Stepping up in the world.

Boat Thursday this week and I replaced our rickety old wooden steps up to the hatch with new ones. The wooden steps were almost falling apart and I had all the stuff I needed to knock up a more sturdy solution.





First of all I chopped a piece of batten with the right angles on both ends and used this as a template for cutting the side struts of the steps. Using this batten I marked out the angle iron. I cut the angle iron to size and welded it in place.

I marked up the right level for both of the steps and welded more smaller pieces of angle onto the side struts- these are the supports for the wooden steps.

I cut scaffolding planks to size, planed the underside edge to 45degrees to account for the raised area of weld beneath them. Steve drilled 2 holes in each angle support so that we could screw the wooden steps to the metal support which stops them from moving when stepped on.

The finished steps feel so sturdy. I'm looking forward to painting them to match the current metalwork and hoping they'll look like they are part of the boat rather than something just stuck on.