Concrete Staircase Design — Outside Entrance Stairs, Dimensions and Finishes

Dimensions for outside stairs

Outside steps should be gentler than internal ones. People use them in rain, carrying things, and often in poor light.

Concrete staircase design ideas

• Wide landscape steps — Shallow risers and deep treads spreading across the front of the house — the most welcoming entrance.
• Straight flight with side walls — Simple to form, with low parapet walls that can be clad in elevation tiles.
• L-shaped or dog-leg with a landing — Turns the stair where the plot is tight, with a landing to rest and turn.
• Cantilevered steps — Individual concrete treads projecting from a wall, for a light modern look to a first-floor entrance.
• Curved or fan steps — Semicircular steps at a portico give a formal, classical front.
• Steps with planters — Planting beds stepped alongside the stair soften the concrete.
• Contrasting nosing lines — Dark treads with pale nosing strips — or black and white — make each step easy to see.

Finishing and tiling concrete steps

Raw concrete steps can be left board-marked or broom-finished, but most houses tile them. The best finish for an outside stair is a matched full body step and riser set with a grooved anti-slip nosing rated R11: the colour runs through the tile, so a chipped nosing does not show a white mark, and the grooves grip in rain.

Allow for the finish when the concrete is cast. Tile and adhesive add roughly 15-20 mm to every tread. If the first and last risers are not adjusted for the finished floor levels above and below, the bottom or top step ends up a different height from the rest — the classic trip hazard on a new stair, and expensive to correct afterwards.

Avoid polished granite, polished marble and glossy vitrified tiles on any outside step. They look good dry and become dangerous the first time it rains.

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