Taking it out on the garden stairs

When I came back from my hike with Dave I sank down on the bedroom floor and had a cry. I suppose I needed that. But after that, what I find is that the best way of coping with things like that is to go and just make yourself do things that will make you feel good if you have done them. DIY tends to be a good example. And I knew that, now more than average, I needed my friends. I had invited them over for a barbecue next time they were available, but that did mean they would have to come down the stairs in the garden. And these are very slippery if you let them. A few years ago I had applied excellent anti-slip, but that does suffer from wear and tear, and that process had been greatly accelerated by the heavy work of the repair of the wall. So it was time for some maintenance.

Quite a while ago, I had already made sure I had materials to do that. The hardware shop near the office had sold me some epoxy, and the hardware shop near my house had sold me a bag of coarse sand (which also includes very fine gravel). That's all you need! Except that I had bought the epoxy before the repair of the wall; it wasn't a big amount, and after the repair man were done with my wall I knew I needed a bit more than that. But I could at least make a start with the resin I had.

The very day I came back from the fateful hike I painted the stairs. I didn't want to apply the epoxy until after I had painted it! And it's not an awful lot of work. I must admit that this time, I only did the top and not the underside. That doesn't seem to be needed equally often.

The next day I had a try with my new resin. I still had a little bit of sieved sand left over from the previous time. I only need the coarsest fraction, on the border between sand and gravel. The rest I need to sieve out. So I made two strips of antislip on the most damaged steps. I think the resin works. But now I need to first make a bit more pure fine gravel before I can move on. But the work has started! Soon my stairs will be in fine nick again.

Before

After

Starting repairing the antislip