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Stone steps in crevice
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Posted by pph8595 Texas (My Page) on Mon, Jul 19, 04 at 23:25
| We have a cliff at the back of our lot with a 3 foot wide crevice. A mason has suggested cutting into the sides of the crevice and cementing large stones (4" thick) as steps to get down. Does this sound safe? Has anyone seen this done before? Will stones not break without support under the stone and only on the sides? Thanks for any thoughts on this. |
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RE: Stone steps in crevice
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| How high is the "cliff" ? In general, stone has great compressive strength but is unreliable in tension. An unsupported span puts the stone in tension when it is loaded. A 4" thick piece of granite might support a ton with a span close to 3', but it might crack in half the first time somebody jumps on it. I don't know what type of stone your mason would use, but I would suggest either supporting the stone underneath or using a different material. Unless you know a lot about the stone and test each one before hand, you would have some risk. Recently, I had a beautiful 5' long piece of 3" thick granite ruined on a job site when a careless worker dropped a 10 lb rock on it. It cracked in half. |
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