Steps Repair in Koreatown, Manhattan

Local Conditions

What Steps Do You Find in a District With Few Stoops?

Koreatown has few of the residential stoops seen in other neighborhoods. Its steps are storefront thresholds, short flights into office lobbies and hotels, stairs to below grade restaurants and service stairs. Foot traffic is heavy and late, so the worn edges are the common complaint.

The district is mostly commercial buildings, with restaurants and shops at street level and on upper floors. Many of them have one or two steps at the door, a ramp beside it or a stair down to a basement dining room.

Those entrances take thousands of people a day. Nosings round off, tread surfaces polish smooth and the first step crumbles at the corner. Rain and spilled liquids turn a worn tread into a slip hazard.

Stairs below grade collect runoff from the sidewalk, along with cigarette butts, grease from kitchen exhaust and the grit that blows down from the avenue. A stair like that needs cleaning and a working drain as much as it needs concrete work, and we flag both. Owners sometimes ask for a quick patch before an inspection or a sale, and we explain when a patch will not hold. If the drain at the bottom clogs, the treads stay wet and the concrete scales.