(#6038) Back to my neighbor...

     So last week my next door neighbor had a fall coming out of her house at a back sliding door. It is less than 3 feet to the next elevation so a handrail was never installed. It is all concrete so then would have been the best time to put in a handrail while the concrete was still soft. Now after all these decades I have taken on the task of putting in a handrail for now so that when she gets back home from rehabilitation she can use it from now on. I figured while she is gone at the rehab center I can get the work done before she gets back home next week it looks like. So this morning I went to Home Depot and bought what I needed to secure the treated 2x4's and finished redwood.
     I won't be cutting into any existing concrete so the attachment is with bracing and blue screws. Not the best solution but at least a safe one for now. I am going to recommend to her that cutting the concrete at the base of the bottom step is the wisest course down the road. We will see how my engineering holds up but I know I feel good about it. Nothing guarantees someone from falling when we live in such an imperfect world but at least her having a secured handrail will reduce those odds. She has another pathway to get out back through her side door but the slider is convenient so I figured she will keep trying to go through the slider in the future which is why I decided to put up a handrail.
     The material is in the back of my truck waiting for me to finish this blog post. Soon I will be out measuring and cutting so I can go over there with the pieces I need to drill into concrete and then make the final cuts for the slope of the handrail. It should be secure with the method I am going to use to attach the cripples in the handrail but as an added feature I am going to put a cross member back to the house from the end of the handrail. With not only the blue screws securing the cripples of the handrail but the diagonal member, a hypotenuse if you will, adding extra stability. I think of it this way. She is not using her backyard as a showpiece, just a functional place for her animals and herself. As a side note my housemate is taking care of her animals several times a day for the foreseeable future.