How would you remedy this?

[bobski1]

In the process of refreshing our decking area and one of the steps is in need for fixing. The wood on the bottom has all rotted. Removed the wood and all of the bricks/support are soaking wet which would explain the rotting wood.

One side is sinking (1-2" on 5he RHS) although it looks like the previous owner has placed it on some kind of pad.

Assumption is that he hasn't compacted the ground underneath and put the pad directly onto the ground with one side compacting more than the other. Also looks like the soil has gone above the pad and over time soaked into the brickwork. No drainage either.

So my question is how to remedy it. I'd rather fix it so that it lasts and not worried about getting hands dirty. I have plenty of stones so I was thinking
- knock it all off
- dig and lay a sand(maybe with cement?) layer
- lay some paving slabs around it
- create a wooden frame to add boards into
- decking oil over it all to better protect it

Would that be feasible?

[Evoluzione]

What about putting paving slabs on top?
Or knocking it down and building from stone/brick/slabs etc and not wood. At least it'll last longer than 5 minutes.

[bobski1]

I was thinking of doing so however I'm not sure why the moisture has been retained by the bricks, what's to stop it happening if I rebuild and then it would start to rot the wood on the side? Or do I need to have some sort of DPM

[Evoluzione]

Put a piece of plastic (DPM/DPC) between the steps on the wood.