Here is a curved stairway that just hatched out of my stairshop today and on its way to its installation.
The pictures show the stairs in my shop, rail being glued up..and the stairs on its way outside my shop.
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This is a picture I forgot to post.
How do you get a curved stait into the house? I'm guessing not through a standard opening? and how many guys to lift/hoist/push that sucker into place, looks on the heavy side
Cag: Most of my curved stairways go right through the front door. In fact...I can get most curved stairs through a 2 foot door if I had to by screwing it through. I just get a crew of 6 to 10 guys for just a few minutes to get it into the house. I then attach the newels and then we set it into position. I have never had any problems to speak of to date getting the stairs inside the house and having them fit properly.
Thanks, and as usual nice workView ImageGo Jayhawks
Thanks....
What could one say except........you da man, Stan.
As always, really nice work to look at. Thanks for another set of pics and.........make sure you drive very carefully now.
We'll all look forward to more.
Thanks...whats interesting about this stairway is that the owner insists that it be installed "BEFORE" the drywall is hung in the house. I warned him about covering it up..moisture from the drywall mud...etc. It fell on deaf ears.....he is more concerned about having a stairway in the house. ......OH WELL...........
I will post pictures of it setting in the open stud foyer.
You've got folks like that out your way, too?
We encounter that sort of thing more often than I wish. The people buy a vintage house, DW decides she must have all new paper, paint, and carpeting immediately. The house-warming party takes place. Then four months later, she wants us to refinish all the wood in the house!! Well, all righty, but it's now apt to cost three times what it would have, had you contained your urges for just a little bit.
I think you said it best......."OH WELL".
Knowledge is power, but only if applied in a timely fashion.
Gold: I love building curved stairways and put a lot of pride and effort in doing so. I always stress to have the stairway delivered after the mess and moisture of the drywalling is out of the house. So..............after this is said...if they want me to install the stairways upside down...I will. "OH WELL" :)
Do you do a mock-up of all the adjacent walls? What happens to the studs after the stair ships? The walls in the pics look like all new wood.
Do it right, or do it twice.
ELCID72:
I keep a bin of 8,10, and 12 foot 2 x4's for the forms. I use them over and over..only recutting the curved plywood plates. I am always using my form lumber for other purposes and I am always replacing these studs with new form lumber.
Nice work Stan!!
How do you get that little wheeled cart to stay under the stairs as you go down the road?
Dry wall screws?
To me one of the best parts would be driving those suckers to the job and seeing all the looks of awe on other drivers faces!
Must be a great form of "free" advertising.
I have said it before, You are my hero!
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Mr. T.....Thanks for the compliments...that little cart just gets the stairway onto the trailor..then I lay it over for transport.
Stan, how dead-on do your mock-up walls have to be? Do you have any margin for error there? If not, your field measuring skills must be second to none.
Truly wonderful work. An inspiration to the rest of us!
_____________________________HomeBase________ Kitchen & Bath Builders, LLC
Brian Roberts, Manager
Edited 3/27/2003 10:53:21 AM ET by homebaseboston
Stan, I hope you don't mind me chiming in.
When I receive a contract to build a set of circular stairs I also furnish the curved wall plates for the building. First I make a master template using a trammel bar router setup, then I duplicate as many sections as necessary on the shaper. I make two identical sets, one for the building and one stays in my shop. In most cases I will also install the curved wall framing to insure I have two identical walls giving me a better chance that in the end everything fits as opposed to the "close enough" framing concept..
Homebaseboston.
I layout the curved walls onsite and suppy a trammel guided routed plate for the walls. I then reproduce the foyer in my shop by making a like set for my curved stair forms with the radius of these reduced by the wall thickness. If it is typical drywall..then this is 1/2 inch less radius. If it is plaster, then this is 5/8 inch less..sometimes 3/4 inch depending on the plaster contractors specs.
I absolutely love staying in my shop and building a curved stairway knowing with confidence it will fit.
Almost every curved stairway that I deliver is met with severe doubt that it will go into the house though the front door and then after all that.. actually fit against the curved walls. That is probably my only part of curved stairbuilding that I dont care for....putting up with pessimistic people with all their negative thoughts. I have to blank it out and just DO iT. After the stairway slips into place..the reaction afterwards is my favorite part of curved stairway building. I dont know how many times I have heard words to the effect..."How do you figure this out to fit? The answer is just careful thought, measuring, and building the stairway in such a way as to guarantee it follows the exact desired radius.
When I set the stairs..I lag to each and every stud with 3/8 inch lag bolts. Construction glue is applied to the outside stringer so as to assure a good solid bond to the wall.
I have NEVER had to apply trim to the curved stair stinger as of yet. I set that stairway today in the house without any drywall applied...YIKES......OH WELL.....I told him to get it covered up with a tarp and not let anyone on it at all. Anyway...in this case the contractor is putting 1/2 inch drywall behind the stringer. I lagged each stud to the curved stringer with construction glue applied to shims that were cut to 17/32 of an inch. This gives just enough room for the drywall to slide in behind the stringer.
Almost every curved stairway that I deliver is met with severe doubt that it will go into the house though the front door and then after all that.. actually fit against the curved walls. That is probably my only part of curved stairbuilding that I dont care for....putting up with pessimistic people with all their negative thoughts
If I offened you by asking, Just wanted to say I didnt mean too. Never personaly seen it happen before.View ImageGo Jayhawks
Cag: Please....absolutely no offense was taken at all...I wasnt even thinking of your questions. I was just ranting about how almost each stairway that I deliver is met with doubt that it will even get into the house. I have even been told that there is no *&^%$## way that stairway will go through the door. It gets kind of humerous.
Cag: I pulled up to a house one day with a curved stairway. The contractor asked how in the heck I was going to get it into the house. I said.."Through the front door" . He must have been having a bad day as he got into my face about the deal. I just told him to settle down..and if it doesnt go in through the door, I will just leave on the sidewalk..and he owes nothing. He shut up and watched hoping it would not go through the door.
Here is a couple of shots of the stairs on my trailor.
Stan
As always its pure joy to see your work, I never seem to get tiered of seeing your pics.
Doug
Stan,
It is clear to me that those will NEVER fit thru the front door!
:oDMr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
ha....my luck..they wont
ha....my luck..they wont
Stan, I don't know about you but I always bring a chainsaw, one way or another it's going inside.
In such situations an electric chain saw can lessen the "Oh My God!" factor a bit.
I don't know why but a LOTof people react negatively to a carpenter firing up a Husky or Jonsered inside thier not yet finished home!
Don't ask me how I know this.
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Mr. T: I can remember many years ago when I was working as a trim carpenter for a large building firm. I was trying to attach a newel post into the subfloor assembly. I ran into solid wood that needed a lot of chiseling out.....wait a minute.....I remember seeing a chainsaw in the garage. I fired that sucker up and made me a quick post pocket, plus a dull chain saw. I never will forget my foreman coming into the house a half hour later wondering what the heck that smell was
Another amazing feat of craftsmanship, Stan!
Dave: Thanks....but these are just typical ol stairways.
Stan,
You ever have any close calls, like it almost didn't fit through the door?
Several years back I built a freestanding spiral, looked at the site, nice 6 ft. french door into the family room, then a straight shot into the stairwell. I build the stairs, round up a couple of big dudes to help with the move, arrive at the site only to find out the 6 ft door was replaced with a 5 footer. Tried my best to corkscrew it through the opening but the end of the stringer kept hitting the lower limb of a cherry tree next to the door. After much debate the chainsaw came out and as I cannot tell a lie I cut the limb and hid the remains in the firewood pile.
Armin: <<<<<YES>>>>>.....I had a tough one several years ago. It was an elliptical stairway. The foyer was real shallow,,but wide. Thus the reason I had to put an elliptical stairway in there. It was the only geometric design that would give a decent walking line run. Anyway, I was confident it would go, I had done the math and had reproduced the door openings in my shop. When I pulled up the contractor said there was no way in hell it was going to get into the foyer. I said yes it would. We had eight guys and we screwed it through the door. However, for it to clear the landing, we had to stand the stairs on end and we had two guys up stairs balancing it while we then rotated it into position. It fit perfectly, but after that grunt match, I went into the other room, and rolled my eyes I swear 180 degrees, and let off a sigh. I came back and the contractor said I really knew my s ****. I said, with not so much confidence this time.."yea".
After that..I just made extra certain that my stairs would go in without a fleeting thought of any doubt.
Armin: I did just have another thought come to mind. The very first stairway I built in my shop had three sections. The bottom section I stupidly installed the newel posts. As you know,,newel posts attached to a stair section is a problem trying to get it through the front door. In this case..it was just an embarassing situation while I was outside the house removing the newels, then putting them back on after it was inside.
The challenge and responsibility of building a curved stairway ,,and seeing it delivered and installed gives me a rush.
beautiful work stan, absolutly beautiful
my admiration for your work
i hear the same comments on counter tops i fabricate,"it'll never get in the front door"
like we never thought of that!!!
steve, sarnia., ont., canada
Stan,
Nice work as usual. To bad your not in NJ because the addition I framed has a 14' diameter two strory wall Turret Roof with stone on the inside and out and all the stair companies that came so far never got back to the homeowner and I told her about you.
Now she asked the stone mason if he could make them out of stone. I'm going to print your pictures anyway just to show her the work of what a real Professional does.
Joe Carola
Joe: I am buried right at present..but should you need me to entertain the thought of bidding on your curved stairs..and if they are not needed till fall...I would like to look at your plans. I am bidding on several stairs right now to finish out 2003...but interesting ones always take priority.
My methods only involve one onsite visit to exactly measure for the stairway...then the next time I am back is with the stairway coming through the door.
So...in your case...the distance mounts to just an airline ticket and a couple extra days of road time to deliver the stairway. I of course would have that covered in my bid.
Looks good, Stan. Know a local guy here who was fired cuz his spiral stair was 1/4" out. ..... kinda picky HO??? huh.
Stan,
Amazing and quite a beautiful job. Where are you located? (Just for future reference here ... :)
John
John: I am 30 miles north of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois...or 100 miles south of Chicago right of I-57
A couple of questions: How do you deal with a house where the curved wall is already constructed? Or do you? Since you are busy, it has occurred to me that you might elect to simply take a pass on those jobs.
Also, for this situation.....How can the drywall be slid behind your stringer without bunging it up? Maybe on a flat wall, but on a curve?
Thanks.
Jeff: Good question about a house that already has the curved wall built. These I approach very guarded. I first have to find the pivot point that they layed out the curved wall to. Then I check fo how accurate the radius is. Next I check for bowed studs..out of plumb curved wall,etc, etc. Almost ALWAYS, if the wall is pre-built, the spring line is off. I always have the spring line lined up with the top riser face. This springline has to be around 1.25 inches in front of the second floor header so as the top riser which is 3/4 of an inch thick has about 1/2 inch wiggle room behind it. I used to allow only 1/4 inch, but this is too tight.
Usually they line the springline with the top header, and this just throws everything off. I had to build one to fit one like this once, and I had to align all the riser faces tangent to a small circle that was centered on the pivot point of the stair arc.
If the stairs is set before the drywall is applied, I cut some 17/32 inch spacer blocks and use them to space the outside stringer to the studs. 1/2 inch drywall slips down into this space perfectly. If it is a plaster wall..I check with the plasterer to see what thickness his wall will be...usually 5/8 to 3/4 inch.
Edited 3/29/2003 9:26:02 PM ET by Stan Foster