Exterior stairwell for basement entrance
I’m faced with replacing an exterior basement stairwell, that is slowly collapsing because the sidewalls were not sloped outward. The stairwell in about 9 feet deep at the house, is perpendicuar to the house, and is and about 4.5 feet wide. The sidewalls are made of block with stucco. The original builder didn’t bother to slope the sidewalls outward to resist soil pressure, but, then, it did last for 35+ years.
I’d like to use the blocks designed for retaining walls for the sidewalls, but I see a problem. With their constant setback, the top of the stairwell opening against the house will be much wider (measured across the inside of the opening) than the width of the stairwell at the first step. This is because there will be a lot more courses of block against the house, where the stairwell is deepest, and, accordingly, the opening will grow wider with each course.
The original builder has proven that vertical sidewalls will not work in this area, without some sort of reinforcement. Have any of you ever run into this problem? Have a solution?
I’m leaning toward replicating the vertical sidewalls, but with reinforcements, say with a tie beam out to sleepers, or something like that. But the sloping sidewalls would go a long ways toward making the opening less claustrophic if I could find a way to make them work.