NR Building Solutions

Exterior & envelope

Decks, steps and landings

Build the entrance to code — graspable handrails, proper rise-and-run, and a landing that actually meets the door.

Get a quote(713) 923-0835
How it is priced
Per entry, by size and material
Timeline
Set in your written estimate, after the walk-through
Who performs it
NRBS crews, self-performed

Entries are the highest-liability item in a community

Walk a community with an insurer or an inspector and the entries get looked at first. They combine a visible defect with a direct injury path, and they are the item most likely to appear on a report, a claim or a lease-up objection.

They are also, relative to almost everything else on a renovation programme, cheap to put right.

The four things that are wrong on most entries

No landing at the door. A step down directly from the threshold means someone opening a door that swings toward them has to step backward and down simultaneously. This is the mechanism behind a large share of entry falls, and it is designed in rather than worn in. A proper landing is the single highest-value change on most manufactured home entries.

Inconsistent rise. People fall on the last step, and they fall because it is a different height from the ones above it. The last riser is where settlement shows up, where a rebuilt step meets original construction, and where the ground has moved. Consistency across the flight matters more than any individual dimension.

A handrail that cannot be grasped. A 2×4 laid flat across the tops of posts is the most common non-compliant rail in this category. It is a guard. A graspable handrail has a profile a hand can close around, holds a consistent height, runs continuously for the flight, and returns to the post at each end rather than stopping in space.

Bearing on the wrong thing. Steps or a deck taking support from the skirting or from the home will move as the home settles. The result is an inconsistent riser that comes back after every repair, because the repair addressed the tread rather than the foundation.

What we build

LandingFull landing at the door, sized to stand on with the door swinging
Rise and runConsistent across the flight; verified against the finished grade, not the plan
HandrailGraspable profile, continuous, returned at both ends
GuardsWhere the walking surface is high enough to require them
BearingIndependent footings on stable ground; never on skirting or the home
MaterialPressure-treated as standard; composite where a community is being repositioned

Grade matters more than the drawing

An entry built to a drawing rather than to the actual finished grade is an entry with a wrong last step. Where lot grading has changed — settlement, added gravel, a re-graded drive — the flight has to be set from what is there now.

Where the grade itself is the problem, that is lot prep and site work rather than a step repair, and rebuilding the steps without fixing the grade is a repair with a known expiry date.

Community-wide entries

Entries are one of the best candidates for park-wide pricing. They are highly repetitive, the materials are common, and a crew that builds twenty in one mobilization is dramatically more efficient than one building them individually across a year of work orders. If your walk sheet has entries flagged across a community, price them together.

Also in exterior & envelope

What the price covers

In the scope

  • Landing: A landing at the door — not a step directly down from the threshold
  • Rise and run: Consistent across the flight; the last step is where people fall
  • Handrail: Graspable, continuous, and returned to the post at the end
  • Foundation: Bearing on stable ground, not on the skirting or the home

Not in the scope

  • Anything not written in the scope. Extra work found on site is raised as a written change order before it is done.

How the job runs

  1. Walk-through

    We walk the job with you in person and look at what is actually there.

  2. Written scope

    A written scope and price before any work starts, priced as shown above.

  3. The work

    Our own crews do it, to the written scope. Anything extra is a written change order first.

  4. Final walk-through

    We walk it again with you and close out anything on the punch list.

Step one is a walk-through.

Get a quote

Common questions

Because they combine an obvious visual defect with a direct injury path. An inspector or an insurer looks at steps first. Loose treads, a missing or ungraspable handrail, an inconsistent last riser and a landing too small to stand on while opening the door are all common and all straightforward to fix.

A profile a hand can actually close around, at a consistent height, continuous for the whole flight, and returned to the post at the ends rather than stopping in mid-air. A 2x4 laid flat on top of posts is the most common non-compliant handrail in this category — it is a guard, not a graspable rail.

Big enough to stand on with the door swinging toward you. A step directly down from the threshold means someone opening the door has to step backward and down at the same time, which is exactly how falls happen. A proper landing at the door is the single highest-value change on most entries.

No. Steps and decks bear on stable ground of their own. Anything that transfers load to the skirting or to the home itself will move as the home settles, and the resulting inconsistent riser height is both a trip hazard and a repair that comes back.

W-9, written safety programme and certificates of insurance (GL and workers’ comp): being prepared. What is published so far is on vendor credentials.

Usually specified alongside

Where we perform decks, steps & landings

Self-performed crews based in Houston. Each city page carries local housing context.

Houston-area city pages