Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Help with outdoor steps and landing

Doityourself.com community forum was created to provide answers to all questions related to home improvement and home repair. Doityourself community can help you find information about how-to topics on small fixes to large remodeling projects. With comprehensive how-to content and expertly moderated community forums DoItYourself.com makes it easy to tackle even the most complex home improvement projects.



PDA
jerseyal
08-31-09, 02:52 PM
My wife's grandmother just had a modular house built and we have to do the exterior steps. Does anyone have any advise on software that I can use to produce the drawings needed by the township?

Thanks,
Allen

lefty
08-31-09, 03:27 PM
jerseyal

Welcome to the forums.

I'm pretty sure that there is some free software out there that would meet your needs, but I never use it.

What I do is go to the bldg. dept. that the deck (and it's steps) will be approving the plans and doing the inspections and get their free handouts for decks, railings and steps. That will cover all of the generic things, like footing sizes, attachments that they want me to use, step geometry, etc. After that, it's just a plot plan and a hand drawn sketch (scale and graph paper) that shows the actual shape and size of the project.

There are a LOT of specific codes that come into play involving steps and railings. Using the free handouts covers ALL of those, and the bldg. dept. can't kick it back for corrections -- THEY DREW IT!!