this post was submitted on 14 Sep 2025
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I'll give that a try. Why do you mean that they are meant to break? They have lasted for 60 years now, that's not too bad.
Those stairs have a bullnose that juts out and the whole thing is made from mortar. Mortar is very strong in compression but weak in tension. So a load on the tip of the stairs will put a large tension load on the top of that bullnose where it meets the stair corner. At some point it will break off.
Makes sense.