Yes by riser count it’s 32 stairs. 32” stemwall foundation and garage ceiling, all ceilings are 10’. Top of house is 42’ tall at roof peak. This would be the reason there's an elevator in the house.

Thanks, grade will be raised for sure.

"...Yes by riser count it’s 32 stairs..." Hmmm...32 risers at 7.5" per riser is 240" or 20'. That's a lot of distance between grade and the entry level...

While many of us admire Palladio, if one does not have a symmetrical façade then a Palladian stair makes no sense...

Yes that's the right count Virgil. Reason being, our lot sits directly on Perido Key Bay.. well, right across the street anyway. I work out of my home and my office is on the 3rd floor facing the wide open bay. The only way to gain that view was to go up so up we went. PFF, that looks pretty nice.

My better half really likes that Palladian stair, granted the design lacks the symmetry, but it may well look better than where we currently are as well.

That's quite a tote for groceries coming in and trash/recyclables going out...

Virgil Carter Fine Art That's quite a tote for groceries coming in and trash/recyclables going out..

I agree, that's exactly why we have an elevator being installed from the ground floor on up to the 3rd floor.

@ PFF you're good with Photoshop or is the CA?

I think we'll keep the rear stairs in the current design BUT, widen the stairs considerably. The porch is 12' deep so we could easily go 5' and still be 2' off the foundation. We'd just like to keep the rear patio free of stairs and the like.

@ PFF you're good with Photoshop or is the CA?

CA

Well the bride found stairs she likes a lot. Several of the other homes on the island have similar styles. I’ll send thie pic off next week and we shall see what it looks like. Happy wife, happy life so hopefully they’ll look half way decent.

Actually raising the grade can slaughter your gross living area and therefore resale.

Island home--makes lots of sense! Probably isn't weird there but smart. You may have breakaway wall rules, etc.

Thanks Milly, the total sq ft under air is about 2900 and the garage and additional room underneath add another 2000. Here are the stairs that my bride loves, may not be the perfect match to the style of the house in the minds of those with a critical eye for architecture but, if my wife is happy that's what counts. Other homes have similar setups. It is an island community in a very nice area. Also some views from above taken by drone.

In this last shot, our lot is directly to the right of the horseshoe driveway and to the right of that a bit down, you can see our parked vehicles the day we flew the drone. The shots are taken at 400' up. The water is directly across the street, maybe 150'. Since the house is 43' tall, we will have a clear unobstructed view of the bay from the upper level patio. So this is why the house is designed with the heights in mind. You can see the Gulf in the distance in the pic above, we can be in the gulf in 10 minutes in our boat.

That does look very cool! I like her choice except that I would fall down it so I like landings with direction changes. :). I fall down stairs, and that's too many stairs to fall down in one shot! I don't know if there is a code dealing with that, to be honest. But I know me.

You really should find out if it was constructed to be a breakaway ground floor--and make sure the stairs are breakaway, too, if so. I don't know anything about how to do that. But I know it can be done. If you designed it, you obviously know that it wasn't. A lot of these raised houses are made that way to protect from storm surges.

It is gorgeous!

I believe in my area we have a code for that. But if nearby homes have it and they are newer than it shouldn't be a problem.

I just checked and 2009 IRC says no more than 12 feet of vertical rise without a landing. That is how I interpreted it. One could argue that is an interior code and it might be.

The other potential complaint is about the width. A person walking down the middle has no handrail within reach. Add that to the length of the stairs and you have a legitimate complaint regardless of what code says or you are allowed to do. Most falls are not expected and so handrails should be reachable.

And personally - having architect types roll their eyes may not matter to you. But it will to some of your guests and potential buyers. And when all is said and done, you might think it is awkward after seeing it in real life size. I hadn't thought about it based on your elevation but I totally see it now.

Thanks, we've actually driven around the island countless times and have a very good feel for real life size. Here's an example of a house maybe 1/2 mile away. We won't have the bottom width quite so wide, with the garage a side load on the right it makes no sense to have a circular drive. Height wise, we are just the same.

@ Milly thank you. Walls will be of a break away design and we're going to ease the slop of the stairs with a small landing about half way up. Lastly, add some lighting to every other riser on the stairs to make it easier at night.

I value everyone’s opinion thank you. There are only so many ways to installl stairs. We are wide open to suggestions. The rear stairs will stay as they are but wider. The front set, we are open to options. We’ve looked at it so long we’ve got tunnel vision.

If your wife wants the kind of stairs as in the photo, then that needed to be designed along with the interior of the house at the time the house was being designed. Now you're trying to play catchup and it's not working because you basically have a box with stairs that are too long stuck onto the front.

with 32 stairs and a tread depth of 10" - that will stick that puppy out 26' 8" from the front of your house (and that's without the required landing!). I think your best options are ones that provide a landing that changes direction. With that height, it's going to be challenging to design something even remotely attractive - I'd get pro help on this if the way more will enter your house, and what is seen from the road is important to you.

I'm sorry, but it needs to be said. There is nothing attractive about your front elevation. The front door needs more presence and the stairs are clearly an afterthought. The front of your new home will look like the backside of a multi family building (complete with fire escape ladder!) Please enlist the advice of a professional. You owe it to yourself to investigate the possibilities

Like I said, everyone has their opinions and I respect that. There's many a home on pilings in the area that look similar and it's not everyone's cup of tea. No different than you may have an extreme distaste for seafood and I may love it. We will get it figured out where it will look good, we've come this far and this is a minor obstacle by comparison trust me LOL.

10" rise is too much for any of the building codes I'm familiar with.

The swept look is totally fine. The center of the stairs isn't for actually WALKING on. It's there for looks, and it's pretty common.

I would do the first design that MaryMargaret posted, then put a deck/landing and do swept steps for the last part. It combines the appeal of the Cinderella stairs with the safety and more practical space usage of the turned stair.

The landing has a bonus of shortening the space you need, providing a visual cue that manages the scale of the house better, and giving an additional place for you to enjoy a part of the view. It also keeps you alive! I'm writing this as my neighbor is planning for surgery on a knee he injured on just one flight of stairs. If someone falls down the full length of the stairs, you will probably lose your house. Their insurance will sue you. It doesn't matter how much they like you personally.

Please don't use wood unless you expect it to be destroyed every 10 years! This is a sanity, not safety issue. Lol. I have a deck bigger than some houses and only a standard length staircase, and getting the whole thing stained costs $1500 a go. Or I can choose to do it myself,and it takes 20+ hours of labor. You're looking at a $2000 refinishing job there!

For safety, my choice would be marina decking. For looks, a fancier fiberglass based decking or a composite.

The deck lights are a great option. You're buying so many that I would recommend getting a professional--the wholesale discount could offset installation. I would recommend going with a 12VLED system with 2 watt lights. Put the transformer on a switched outlet with switches at the front door AND outside at the foot of the stairs. You can also make it a smart switch and control it from your phone.

To dramatically improve the look of your house, I would suggest two minor alterations. One, take the deck across the whole front. You have a symmetrical design. The asymmetrical deck looks like an error. If you are concerned about darkening the house, Lexan roofing panels behind the fascia board will keep that from being an issue.

Second, the entry door is undersized. I wouldn't want a double door in hurricane land, but the door is sobbing for sidelights. Can you hear it? :)

The darkness issue under the decks--I am getting Globalgrid's translucent decking to replace my wood deck. The price is shockingly reasonable. It's around $600 a panel delivered where I live. I keep mentioning this, but I'm not affiliated with the company, just incredibly excited.

The tread depth is the sticky outy measurement. (thus my ability to determine how far the stairs will stick out)

Thanks, the illustrations do NOT depict the style of front door and it will be a double door for sure. This is just a CAD rendering. Builder is going to check code and see what we can come up with. The double doors were swapped out after this rendering was done. I do like the deck idea, only issue there is we are using Cumaru hardwood and it’s outrageously expensive but it lasts forever.

The lot is relatively level and yes, it's a lot. Here is a cut of drawing showing the actual dimensions taken directly from the plans. The lot is not in a flood zone so technically we could build slab on grade. To gain more height that we need and want, there is a 32" stem wall foundation. Fill wise as long as it's not Georgia red clay, we can add what we want to adjust as need be.

If you can add what you want,I would at least bury the stem wall. If the entire lower level is garage and workshop/non-gross-living-area, I would bury as much as I could such that my climb would be limited without weirdness from outdoor parking to the house.

Maybe put in the roof and framing for the extended deck now and add the actual deck as you can afford it? Lol.

Search me, I confirmed it with the county. The insurance company did their own confirmation and the surveyor confirmed it and noted the same on our survey. Very few lots on the island are not in a flood zone. That was a requirement I had when I started to look for a lot. Flood insurance prices are insane. We can get maximum coverage for under $400 per year, I’ve got the quote.

There is no living area on the ground level. Garage and the front left is my workshop. We can add fill to pretty much bury the stem wall.

Lower the height of the garage to help with the insane number of stairs. 10’ is entirely useless in a garage or a workshop.

I would bet on there being an error in the FEMA data though. No way that’s not gonna need to comply with BFE and fill dirt restrictions. I think your builder is suspect.

We have a barrier island house and one of our friends is not in VE zone which is very unusual. I bet that is the same situation. Still a flood zone just not a "very expensive" zone. Note the VE does stand for something different. The map is likely wrong but it does save money on insurance until they update the maps or scrap the whole program. Odds are federal flood will continue to be decimated and I wouldn't count on private market to be so sloppy with the maps.

As a VE zone owner, I completely favor the end of federal subsidies for us crazies who own on barrier islands

We're actually not in a barrier island. It's a small private island in Pensacola with maybe 300 home sites give or take. Google Innerarity Island, Pensacola.

All’s well that ends will. After reviewing code for stairs and adding fill to the top of the retaing wall we will have basically the same stairs as the house above with the dog in the photo for a total of 16 steps. Done

Cool!

Are you still doing 10 inch rise steps? I know I'd find those quite unpleasant to navigate.

Negative maximum per code is 7 3/4” rise and minimum tread depth of 10”. It’ll be adjusted as need be on site but we will meet code.

7 3/4" is quite high. Especially for outdoors with as many steps as you have.

Agreed CP and it’ll quite possibly work well with less. We will adjust as we can, the benchmark we had to meet was the max by code.

We spent 2 hours at out lot earlier today measuring to triple check and did what we could despite the lot not being cleared yet. As “they” say, always have a Plan B. We can easily do stairs exactly like Mary Margaret added earlier in this thread. We drove around the island and several of the waterfront homes have that style staircase and it’s quite nice. Despite having homes across the street, our front door centers dead on the space between these two homes thus giving us a clear view of Perdido Bay from the front door, pure luck.

With a side entry garage and my Tundra being a double cab we have a pad outside the garage bays 35’ deep. Glad I spent time driving around a parking lot with traffics cones and a tape measure or we’d have been in big trouble.

You seem to be missing one important point. The houses Mary Margaret showed with the stairway your wife likes are all symmetrical homes with the stairway CENTERED. Your house is NOT symmetrical. Put that staircase on your house and it's going to look even more odd than your house does already.

Hey thanks CP !

Here's a rendering our architect had done for us early in the redesign phase. However, the patio on the upstairs was missing and the supporting columns etc. Aside from those differences and obviously the stair case, the overall look is quite close. With the stairway relocated, the windows on the ground floor to the bottom right in the garage are now visible. The area directly above that is the master bath and so on. Per my previous post, the double front doors were changed out after I'd posted this up. On the ground floor, the two windows in the center are history. And although it's hard to visualize it in the conceptual, the ceilings are 10' from the ground floor on up. It's a tall house. In the end we made the final revisions and submitted those for drawings based upon the conceptual we had done as it fit our need with a few tweaks mostly on the interior.

What my bride didn't care for was that we'd walk up the stairs facing a wall, then turn to the left to walk 20' give or take to the front door. Based on this rendering and maintaining the same general design from day one from the same architect, we moved forward and ended up where we are. We just didn't "toss this together" so to speak. Our architect put a fair amount of thought into the process the end results in our opinion we are pleased with. We differed somewhat on the interior layout of a couple of rooms but that's all good. The vast majority of the interior of the house replicates what was done from day one which was perfect and we love it. Thus the reason we kept it just like it was. He did an amazing job!

When the day is done, we're writing the check to the mortgage company so we'll build accordingly. Like I said back at the start of the thread, everyone has their own opinions and I respect that. Some folks may think what they've designed and are building is the absolute best design in the world and I'm happy for them. On the flip side, I wouldn't give them a dime for it. Again, my opinion and while it doesn't suit me we all have varied tastes. Thank goodness or we'd be in a real mess!

If you build the axis of the stairs parallel to the contour lines they will be much fewer risers; less expensive and obtrusive.

Casey

The original concept is great! Why so much deviation from a great design? You're losing what made it a great design in the first place.

Thanks and CK, you didn’t see our very very first design. The entire point of this exercise is to have an elevated second floor deck thus the added patio which we did have it was added back in. The other variable is the stairs. If we had a way to keep that in place and have the stairs lead directly to the front door, we’d done that and wouldn’t have even posted the thread. Our lot gives us a wide open view of the bay from a higher vantage point thus the elevated patio.. I’ve looked at stair designs for days from a variety of architects etc and nothing jumps out that works. The view is from the 3rd floor and not the entryway. The original house was a 2 story but it would not give us the height we needed.

I’m going to gracefully bow out of this thread. For those of you who’ve come forth with a genuine interest in giving us options and providing insight and ideas we are most appreciative: As that was the intent of the thread to get input from those with creativity in a positive way. For those who opted to provided nothing but negativity and not offer any creativity, it’s all good I’m a big boy and have dealt with folks from all walks of life for many years. It’s relatively apparent that there are those who harbor more negativity than creativity. So it goes !

I personally really like that early rendering and I think you’re on the right track. I look forward to seeing it fleshed out!