huangyhg

stoops in the south
hi,
in the north we design all of our exterior doors with stoops that have frostwalls and footings that extend 4'-0" below grade. we are preparing a design build proposal for a building in oklahoma. how are stoops typically designed/built there? i am told that the frost depth is about 22" in the area we are looking at.
thanks!!
not sure how far north you are but in central ohio, with frost depths of 30" to 36", stoops do not need to be below the front line. a stoop is basically a slab, not attached to the house nor supporting a roof.

don phillips
we're in wisconsin.... we do stoops with frost walls so that doors opening out will not be blocked by a slab that has frost heaved.
never been there. but for a door stoop, i will simply lay 12"-16" compacted gravel fill underneath.
oklahoma isn't really that far south, and anywhere you have frost you should have a frost block (or stoop if your prefer) at all out swinging doors (this includes sliding doors that have emergency push to open capability). this can be done with clean rock, lean concrete or just plain old concrete. it should go at least to frost and at least 6" past the door swing on all three sides.
around here, the stoops are normally a riser (8" or so) below the threshold for residential. i guess i was thinking the question was related to that segment of the industry. commercially, we call them landings since they have to be level on both sides of a door so i was a little confused. sorry about that.
don phillips
dougantholz,
what is a frost block? i would go for anything that is less expensive than a full blown stoop with frost walls. thank you!!
-k
a frost block is a chunk of something at out swinging doors that cannot expand when the temp gets below 32 deg f.
the construction can be concrete, lean concrete or clean rock fill. frost walls around the outside really only hold down any frozen soil in the "cube" underneath the slab, since the cold can still penetrate through the topping slab. frost walls are effective and often used in my experience where frost depths get up to 4 ft or more (you know who you are north dakota).
in missouri we often use clean rock 30" deep and then pour our sidewalk over the top. the problem mostly comes in as a high cost where you have a spec retail center where you don't know where the doors are.

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