Staircase help. Any Cad guys out there?

[ddawg16]

Shmo....it's looking really good.....

Did you move the outlet that is right there or did you just happen to luck out?

And....before it's too late, you might want to consider turning the bottom into storage....you have plenty of strength....pull out the middle stud, remove the bottom plate on the end and make it a place to push the mower in....

 

[1320stang]

That's about like I pictured it would be. The corner landing is built even more substantial than I would have built it, which is really saying something.

I must say, I've never seen waferboard used for treads, but I see the profile on the edge, and the text on the top, are these bought?

Looks like a great place for a compressor closet under those stairs.

 

[shmo]

I may have overbuilt that landing a little, but it was my first L-shaped staircase and it ascends 11 feet. I wanted it to be solid. I don't plan to tear into the landing for more space because the lawn mower will go out in the shed (that I need to build), which is wear that stuff belongs.... Learned that on this forum....haha

The stair treads are lumberyard items, very common here. They come in 12 foot runs that you cut to length. They measure a full 1 inch thick and have a 1/2 round bullnose on the end. I used the same material on the interior of my house and they worked well there so I followed suit.

under the landing/stairs is an area that I am still tinkering with. You might be able to see some of my pencil scratching on the walls. I am considering framing in the area under the stairs and turning it into a closet/storage room. It would gain me some good usable storage on the cheap. However, I really like the looks of the open design so I have been going back and forth. If I decide to frame it in, here is roughly what I was thinking of doing.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y124/petesell/IMG_1474.jpg

 

[shmo]

ddawg16,

I didn't move the outlet. When I originally framed the garage and wired everything, that is where I "thought" the landing would be. I did however think the outlet would be higher, or the landing lower. However you want to look at it...haha

 

[shmo]

Here's a little update on my staircase project.

I decided to make them look a little industrial. I sheeted everything with a thin layer of MDF and capped the runs with some rounded bullnose. I sort of gives the stairs a I-beam look. You will not be able to tell by this picture, but my future plans are to add a BUNCH of button head dowel plugs in patterns (to simulate metal rivets). I will then paint everything a gloss color.. I am hoping to resemble an old metal staircase. I have my brother in law helping me to fabricate some aluminum handrails as we speak. I will post pics as things progress.

 

[shmo]

Got a little work done on the bonus space, and thought I would post some pics showing WHY I built these stairs in the first place.

 

[travisd]

Seems like a shame to lose all that natural light from the window, assuming you're still planning to wall up that end and put in a door... But I can certainly see wanting to be able to close that space off. Maybe some sort large interior window to let the light in?

 

[AffableCurmudgeon]

looks great.

 

[shmo]

Travis,

I totally agree. I hate losing that window from the room. My plan is to use a 36" glass door. In the location it will be in I think I will still get a ton of light.

 

[bowanna03]

Nice work. That came out great.

 

[1320stang]

I'd put a landing at the top, mount the door to the right of the window and put an interior window in that lines up.

 

[shmo]

Good advice Stang. That's would I would "like" to do. Unfortunately it won't work. A door in that position would run out of room because of the sloping roofline. You can kind of see it in the pics. To get a full size door, double studs and header in there, it will need to be fairly close to the top of the stairs (roughly middle of the window). I am going to try to fudge it over as far as possible though and use a full reveal glass door.

Here is a rough rendering of the wall. I think it will be workable.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Love the stairs man, can't wait to see them finished.

 

[1320stang]

Not if it opened onto the landing of the stairs. Awkward, yes.

Header? What are you supporting? I'd just lay the 2x4 flat, maybe double them on a side.

Another idea along the lines of your sketch, put a pair of french doors in, but only have the right one operable. In fact, if the both opened into the room and the left one has a latch, it would be easier for moving furniture and stuff into the room.

 

[shmo]

The first option I think would be WAY too awkward with a door opening back towards the stairs and a little short landing. Plus, when you walked through the door you would be walking right into that sloping roofline. It would be really bizarre, and just about impossible to get anything large into the room.

I don't plan to do a literal "Header", but I will need some room for the framing above the door. I am flip flopping back and forth about whether to frame the wall with 2x6 or 2x4. On one hand a 2x4 wall would allow a little more wiggle room in regards to layout, but it would be more difficult to insulate. The wall really should have an exterior door considering how it is separating insulated spaces. I figured I could use a solid core door with insulated glass in a 2x4 casing and throw in some weather stripping and a threshold to make it work. However, in a "normal world" this space would call for 2x6 wall and a fire code exterior door and casing. Not really sure what I will do there. After typing this out, it really is fairly obvious what I should do though...haha

The French door idea would make moving large items into the room much easier. From inside the room the doors would seem perfectly in line with the room layout as well. Here is my concern. The door to the left would literally be placed above the stair treads with no landing underneath them. That would be really dangerous, and would look quite strange while walking up the stairs. I see no way around that.

I am sure my pics are not clear enough to show the whole picture. I will take some more detailed pics with dimensions. I really like having the input and ideas thrown in, as I would like to do this right the first time.

Thanks for the comments guys!

 

[1320stang]

Well, my french door I just put in has the right side operable, and the left side is only operable if you unlatch it.

I'm not sure how to remedy the situation and it not look strange, ie. afterthought. Besides, you're going thru a garage to get to a bonus room.

Maybe go Japanese and have a translucent rice paper wall.... HEY!! Sliding glass door!!! One side is inoperable, but would still let light in, no swing... PERFECT!!!

 

[shmo]

Hmmmm,

now you really got me thinking about this again, dammit...haha

I'm not a real fan of sliding glass doors, but maybe that french door or a door with a stationary sidelight might be worth researching more. It sure would look cooler from inside the room.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Hmmmm,

now you really got me thinking about this again, dammit...haha

I'm not a real fan of sliding glass doors, but maybe that french door or a door with a stationary sidelight might be worth researching more. It sure would look cooler from inside the room.

That does look good in my opinion.

 

[1320stang]

My interior french door is wood and since it has no threshold, only latches at the top. My exterior french door latches top and bottom and has blinds between the panes, is metal insulated. Both from Lowes, both 15 lite doors.

 

[Richard Givan]

Nice work and a nice plan. Everything looks great.

One consideration that comes to mind regarding your door schemes is that common building codes require a solid door, if not a fire-rated door separating living space from a garage. I would think that even more important with it at the top of the room. Of course, should a fire break out in the garage with you above, it would be better to learn of it sooner than later.

Going further, I would like some sort of smoke/fire detector wired with an alarm to sound in the theater room. I can't imagine a worse situation than you and your family enjoying a thundering action movie over the garage while a fire starts below which would cut off your only escape. Actually, it shouldn't be too hard to install a sprinkler system in the garage (assuming you don't get a freeze in your garage). Like you don't have enough worries already, right?

I built a home theater in my basement and really enjoy it. I don't know how much you care about audio, but you might look into an infinitely baffled subwoofer system. It would be easy to build into your space and the results will blow away any other sort of speaker system commonly available. I used four 15" high-excursion drivers placed into two plenums exhausting into my basement shop for a truly house-shaking setup. Here's a link to the granddaddy of all things infinitely baffled: http://ibsubwoofers.proboards.com/index.cgi

 

[shmo]

Thanks guys.

I guess my next decision is going to be which door to use, interior or exterior. Really, I know what I should do, but I just hate to use a fire door in that location. It would completely cut off the room and do nothing for the aesthetics. A glass door is a definite must have. I do plan to wire in smoke detectors for both levels. There is also ingress/egress windows on both ends of the theater room. I guess in a worse case scenario I could monitor the flames through the glass door and maybe jump from the window onto my daughters trampoline outside. That would be an option. I guess I shouldn't joke about such things, but I was a professional firefighter for quite a while, and I always have to take the thought of flames lightly.

Richard,
my theater is going to be dual purpose. My plan is to have a fully functioning theater, but skip on using risers and a completely dark room with massive amounts of acoustical treatments. I hope to set it up for casual use as well as movie night. I am aiming towards a 94ish inch screen, probably electric because I want to retain the window it will be placed in front of. It will more than likely be a 5.1 setup with an LCD projector. Audio is something that I am fond of. I have seen/heard a little about the infinitely baffled subs. I think they are a little beyond me, but I find the whole idea very intriguing. I would love to see your setup. Do you have any info online?

SHMO

 

[Richard Givan]

Shmo,

If you have another means of egress, then I think you should be okay--especially with your dual-fire alarm setup. However, if code enforcement is in the picture, you might have rude surprise. I built a place about four years ago with a door containing some glass between the garage and the kitchen and the code guy made me take it out for a fire door, so it's kind of fresh in my mind.

I did put a link at the bottom of the other post, but here it is again:

http://ibsubwoofers.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general

This site is absolutely a gold mine of information. IB subs are not well known because you have to build them into your house so they're not something that's easily marketable. But the effect is really astounding. While you are at it, you might consider some theater chairs with buttkickers built in. We have them and they take the sub-audio range to a new level also. But, really, I think the IB sub is more impressive. Just don't crank it up when the wife is having a tea party elsewhere in the house.

 

[shmo]

To be honest I'm fairly familiar with my local building codes, and this project does not fully live up to them. I started with stairs that are too narrow, so now I am just carrying on a theme. I may call my theater the "keeping it on down low cinema"...haha

Don't take me the wrong way. I am not the slightest bit careless with regards to safety. The room will have proper wiring, fire blocking, HVAC, Egress windows, smoke detectors, even a carbon monoxide detector and etc. I want it to be a fun safe place for my family to enjoy. But in all honesty, I am not the slightest bit worried about a fire door not being utilized in that space. Luckily, I do not have to explain this to my city inspector....shhhhh...don't tell anyone.

I figure if the day comes that I will need to address any code violations, then so be it. For the meantime I will just build it within reason.

TOTALLY APPRECIATE the comment though!!!!!

SHMO

 

[shmo]

I spent some time poking around on that website, very very cool stuff. Are your speakers featured anywhere?

SHMO

 

[Richard Givan]

I'm trying to remember whether I posted any pictures of my setup, and really am not sure. I just did a quick search and can't find any. I joined the forum when I was searching for information, was hot and heavy in it until my system was up and running, then faded from view.

I originally had thought to build a monster sub, perhaps one or two in a sonotube, but when I started reading about this radical new idea that was still in the grass roots period, it gradually took over my plans. For the price of four 15" drivers that I got a great deal on as close-outs, some scrap mdf I had lying around already, and a fairly cheap Behrenger pro amp I bought on sale at Amazon, I have an extremely powerful, yet accurate low range complement to the other six speakers. No boom, buzz or harsh notes, just low, low, tight bass. Music sounds so good on the system, I am surprised every time I put some on.

You probably know that the bigger the speaker box, the more accurate the sound. But there are limits to enclosure sizes for nearly anybody. With this system, you cut a hole between the listening room and some conveniently placed room adjacent to it (attic, garage, even an outside wall) which is reasonably sealed off from the other room. Then, by placing the drivers with the opening on the back side to the other room, you have, in effect, created a huge box for your speaker. Actually, the sound is the same in both rooms. You don't need great power because multiple, large drivers are very efficent, and the sound has to be heard to be believed.

The IB web site is golden. All your answers should be there, if you are willing to wade through the stuff.

 

[uhaul]

u did a nice job on stairs. do u have any pic from the gararge doors to the back so i can see the stairs from the doors. thanks jay

 

[p_mori7]

"shmo....I have a 4'x6' section of floor that I can lift up for the larger items....you can see it as the unpainted part of the ceiling..."

SLICK !!!

 

[shmo]

I thought I would re-start this thread to show some of my progress.....however slow it may be...haha

I have finally got around to framing up a wall to section off the stairwell from the attic room, and I finished up the rest of the framing in the stairwell. I decided on using a single 36" door opening because of the landing location and the available space. It just made the most sense. I have started the drywall process, and I hope to have it ready for paint by the end of the week. Now for pics........

Taken from the corner of the stair winders.

Top left is a window opening, with the door leading into the attic room to the right. At the end of the landing is a small storage area that I will add doors and shelves to later. You will notice that the stairwell is much wider than the staircase. Garage dimensions did not allow me to build the stairs full width, so therefore I will simply build some offset handrails to give the feeling of more space. Odd as that may seem, it is going to work out very nicely.

Storage area in the knee wall.

From the landing, looking down.

Here is how I ended up tying the staircase into the garage ceiling. I plan on adding some detailing to the stairs eventually, basically buck rivets, strapping and some faux paint. If my plan works the way I am hoping, this area, as well as the rest of the staircase, should appear pretty industrial looking. Time will tell if my imagination got the best of me this time...haha.

SHMO

 

[shmo]

Finally got around to handrails. All aluminum construction with textured black satin powder coating. I offset them to compensate for the fairly narrow stairs. That worked out awesome, giving the feeling of a much much wider staircase. You can also see that I started adding some button heads, or rivets as I like to think of them. I think the industrial look will pull together as things progress more. The staircase itself still needs paint. I opted to go with satin black with a texture, thinking it would go with any colors I brought into the garage. What spells wrought iron more than satin black anyway? It's getting there slowly!

SHMO

 

[John in OH]

SHMO, that is a nice looking stair installation! I just found this thread and I'll bookmark it for future reference as I intend to do a similar installation in an upcoming garage build.

However, at the risk of being an old poop and raining on your stairs, I know from experience that no local inspector in my area would ever accept OSB as a satisfactory stair tread material. If you can still make the change, give serious consideration to changing the OSB out to a solid, full thickness, traditional tread material. It may save you grief in the future. (I'll preface this .... or is it post-face?? .... this comment by admitting that I didn't read every one of your postings in this thread so my apology if you have already addressed this subject)

 

[shmo]

Maybe it's regional,

but that material is "steadi-tread". It's sole intention is for interior stair construction. It's 1 1/4" thick with a bullnosed edge. I've used it on a few projects. Most builders that I know of in this area use it for all applications, unless a finished wood tread and riser is desired. It meets code and passes all local and county inspections.


I even put them here

SHMO

 

[John in OH]

Hey, say no more!! It sounds as if you did your homework and used a most appropriate material for the treads. Just from the photos it looked to me like basic OSB.

Great set of stairs! As I said, I'm bookmarking this thread for future reference.