Open staircase or wall?
nepool
10 years ago
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Comments (26)
renovator8
10 years agoRelated Discussions
help with an open riser 'floating' stairs
Comments (7)I would look at doing 1/4" steel plate similar to what brick masons use to re-inforce them along the length of the step. If you have to go more than few inches, you might as well go the entire way. You will probably have to go thicker than the standard tread thickness eventhough ipe is quite hard. Keep in mind the additional weight of the steel plate as well as the ipe tread as ipe and steel weight a lot when its that thick. Which leads me to the next thing - I'd consider a lot more than just 'blocking' to hold a freeform tread. My guess is that the weight of each treat could be 150lbs but thats not the big issue - its the dynamic load as people are bounding up the stairs. . . You may want to look at 2x12 continuous along the run of stairs or something sturdier than that. Ipe is available in larger pieces as the tree is quite large. You'll just have to find a good specialty lumber supplier that can get it for you. I've seen curved handrails cut out of ipe, so its definitely available. It's just very hard and very heavy....See Morestair opening wider than the stair width?
Comments (3)The opening in the floor only needs to be as wide as the stair. Making the opening wider allows the railing to continue all the way to the second floor railing, without ending into the first floor ceiling or a wall. What is your first floor ceiling height?...See MoreHow to address load bearing wall with vaulted ceiling?
Comments (23)One more quick comment and then I'll shut up. This is the kind of project you do if you can realistically expect to stay in that house the rest of your lives, or maybe 20 years. Much less than that, and you'll lose money. Possibly a lot of money. The TV shows and websites you're getting "inspiration" from are NOT there to serve you. Their purpose is to move money from your bank account to those of the owners and advertisers. That takes some effort, because most likely their accounts are a lot fuller than yours. (Kind of like what a heat pump does.) To move money from a smaller heap to a bigger one, they manufacture "needs" in your mind. Fertilized by the manure the hosts and writers spread around, these emotional "needs" grow so large that they eventually push out home-ownership reason. Those programs and websites should be used solely for entertainment (and barely that). Otherwise, you'll become yet another of their victims. And that's all I have to say about that....See MoreAdvice Needed: Is it worth opening up stair half/pony wall?
Comments (29)As for furniture placement, we aren’t tied to the sofa being there Not making any assumptions here, but you may want to make sure that if you do open it up, you don't really need to put anything here at all. I live in an area of old row houses with the steps down one side of the living room, and many people either have a big sofa or the TV backed up against the stair railing--and the back of the TV is even worse than the sofa. Just because you can and it may make things look more open, think hard about what the implications are of doing so with furniture arrangement and how that looks. To go back to the small houses here, lots of people take out the small entryway and other walls only to realize that once all the walls are gone there is no place to put anything. You can back a chair right up to the vestibule wall that has the front door 6" away from that chair on the other side of a wall, but take the wall down and nobody is going to back a chair up to the front door like that. You can do whatever you want, just make sure that you are really going to get what you want out of that $9000 spent....See Morehough2012
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