Have a job to replace a worn out shed ramp—typical riding mower ramp, tapered 2x angle cut “stringers” and 2×6 planks on top
The entire stringer is on the ground, doesn’t look to have had a gravel bed
Would you, rather than taper the stringer (makes attaching that last tread a bit, ah, iffy) use a full width stringer and lay it in a taperred depth, graveled trench?
I will use 5/4 decking for the treads…..
TIA
Replies
This one's for Doright
I put this one together out of PVC for an elderly client that had an existing "slip-n-slide. I milled half round PVC "rumble strips) and glued them into routed dados. Put some PSA grip tape in between. The thing sets on grade and is attached by gravity with locking ledger blocks (also out of PVC). This thing is grippy as hell...and will never rot.
wow
Impressive work...given the flexibility I wouldn't ever have thought of using PVC
I will say, it looks like a lot of work, and not cheap work either....I might think about buying a nice used aluminum dock plate
But thanks for sharing.....and, back to my question, given the budget and materials I have in mind, does using full width stringers make sense?
okay
Make sense? Not unless you like digging a bunch of angled trenches that have to fit your joists pretty closely so that the ramp will set right and plane out.
Why don't you layout all your 5/4 decking face side down, cut your tapered joists (remember, you're building a ramp, not "stringing" steps together), drill out all your joists with pocket holes with a Kreg jig ($20 for the pocket rocket) with two holes for each deck board on layout*, attach the joists to decking with SS pocket screws, then just flip the damn thing over... and be done with it.
*no need for pocket holes on the thin end (or "first board" end) of wedge; just a clearance hole in center of tapered joist and screw perpendicular into deck board. This way you'll be attaching thin-to-thick material --as it should be.
pocket screws
I'm thinking I'd want more substantial fittings for something the teenager's gonna gun the riding mower up & down on....the idea of no show fastening on top is nice, bthis is a utility think, not a deck...
so far, still liking the trench idea......only real advantage to tapers is the slope and high end elevation might be low enough to get two from one board..
I'd look into using steel angles for the "stringers", or else try to find a reasonably priced prefab metal ramp. (Alas, a brief Google last night only found prefab ramps running $500 and up.)