The right side of the stairs had lots of rot. There was some on the left side, too, where the railings mount. I used resin on it and it made it about 4 years until the areas that weren't fixed with resin started rotting, too. I decided it was time to just build new steps. When I pulled them out I found out they were self supporting steps and weren't even bolted to the house.

With the sides removed you can see it had a large area of rot.

I also took the railings off and sanded any rust off of them and painted them with that new rust stopper. Then recoated with Rustoeum. There are two railings on the steps and two mounted in the cement below the stairs. These are the original wrought iron.

I bought the poly moldings because these were going to be outside. Here they are all cut to length and prepainted before installing. My antique dining-room table really gets a work out! Note my floors aren't finished yet, nor the folding screen next to the door. I'm hoping to get that done sometime this year.

I dug out the dirt from under where the steps go and filled in with , rock gravel and a cement-type mix. Then I tamped it down with a very heavy tamper. This is the finished product except the last railing is not yet installed when the picture was taken.

Railing yet to be installed. I'm very happy how it turned out. The wood is yellow pine on the treads and the risers and sides are made of pressure-treated pine. You are suppose to wait a year before finishing the pressure treated but I did it anyway. I can always add another coat. I used dewaxed garnet shellac on the sides and risers. It has held up very well on the porch sides with the extreme weather conditions we have. However after all the salting and the snow shovel banging it, it does need a touch up this spring.