I have patio door with about a three foot drop to the ground after an old deck was removed a while back.  I have been using some temporary and not very safe freestanding stairs for a couple of years while procrastinating.  Since removing the deck I had the house resided.  They put flashing under the patio door but I think they did not bother to remove the old siding in that area, so I am reluctant to just put on a ledger board on top of that.  I’m not crazy about ripping up my new siding to make a proper ledger board. 

If I want to add freestanding stairs the footings would need to abut the house foundation.  Is this a bad idea (or even a really bad idea)?  I am a little concerned about making a path for water to get down to the foundation and into the basement or freezing between the footing and the foundation and causing issues.  After reading some other things I’m also concerned about lateral loads transferred into the foundation.

Other facts:
– Ground is more or less level outside the house
– Foundation is circa 1925.  It’s some sort of concrete blocks mortared together.
– When I dug up a concrete sidewalk next to the house and had hole that was mostly filled with the large rocks I did get some water in the basement after it rained.  Normally not an issue (basement is a touch damp, but does not  leak).