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| April 5, 2000
The demolition of the old back stairs in nearly complete. Notice
that there was a square landing halfway up. Also you can see the the
steps "dive" into the left part of the old chimney. At the
top of the stairs there was a very small landing area next to the chimney
chase, which made it uncomfortable to use. Also, there were thirteen
steps with well over 8" risers, which were dangerous, as well.
We rebuilt the chimney in a sloped shape (see wing
part 2). Next we needed a design that would bring the stairs further away from
the chimney and have a smaller riser height. After weeks of
sketches and advice gathering, I designed a turning staircase that allowed 14 vs. 13 steps and lowered the riser height. It also
provided a larger landing
Since I had never built stairs before, I decided to make a 1" = 1'
scale model to be sure it would work out as planned. Then I cut
templates for the stringers and fitted them to a new platform.
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July 2000 The
model and the new stairs matched pretty well. So, onto the platform
I stacked 2 by 8" platforms for the turning treads. Once
the stringers were in place, I cut and fitted the treads, skirts, and
other trim. A LOT of fussy work. |
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| I'll get some pictures of these soon, but I
developed a trick to exactly cut the odd-sized turning treads.
Needless to say, the walls aren't square, so the step platforms were
fitted into place as I went along.
I took thin scraps of wood left over from ripping down poplar used for
molding and laid them down on the exact edges of the stairs, touching the
risers and wall.
I glued these together with hot melt glue, thus producing a rigid
template that I used to scribe the treads before cutting them. When
cut, they all fit!
Below left you can see an old floor joist that used to be near the
fireplace. It was badly charred from being near a hole in the
mortar. It's remarkable the house didn't burn down. To
commemorate this near disaster years ago, I ripped down the poplar joist,
ran it through the planer, routed beading into, and made it into the newel post
for the new staircase! |
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| More soon! |
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