Concrete step

All within the theme of parking / storing / insuring the bike!

Does anyone here know what it would cost to knock a concrete step and recast it as a concrete ramp?

I currently park my bike at the side of the house, which involves coming off the pavement up onto a concrete step (about 3'(width) x 2'(depth) x 5"(high) and then back down (about 2") onto a soil & gravel 'side garden'. I have loads of issues with getting the bike in and out of that space, not least because of the texture of the ground underneath (which could potentially be fixed by relaying the gravel properly with an underlay of clay chips (?) and those plastic grids that gravel sits in properly to create a proper car parking space). However, the main issue is the step - getting it into the space is less of a problem than getting it out as I do not always have the strength to pull the bike backwards over the 2".

I don't know what it would involve, but logic tells me it should be possible to get the step knocked and recast as a ramp so that it goes up and down smoothly from the pavement to the soil. Anyone know anything about how this could be done and at what cost?

Any ideas tonight would be good as I have to make up my mind tomorrow morning as to whether to move to another place we have found which has a garage and none of these parking issues but which costs £200 more a month in rent!

Thanks

Jo

[tigersaw]

Cant you do something in wood? Use decking and then you have the ridges to aid grip?

[dirtydog]

knocking the step out and putting a ramp in shouldn't be major problem but what you could do is just concrete over the actual step to make it into a ramp.

And for the 2" drop the other side you could bring that up almost level by putting some paving slabs down instead of the gravel

Of course if you are in a rented house you would need permission from youre landlord

[dirtydog]

ah unless the step is right on the edge of the pavement then you'll have to take it out to put a ramp in

The step is indeed at the edge of the pavement, so paving over it isn't an option. I've just been shown these: http://www.betterlifehealthcare.com/...hp?prodID=6120 which could solve the problem but are very expensive at c£200 each, and I'd need two!

To make things more complicated re the 2" drop on the other side, there is a drain hole cover I obviously can't cover over, so paving slabs would be a bit of a pain if I had to keep taking them up and putting them down everytime I moved the bike in and out.

Landlord lives upstairs and parks his bike in the same place so I suspect he won't have a problem with it as long as he isn't expected to contribute towards cost. He has longer legs and is much stronger than I am so has much less of an issue...

roughly costs about £120 for a meter cubed of concrete ready mix.
a sledge hammer and some big muscles the break out the existing step.
some cheap timber to create your form work,
call in a ready mix delivery, smooth over the angle with a float.
Shouldnt cost more than £200 and a weekend to sort out.

If it's hard for you to get the bike in and out when your used to it, how do you think it would be for someone trying to nick it?

lol speedplay - true, I guess! But I'd rather make it slightly easier for thieves than risk dropping the bike EVERYTIME I try to get it out!

leedsmatt - thanks, helps put it into perspective. Labour shouldn't be too much of a problem as a couple of the boys from a different forum who say they know what they're doing (but who did say concrete would be about £50 but clearly I'd have to buy whatever size pack it came in) would do it for payment in food & beer! But I've just been told that the ramps are £200 for a pair and of course the benefit is I'll be able to take them with me...

[dirtydog]

200 quid!! you could probably get a local fabricator to make something to your measurements cheaper than that.

I used to have to bump my bike up a curb and then up a couple of 4-5" steps, I made a couple of wooden ramps, probably cost me about £20 all in.

[dirtydog]

oh and you could cover over the drain cover as long as the slabs are cemented in place you'll still be able to lift them to get access to the drain. And you shouldn't need access that often to a drain.