Deck Stairs in Greendale, IN

Greendale (ZIP 47025) sits on the hills above Lawrenceburg and lot after lot ends where the ground falls away. The footings get set back from that crest because of what load does near a slope face. Foot traffic does something different and slower, and it is worth designing out at the same time.

A landing gathers people. It is where everybody stops coming down the flight, and on a lot with a view it is also where everybody then walks to look, which is the crest. Repeated over years that wears a line to the edge, the grass goes, and once the surface cover is off the top of a bank the rain gets into bare soil at exactly the point where the slope is steepest. What starts as a worn patch becomes a rill, and a rill at a crest is the beginning of the face moving.

The arrival can take that traffic instead of feeding it. A landing placed back from the crest with a made route to a defined viewing point, rather than an open pad that invites a wander, keeps the wear on a surface built for it. Planting between the two holds the ground and the route through it is the only line people take, because it is the easy one. Where the household wants to stand at the edge, and most do, that spot is built properly with a small surface and its own edge rather than left as grass that will not survive being stood on.

We look at where the ground is already worn at the estimate, because on ground of this shape the path to the view exists before anybody has built anything.