pads resolve this issue a little bit, at least allowing you to anchor the steps directly into the landing pad in a way that concrete landing pads can’t.
These wooden pads (sometimes called stair boxes) are made from the same kind of pressure-treated material that your stairs and your deck often are. Cheap, easy to put together, and reasonably reliable than not the worst solution.
Of course, any kind of wood that comes into contact with the ground for extended amounts of time (including pressure-treated material) will inevitably warp, rock, and to grade. You might find yourself swapping out the stair boxes more often than you thought.
Footings
Footings – legitimate, full-blown poured footings – are going to make sure that your stairs never move, that they never come in contact with the earth itself, and that they give you years and years of reliable service.
Now, poured footings are a permanent fixture in your property and that can be a problem for folks that might want to move their deck steps around every couple of years. Digging up all that concrete is going to be a nightmare.
Other than that, though, there’s really not a lot of downside to sticking footings under your stairs and cementing them in place (no pun intended).
When Are Footings Unnecessary?
Even building codes allow for certain situations where footings aren’t required – even where a landing pad of any kind isn’t required, even.
For example, if you have a set of deck stairs that have less than three risers you don’t need to use any footings or any landing whatsoever.
Not according to the code, anyway.
All the same, even those steps should be supported at least a little bit.
It’s not a bad idea to level out the ground underneath those steps, maybe even digging down a little bit and backfilling with gravel that will drain water and give you a little more stability when the steps inevitably compress into the earth.
A wood landing (stair box like the one we mentioned above) isn’t a bad choice, either. Even just another 2 x 6 or 2 x 8 on the flipside nailed to the bottom of the last step can help you level things out a little bit.
Closing Thoughts
The deck stairs that you build are a major piece of your deck, even if they don’t look like they contribute all that much.
You need to be sure that they are safe, that they are secure, and that they are structurally sound.
If any other part of your deck has been secured to the ground with footings the odds are pretty good that you’ll want to have footings securing your deck steps as well.
The code may even require it.
When you get right down to it, it’s almost always better to overbuilt something as important as your deck steps than to roll the dice and underbuild it.
The first time someone gets hurt because you cut corners will teach you that lesson the hard way.
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