Stairs - Planning for them. How to?

[Jimi]

I am planning on placing my future stairs. No engineering plans or knowledge of riser height, tread depth, etc. The ceiling height is 10'.

This picture is basically where I'm looking to place them.

The corner looks like this

My loft above is 12' wide and 35' long. 7' 2" height.

The other end looks like this.

I really want to keep the area in front of the lift open. I have other plans for that area. So no stairs there. Can anyone give some suggestions on what they think would be better? And no matter where I place them, I don't know how to calculate span and depth. I could care less if they get too steep. I can bring up anything I'd need from the open end. I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks!

 

[scottydosnntkno]

move the stairs down and to the left, so they nestle in the corner behind the door.

 

[pmiranda]

How far is it from the ground to the finished floor of the loft? Looks like about 11' to me... that would need 18 steps at a 7" rise by my math. Best choice might be a scissor stair. It would leave some decent storage underneath and reduce the amount of loft you lose to the stairs:

 

[Jimi]

Seems obvious... like this? I was planning on having a 5'x6' electric/utility room in that void behind the door. But I can still make do under the stairs too I think.

Don't let the picture lead you to believe I know how many steps and such. Hoping someone with some expertise will ring in.

 

[Jimi]

How far is it from the ground to the finished floor of the loft? Looks like about 11' to me...

It's a 10' ceiling. I like the look of that staircase. Compact.

I'm trying to figure out where everything will be. I don't want to heat under the stairs. Figuring my tubing runs once I'm set on stair placement. Then can figure the utility room on that side.

 

[Zeke]

120" ÷ 16 = 7.5" per riser. The landing is one step. Just a big one. Put it anywhere you want depending on the desired run of the 2 stairs. Each tread should be 2) 2 x 6's or close to 12".

Plenty of stair treatises on Google.

 

[Jimi]

Great info guys. Thank you.

 

[pmiranda]

Oh, and building code requires no steps higher than 7" and at least 11" deep. You want all the steps uniform, to within 3/8" by code. There are a bunch more code details, but those are the critical numbers for planning it out.

Don't forget to leave headroom. Code says 80 inches above any one step. I'm not sure if your structure would allow that with the scissor stair I drew. (The landing would be at ~60 inches so you might get a headache from the joists if they're within 7 feet of the endwall.) The simple L in the corner you drew would be fine.

 

[Jimi]

so you might get a headache from the joists if they're within 7 feet of the endwall.

The trusses are 7 1/2 feet from the endwall. So no headache there. Headaches elsewhere of course!

 

[JDishong]

Oh, and building code requires no steps higher than 7" and at least 11" deep. You want all the steps uniform, to within 3/8" by code. There are a bunch more code details, but those are the critical numbers for planning it out.

Don't forget to leave headroom. Code says 80 inches above any one step. I'm not sure if your structure would allow that with the scissor stair I drew. (The landing would be at ~60 inches so you might get a headache from the joists if they're within 7 feet of the endwall.) The simple L in the corner you drew would be fine.

Check your local building codes - mine was 10 1/2" runs, not 11".

 

[Milton Shaw]

The normal way to figure stairs is divide the total rise by 7. Then round to the nearest number and then divide the rise by that number to get the exact rise per step. Normally the rise should be between 6.5 to 7.5 inches and the run should be about 11" per step. the lower the rise the more steps but the easier they are on bad knees and old joints. Hand rails are also code required on anything over one or two steps and they have their own requirements of height and length. Talk to building inspector and they should provide either code requirements or where to find them in code books.

 

[Thorold]

Last couple of sets i've used an online stair calculator. Saves time with paper and calculator.

Try http://www.blocklayer.com/stairs/stairseng.aspx for instance.