Stairs

Stairs have three major components. Stringers, Risers and Treads. Here you see one of 3 stringers for the stairs down to the crawl space laid out with some of the initial cuts already made. There are basic standards for building stairs so make sure you consult both a good book on construction and your local building code. We laid ours out to have 7 1/2" rise with a 10" tread. This was based on a general rule of thumb on how high the rise should be and how much of a distance we had to cover. In our case it just worked out with those dimensions. You can see a line which shows where we will sister a 2 x 4 to add strength. We are using 2 x 10 material for the stringers (just because we had some extra lying around) instead of purchasing 12" material and the addition of a 2 x 4 to each stringer will add extra strength.

The layout was done using a carpenter's square and the basic cutting was done with a power saw.

After the power cutting is done the cut is finished using a hand saw.

The first stringer is now completed.

This stringer is then used as a template for the other two.

This is a completed stringer that has already had the 2 x 4 attached. It is being permanently attached to a pressure treated 2 x 4 that has been nailed to the concrete slab we poured last week. Our building inspector frowns on having raw wood in contact with concrete and for good reason. Concrete will retain water and any non pressure treated wood that is permenently in contact with it will eventually rot.

You can't just slap these things together. With the first stringer permanently located the second is leveled before being nailed into position.

The third stringer is then added and leveled with the other two.

Because these stairs lead down to the crawl space we will not be installing fancy treads. We made use of scrap 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 material for the permanent stringers for these stairs.

We now have stairs to the crawl space. An abbreviated hand rail will be added later just for safety.

Continuing with stairs, here is the first stringer for the stairs that lead to the loft area. These stairs were built using pretty much the same techniques as the first set with a few exceptions. First the rise, tread width and number of treads for these stairs were all called out on the blue prints so all the hard work was already done for us by the Kuhns Brothers architects. Second, you can't really see it but this stringer had a strip of tongue and groove attached to the opposite side before being nailed to the stud wall. The purpose of this piece of tongue and groove is to keep the stringer 3/4" away from the studs so that when the wall is covered with tongue and groove that material will fit behind the stringer. This will be a lot easier than having to cut each piece of tongue and groove around the stringer and it will make for a much cleaner look.

This set of stringers was leveled just the same as the first set.

Here is one of the main differences in these two sets of stairs. These stairs will be used several times a day and needs to be very strong. To add a little extra strength a joist hanger was used to attach the center stringer at the top.

Now that all three stringers have been leveled and permanently attached this set is ready for temporarily treads.

In order to keep from damaging the finished treads we will not install them until we are pretty much done with the construction. Just as we did in the crawl space we used scrap 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 material for the treads, however since this material will be replaced we used shorter and fewer nails compared to the crawl space treads.

The final task was to build a wall under the outside stringer. This wall adds a tremendous amount of strength to this set of stairs and will eventually be insulated as it serves to separate the great room from the crawl space.

If you look closely in this picture you can see a large piece of metal ductwork attached to the ceiling of the utility room. In our heating system all the heating air is distributed from the crawl space to both levels of the house and the blower from the heater blows up and not down. This "U" shaped ductwork will take the heated air and duct it down into the main distribution duct in the crawl space. Our HVAC crew got a little ahead of themselves by installing this now and I had to ask them to take it down. Our local codes require any room with gas appliances to have the walls and ceiling covered with fire code sheet rock and this just couldn't be done with the duct in place.

In order to sheetrock the ceiling we decided to mount 2 x 4's to the beams first. This will drop the ceiling 1 1/2" which will give us room to run our electric lines from the garage to an interior stud wall. From there we will be able to run the lines down to the crawl space for distribution to the first floor.

The back and side walls separate the house from the garage/shop and before sheetrock could be applied they had to be insulated. Here the "boss" is fitting and stapling the insulation in place.

This area is now ready to have the "U" shaped duct reinstalled. The rest of the utility room will be finished once the rough electrical work is completed. This will be the only room in the house to have sheetrock. The rest of the walls will be covered with tongue and groove.

With the stairs completed and the utility room ready for the HVAC guys it was time to start the first floor ceiling/second floor subfloor installation. In this log home design the ceiling beams serve as the second floor joists so the bottom layer of the subfloor for the second level has to be the finished ceiling for the first floor. Now that you're completely confused hopefully the next few pictures will help you understand what we're talking about. Here you see the first piece of tongue and groove installed. The entire ceiling will eventually be covered with this material.

As the tongue and groove is installed we just pushed the OSB sheets that had been serving as a temporary floor back a bit to give us room to work. For us it seems much easier to just dangle our feet over the edge than work on our knees.

After enough tongue and groove has been installed a sheet of 3/4" OSB is laid on top and nailed into place. Construction adhesive is used to keep squeaks to a minimum. With the addition of the OSB this subfloor has a thickness of 1 1/2" which makes this floor nice and firm.

Care must be taken when nailing both the tongue and groove and OSB in place. Missing a beam will result in a nail sticking down through the finished ceiling on the first floor.

This is the first floor finished ceiling. All that is needed now is a couple coats of polyurethane..... a task for the "boss" later.

Well for a slow week we had a lot to do. Next week we'll continue the tongue and groove installation. Hopefully we'll have this job completed by mid week and we can start framing the second floor walls so the HVAC guys can finish their job.

Happy New Year!

Check back soon.