Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Attaching ledger board to brick/block house

I own an old brick house with simple one-story exterior wooden staircase off the kitchen. The ledger board is rotting and pulling away from the house -- not surprisingly, the landing at the top of the stairs flexes when I stand on it. I'd like to shore it up and replace the old ledger board.

The ledger board will be attached to the brick exterior, which is laid over a cinderblock foundation. There is no wood framing to attach it to. Does anyone have a suggestion on the best way to attach the ledger board to this surface? The original builder appears to have just used masonry nails in the mortar, but that doesn't appear to have been too effective.

Thanks!

Can you get under the house to the back side of the cinder blocks??

If you can, then you are looking at drilling through the brick and the blocks, using all-thread and steel plates on the inside of the foundation and through bolting the ledger in place.

If you can't do that, forget the ledger and make the staircase freestanding.

I think I will be able to get through from the inside of the basement. Do they sell the steel plates at the big-box stores? Also, what kind of spacing would you recommend for the bolts -- say, every 8" or so? Of course, I don't want to compromise the strength of the blocks by drilling too many holes.

Thanks for your help! :thumbup:

Tell me more about this set of steps.

How big are they?

Are they on a slope? If so, how steep?

How large is the landing (the first thing you step on when you walk out the door)?

"NoVa" -- hmmm -- do you have a frost line to deal with?

FYI -- at this point, I'm thinking you would be better served to make the steps free-standing -- UNLESS the slope says otherwise. I've never been one to go puching holes in the side of a house (a customer's or MINE!!) without a really good reason. That's just a leak waiting to happen.

The steps are pretty basic -- about 3' or 4' wide, descending alongside the back of the house (i.e., one railing would be attached to the house). The landing is about a 3' or 4' square. I don't have any huge slope issues. I'd say the ground drops about 6" over the width of the stairs, if that makes sense.

I think our frost line (Northern VA, as you guessed) is at 30".

I think I agree with you about making them free-standing to reduce the likelihood of leaks. My only hesitation is that I'd like to do the smallest fix that will do the trick, because I'd rather not deal with permits and inspections, which would turn the job from a Saturday afternoon job into a several week ordeal.

But here's what makes this a bit trickier: the posts for this stairway were set into a sidewalk that ran along the back of the house. At some point the sidewalk settled, so now it leans away from the house just a bit. Since the posts are cemented into the sidewalk, that made the stairs pull away from the house slightly, which, combined with a rotten ledger board, makes for a pretty crappy staircase. The staircase and sidewalk have been there for 50 years or so, so I don't expect it to settle any more. I was thinking that putting a new ledger board up, plus replacing the decking and 2 joists that are attached to the ledger board, would give me a pretty solid staircase without having to deal with the red tape of getting permits and inspections.

What do you think? Or can you think of another approach that I could take without dealing with inspections, etc?

Thanks again, from one southpaw to another -- you've been very helpful!