Custom Aluminum Staircase Construction on Hillsides & Steep Slopes

Until about 5 minutes ago, had you ever considered a custom aluminum staircase down to your shoreline or riverbank?  Hats off to you for considering it now, because aluminum is a perfect material for shoreline or riverbank stairs or steps. Aluminum staircases are particularly useful if you have a long hillside or steep slope you need to traverse safely.

Stone and faux stone are beautiful, but they’re still vulnerable to extreme conditions and changes in the terrain.  Lumber is sturdy and cost-effective, but it can weather over the years, and it’s possible that the look clashes with the rest of your shoreline.  That leaves metal behind door #3.

You trust your life to an airplane made out of aluminum.  You even trust your sandwich to a very thin piece of aluminum.  So maybe it’s no surprise that aluminum can also make a pretty fine staircase, especially if it’s a custom-made Lakeshore Guys® aluminum staircase.

As with every other material Lakeshore Guys® uses, our aluminum is of higher quality, and we custom-install it in applications where its unique advantages set it apart from the alternatives, and where durability and safety is extra important (as it is when you’re going up or down a hillside or slope). What are those advantages?  We can think of 19.

Benefits of aluminum staircases:

• Permanent. The all-metal construction will last until Judgment Day.
• Doesn’t degrade over the years.  It’s impervious to bad weather, and it doesn’t rust, rot, crack, or crumble.
• Ants, termites, woodpeckers, and other pests won’t chew it up.
• Requires no maintenance.  Your staircase works for you, not the other way around.
• Looks snappy, with its bright, neutral color.
• No need to paint or stain it.
• Slippery mold doesn’t grow on it.  Even stone or pressure-treated lumber develops a slimy verdigris that you’ll need to remove before someone tumbles down.  Not so with aluminum.
• Not slippery when wet.
• High water flows through and around the stairs, rather than sits on them and erodes them.
• Doesn’t collect much ice and snow.  (Because there are no risers between the steps, snow easily blows through or melts right off.)
• Usable year-round.  It’s a four-seasons staircase.
• The permitting process is easy and fast.  The powers-that-be seem to like aluminum, for a variety of reasons.
• Minimally invasive.  Because the steps are elevated, there’s no digging required, beyond what’s needed to drive posts into the ground.  Also, because aluminum is so inert and doesn’t require any kind of coating, no harmful chemicals will leach into the soil and into the lake.
• Relatively fast to build on-site.  We don’t need to pour any concrete footers or cut stringers.
• Easy to adjust the pitch, AKA the “rake,” of the stairs.  We can make it a steeper or easier slope than the slope of the hill, depending on where we put the stairs, on the number and length of landings, on whether the staircase turns, and on your other specs and preferences.
• Not too heavy, especially compared to galvanized steel or stone.
• Relatively movable, on the off-chance you ever wanted or needed to relocate your staircase.
• Feels and sounds sturdy underfoot.  No wobbly spots or scary creaks that make you feel like you’re on a wooden roller coaster built in the 1880s.
• Looks a bit rare and fancy, because it is.  Landscape supply centers don’t sell aluminum staircases, so Louie the one-truck landscaper down the street doesn’t install them, let alone customize them to your specificiations on your property.

Downsides of aluminum:

• If you want the natural, earthy look, then aluminum isn’t your material, and you can’t easily paint it.
• It’s more expensive than lumber, and comparable to stone.

The perfect staircase for a shoreline OR a riverbank

Your home may overlook a lake or a river.  For the purposes of a staircase, it doesn’t matter: in either case the slope is probably long and steep, and you need a safe, comfortable, and durable way to get up and down it.  In either case we can help, and in either case you get all of the benefits of aluminum.  In either case we’ll use innovative methods to get our materials and equipment on-site without disturbing local flora, fauna, and neighbors, and we can help you stop the erosion of your shoreline or riverbank, if necessary.

Photos of a custom aluminum staircase: before, during, and after construction

Below is an example of an aluminum hillside staircase we built down to a shoreline.  As with any staircase, it was a lot of work, but we enjoyed the process and our customer loved the end results.

He had a long tram going up the hillside, but it had broken, and he didn’t want to replace it with another tram that would also break sooner or later. 

Here are a couple of “before” photos.

Before construction of staircase. Old, unusable tram.

Old tram rails, seen from below.

Constructing the staircase didn’t take us that many days, but we worked day and night to get it done properly and on-schedule.

Driving the galvanized steel posts into the land. No concrete footers.

The end results were exactly what our customer wanted. Simple, strong, and safe.  There’s not a whole lot to break on an aluminum staircase.  A Lakeshore Guys® custom-made aluminum staircase checks all the boxes.

Step up your shoreline even when you’re stepping down to it

Contact Lakeshore Guys® for a custom aluminum hillside staircase that’s safe, durable, and sure to give you the happy feet. We’re based in Minnesota and can travel anywhere in the US.