Built new steps for my corgi Ripley to get up on the bed. The commercial ones we’ve had for six years aren’t tall enough, have begun to degrade, and she’s not as spry as she was once so she’s gotten nervous with them.
These reach taller and will hopefully make it easier for her to go up and down once she glances them.
She does NOT like them yet.
The steps themselves are each a pair of 1x6 utility planks glued together and are solid. I painted them with spar urethane for longevity, but even though they’ve cured hard, I underestimated how long it would take for them to stop stinking so I’ve got them in a warm room away from where we sleep for a couple day. Oopsy doopsy!
I put those little hoops on the two inside cuts for the steps in QCAD so the planks could sit flush but afterwards I realized they weren’t necessary because I used a trim router to smooth the edges of the steps before coating them anyways and they had a 1/4" radius that far exceeds the 1/8" bit I used, heh.
I used the Maslow to cut the risers out of 1/2" ply, put indents in for three 18" 2x4 pieces to be the back structure and then wood-glued the steps on for the rest of the structural strength. I can step on them myself so my 33lb dog should be fine.