The Million Dollar Staircase

[etat]

Ok, maybe not!  Anyways, I've rebuilt these 4 times trying to get them to suit me.  Started out with three direction changes and two landings.  Now got em swirling around in some curves, no landing.  They're not finished, but I got the basic shape and rises right.  I've got more time fooling with these DanG stairs than in framing the whole downstairs of my house, and the pictures do not do them justice, or make the lines and angles look right.  They start wide at the bottom, narrow in some, (not as much as it looks like in the picture) widen out again at the hard left in the middle, and then narrow some and run on to the top. I would really like to have had a mill and done these out of cherry, settled for spruce and pine.  I still like a LOT of work piecing finishing and sanding and fitting, but I can finally see a point to where someday I'll finish.  I work on them until I get sick, or frustrated, and then do something else for a few days.  Straight up about midways of these is a bridge-ramp under construction to allow you to get from one bedroom, to the other.  The stairs come up in area between the bedrooms. Early in the year I though my mother had killed herself when she stepped off this opening and fell to the floor below.  Thankfully it just bruised her up. I hope to finish and move in this house some day.  

[Frickman]

I like the look of the spruce and pine. The knots give the stairs character.

[isawlogs]

all I'm going to say is WOW.... 8)

[Jeff]

makes me wish I was there with my waxed plastic garbage can lid. ;D

[Norm]

I think it looks great ck, I can see why it's taking you longer than you thought. Not sure I could do it in a hundred years. Like your miter saw, same one I've got.

If Jeff shows up for a visit hide your garbage cans. :D

[shopteacher]

WoW!  All I got ta say is great things come from great people.  Fustration is part of the mix of fine work and you sure got a fine piece of work with that staircase.  Very nice work CK

[Sawyerfortyish]

I like circular stairs. 8) My house was built in 1854 and has them. The biggest problem I have is getting things upstairs like dressers box springs and so on they don't bend around the curve. I had to take out an upstairs window and make it a door to get things upstairs. I now have a door to knowplace in my bedroom. If you open it to use you just have to watch that first step .
  Good job on your steps. I can only imagine what you went through to build them.

[Patty]

Holy Cow!   Your work on the staircase is very nice. The talent from you folks here on the forum is amazing. When you're done there, I've got one you can work on!  ;D

[Stump Jumper]

nice job CK  8)

[OneWithWood]

Nice job, CK.  Can't wait to see the finished pictures.

Sawyer40 did you have anything to do with the Winchester house? :D

[redpowerd]

nice  work
i havent had a staircase to my loft in over a year, been waiting for everything to come together(logs, mill, time, season, help) ive put them up and removed them about 4 times! landings and measurments, like you.
im settleing on a straight run, red pine 1/2 log stringers with mortised maple treads. still contemplating kickers?

[etat]

Thanks everyone, making me feel much better about taking so long to build them.  By the way, they DO NOT go to the master bedroom, that's on the BOTTOM floor, so I don't have to climb stairs the rest of my life, I do enough climbing roofing.  Got my  own indoor bathroom with one of them newfangled whirlpool tubs to soak the old knees down there too!   Gonna put a desk for the computer in it and a tv and a king sized bed!  Someday.

The bottom step is 4 foot wide, the narrowest point is 32 inches, 42 inches in the sharp curve, and 37 inches at the top.  There is the opening that the stairs comes up in , and that wing also contains two bedrooms.  There is also a very large attic space up there that is over the living room and kitchen that will be used for storage.

As the weather starts to break, other than rainy days it's coming up on my busiest time of the year for roofing, Meaning I'll have less time for the house as I tend to business trying to help my crew  catch up some and keeping enough work sold to keep em in shape.   Today I personally nailed on 24 squares of architect shingles on a new house.  (Sometimes ya just gotta show yer crew ya still got it).  Keeps em on their toes!  I'm sorta paying for showing out as my bones and are talking to me!   I will admit to having a supply man all day, so mostly I was just nailing em down while I was running him to death!!!! ;D

[Bill_B]

Nice job CK.
When I was working I found that stairs was one of the most time consuming  things to do. That was without any curves.

[Tom]

Sawyer-40,
If your Door to no-where goes outside, why don't you make a little porch that will hold two chairs and you can enjoy the evening with an After-supper-cup-of-coffee.

Look forward to the finished product, CK

[Mark M]

Hey that's a nice set of stairs CK. 8)

That reminds me - the trend on stairs in da thurdy-room house are kinda narrow (either that or my feet are too long). I been trying to figure out how I can change them but I don't know nothin about stairs. What do I need to do to make them a little wider? I can't change the angle because there is a wall and a turn at the bottom. Maybe I should just eliminate every other step?

Mark

[Dugsaws]

Very nice steps ck, I will agree with frickman and say I like the knotty pine look

[etat]

Maybe I'm tired, but I'm a thinking I'd like to see Jeff on that waxed garbage can lid sliding down them stairs.    
Gonna be thinking about that the next time I'm working on them!  

Didn't do much in the house today, only spread a little more of that drywall mud.  Startin to sorta get the hang of it.  

Also time to start thinkin about crown molding.  Never had much luck what little of it I've done in the past.  Tried to cut a couple of pieces the other day, and realized again that sometimes it just don't cut like you think it would.  So, remembered seeing a chart on the internet with all the degrees and miters and instructions for a Dewalt sliding compound miter saw. Looked it up and it's got how to cut it and how to set the saw and how to lay the pieces and which side to save and everything.  Sent the kids to town tonight to get me a coping saw, (for the stubborn corners and things), a protractor (so I could figure the odd angles, I've got several of those where I angled walls and such), which I'll use along with a miter square as I try to remember all my geometry.  Shore do wish my Papa were still alive, inside work was his specialty.  And he never had nothing fancy, or newfangled to work with.  

Something else I've been pondering on.  I'm also going to have pine floors upstairs, maybe downstairs too, havn't thought that far ahead yet.  What little I've read I kind of like the idea of something like a tung oil finish, but I've never tried, or even seen one in purson.  I have in the past done quite a bit with polyurethane, and way in the past helped put on some shellac.  At least that's what I think I remember it was.  Anyway, somebody help me out here, please.  The whole house should wind up with a rustic feel to it, especially along with the way I'm finishing the outside, if that'll help any.  

[Duane_Moore]

 8) 8)Ck. you are an amazing person, ya facinate me, darn nice work. can not wait to see it,  Duane 8) 8)

[RavioliKid]

Mark,

Maybe you could just get some smaller feet... ;)

[RavioliKid]

ck-

That is an amazing piece of work! It is going to be gorgeous when you are finished. Keep us posted!

[pappy]

cktate,

looks like you got plenty of time to finish them steps, according to the date stamp on the pic and ifn me math is correct you gots about 19 years till completion  :D  :D

nice work dudeder ( what my niece calls me)  ;D

[L. Wakefield]

   I can't wait for someone to pick up on that question about the stairs. Offhand, I'd bet that every other one would be too much change in rise- giant steps UP- but what about increasing the rise by a third or a half? I mean you will have to bite the bullet and take em out to redo it, but...

   Someone else mentioned just not having the risers.. lw

[Mark M]

Hi LW

I think you are right about every other step. :D
Also I think increasing the rise would be what's necessary, but I don't know how to figure out how many steps I need or how high to make them. The shorter feet idea might work. I could just have one of my kids run upstairs whenever I need something. ;)

Mark

[etat]

Mark, I tried to use a rise of 7 inches and 11 inches width of the steps.  If you're making a straight run this works real good, marking it out with a framing square.  My problem was once they started curving the inside of the step had to be narrorer, and the outside of the step had to be wider.  I figgure there oughta be a formula for that but I never found it, I just kept adjusting until it worked.

I don't think you'd want to knock out every other step, but you could take a long two by 12 and play with the formula, say maybe 8/11 or 9/11.  I don't think you'd want to go much more than that, or maybe 8 by 12 or 9 by 12. Also letting each step stick out about an inch over the risers will add depth to them and give you more foot room going up.  That way you can have an 12 inch step on a 7/11 rise. I found the extra depth more useful going up, than down, as you tend to have more weight on your heel than your toes.  Does this make any sense?  

My steps going to the second story of my shop, (all steel) are really steep. 7 up, 10 wide. .  I WOULD NOT want them this steep, or narrow in my house as you have to be really careful.  The upper area in my shop is only for storage.

To mark out steps on a two by 12, take the framing square, and let one side (for example) hit the edge at 7, and the other leg hit at 11, mark where the square lays on the board,  and move on up the board, this time letting the 11 mark start right where the 7 was on the edge of the board.  You can also mark in out on the floor figgure out how high you have to be, and how long from there you need your steps to start, chalk the lines, chalk a perpendicular line, and work from there.  Somewhere on this internet there's probably better directions.  

The only thing I found on the internet about making curved stairs was that you probably couldn't do it if you already didn't know how.  Very fustrating for me cause I couldn't find a formula that would work.

[Mark M]

Hi CK

Thanks for the help. I haven't really tried very hard to find out how to figure stairs but I can understand what you were explaining so I should be on the way. If I can make them a little wider then I won't have to cut off my toes or go up the stairs sideways. ;)

Mark

[Buzz-sawyer]

usually treads overhang bout 1.25'' You could install a tread on top of the old one , the new one being wider thereby increasing your Mark-foot  value?

[Haytrader]

I built a spiral staircase once and here is how I did it.

1. Determine the amout of rise you want per step.
    (7" is good)

2. Measure the distance from one floor to the next and divide by #1. This will determine how many steps you will have.  It will also let you know if you need to adjust each step +/-  a little bit.

3.  Determine the width of the step.
(mine were all the same: 5" narrow end and 11" wide end)
I had no kicker to help with the narrow end.

I had a landing I had to end up at so that determined where the stairs started. If you have a certain place your stairs have to start and end up, that would  have a bearing on the figures in #3.

Is this plain as mud?    

[Jeff]

Maybe I'm tired, but I'm a thinking I'd like to see Jeff on that waxed garbage can lid sliding down them stairs.    
Gonna be thinking about that the next time I'm working on them!  
 

Ya mean yer goona try if for me?  Be sure to get the kind that have da handles on da side, not on da top. ;D

[redpowerd]

nope, the first tread the handle on top would invert and...... :-/

we used doubled up sleeping bags :.