A Deck Stairs Design Building Conundrum

by Kimber
(Portland, OR)

We Have a Major Deck Stair Challenge: How can we get our little dogs to the grass for less than $8,000?

We just bought a home with 2 decks, neither of which reach the ground.

We have 4 small dogs ranging in size from 8 lbs to 35 lbs. We need a way to get them from the upper deck to the ground so they can go out while we are away.

We will have a dog door on the upper deck and a fenced area on the side of the house. It's about 18' from the top deck floor to the ground. The 2nd section of the side of the house is the garage.

We thought it would be great to put a door on the back wall of the garage which would come out over and to the left of the a/c unit so we could put a kennel in the garage for when we will be out for an extended time.

Then we could make a 4-5' wide walkway from the deck around to that door followed by a run of steps down the side of the house to the ground. But that means about 27 steps even though the ground is higher. The quotes we are getting are reasonable I think at $15k, but we cannot afford that.

We are hoping for a really creative solution. Anyone have any ideas?

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Editor's Comments:

This is a quite a design challenge. Obviously some significant construction is required as well as some innovative design ideas for a set of stairs that will make this double level deck fully accessible.

Here is a call out to all the builders that visit us. Let's put our thinking caps on and offer some helpful design tips for these folks!