Have any of you ever used 14″ LVL beams as stair stringers? It seems like I saw some photos in a magazine that shall remain nameless stair stringers made from LVL beams. It sure would be easier to get them level than working with the 2×12 that we usually get. I’ve never seen anyone do it where I work, though.
Jim
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Replies
Sure can . Lots of people use them . Especially with the new stair codes going into effect They are getting longer stringers and the lvl's help with the deflection.
Good stuff. No splits or checks. No shrinkage along the grain to change the pitch of the tread.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
You bet. We don't use anything other than LVL anymore for stair stringers. Works great, none of the hassles of sawn lumber. Worth every penny.
DRC
The tradename out here is Timberstrand and we can use the 1-1/4x11-7/8 as stringers. REAL sweet.
LVL's sound like a great idea. I'm from New Jersey and the only time from what I've seen that Framers cut stairs for new construction are for decks. Any house or addition that I frame stair companies make the stairs. New framed house we'll just put temporary steps in. On some existing homes we'll build the occaisional basement steps.
Do alot of you other contractors make your own steps for new construction?
Joe Carola
Joe,
I live in NJ too, and I install shop built stairs every day of the week. I can't see why anyone would want to site build them. I build from scratch when I do a deck, but only because I have to.
Rick
We remodelors almost exclusiverly have to build in on site with sticks and shrubs.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
Piffin,
How are you?
Do you always build your own stairs?
What about circular stairs.
To bad Stan Foster couldn't come to New Jersey.
Joe Carola
Edited 12/14/2002 7:48:31 PM ET by Framer
Not any like the trditional circular other than installing a couple cheap prebuilt seven hundred dollar units.
These attachments show one set I designed, and built though. My own hand all the way from pencil to frame to sanding..
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
Piffin,
You do nice work. I love cutting stairs but like I said in my first post, all new construction, houses and additions all the stairs are built by stair companies. I would love to make stairs. At least I get to make stairs for decks.
Joe Carola
Staircases, Mantlepieces, and Complex Roofs are the height of our craft.
You've got at least one of them down pat..
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
Hey????? where's your inline railing on the radius stairs?
Owners decided not to want one.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
Interesting thread. I think Breaktime is lopsided to the east coast. In California the stairs are almost always site built from my experience. On production crews they are often pieced out to company men and not subbed out. A common detail is a half wall for a railing capped with pine or whatever and a mushroom grip railing on one wall. At the east coast I suspect the standard is a set of wooden stairs. Am I right?
The framer just has to know what material the flooring is and what is the thickness. Carpet with the same thickness top and bottom is the easiest to figure. Recently I built floor with a heat mass that is about 2.25"(1.5" Gypcrete and 3/4" slate) thick with a one inch thick tread on the steps on top of 1.125" plywood on LVL stringers.
The variations of treads and thicknesses of flooring can be a little befuddling to me when laying out steps. I always draw on the framing the height of the finish floor top and bottom . From that I get the total rise. The rest is just arithmetic.
I hate the half wall detail by the way. I prefer a more traditional set of stairs.
We may be slow, But we're expensive.
Piffin: Nice stairwork....I notice that the grain of the treads also follows the curve..nice detail as well...What was the thickness of each laminate?
It's white oak. I took 5/4 rough planed just enough to clean it up and study grain to choose pieces. Then I ripped it to a heavy 3/8" and rejoined to a heavy 5/16", keeping track of pieces all the while so I could keep original grain matching. Built forms right on the floor and did a dry run for each, still keeping track of alignment. Then laid out eight or ten at a time to roll Titebond on, flip them and roll other side. Had a helper hustling one end, of course. The top step was the hardest to bend at that thickness..
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
Bravo Piff!! Those stairs are gorgeous! I'd love to be able to pull something like that off! Few more years maybe huh?
It took several days only, not years. LOL
;)
.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
I just got back to this thread after not seeing it for a few days. Its wierd on my computer that some postings don't last 24 hrs. and some last two weeks, then some, like this, disappear for a few days only to come back. Timberstrand is definitely more money than 2x12s, how much I'm not sure. Its worth the extra money to me, because as mentioned, no little triangles coming off the stringers, no big crown in one of the stringers, etc., etc. It never ceases to amaze me how differently things are done in different parts of the country. Here, I bid a house for framing and if its a two-story, you can bet that Old Bob is going to cut the stairs. I never heard of a stair company sending them out. Most of the time, if I have the bid, the contractor wants me to side the house, too. Heres one I never figured out, either. Not only do I side the place, my guys have to caulk the siding and trim, too. The painters bid means painting only, I guess. Its all past tense to me now. I'm happy as a clam in my little cabinet shop.
Bob
The message say on the forum for a LONG time until they are finally put into the archives.
That is happening is that the "window" under each folder only has space to display so many messages.
It depends on what you select to view under "Show Discussions" drop down at the top. If you have unread selected then either there has not been a new post since the last time or there have been so many that it is off the bottom of the window. If that is the case and you read all of those and then refresh the reload it will show the next group of unread message.
If you have a few that you are really interested then at the bottom of the thread, if you are in advanced view, you can rate the messages. If you rate High then there is a display option to only show those that you have rated.
You can select to show all and you can get the same thing by click in the folder Heading. That will show that last 50 message, but if go down to the bottom of the screw there is button to select the next group of 50 message.
Construction Techniques
19413 Msgs
in this case if you click the line that say 19413 Msgs it is under the file folders heading (construction techniques) will show you a large list of posting for a few days back. The same goes for the rest of the folders just click on the MSGS line
Rick,
Where are you from?
I live in Caldwell.
I framed a 14' diameter tower in Bedminster. The origanal stair company never got back to the homeowner. Can you build circular stairs?
Joe Carola
Joe,
I don't build them, but there are several good stair shops that will deliver to caldwell. That's in essex county, right? The one I have the number to is G&G Stairs. The number is732 988 3013. They are in Howell, Monmouth county. You could also look up A.J. Stairs and American Stairs and Rail, both located in Lakewood, in Ocean county. Any of these companies will be able to do the job.
Rick
Piffin,
You reminded me of the saying," I've been doing so much with so little for so long, that I can now do anything with nothing in no time at all."
Rick,
I know AJ stairs, Steve & Rebecca. They just did my friends house. They are who I was going to recommend for the Bedminster job with the circular stairs.
How are G&G compared to AJ?
I'm in essex county what about you?
Joe Carola
Joe,
I live in Freehold NJ, about a block from Bruces' boyhood home. yea me!
Rick
Rick,
Do you know a guy by the name of Rob Mirabello from Freehold?
I framed back and forth with him for about 5 years .
Joe Carola
Joe,
G&G are smaller than AJ, but they do as good a job. Make sure they come and measure the actual opening. I don't know Rob Mirabella directly, but i bet I know someone who does. If Rebecca from AJ is who I'm thinking of, she's a damn good looking woman. The person to ask for at G&G is named Stacy I think. He's the sales person. Take care.
Rick
I've been trying to find a local dealer for the Timberstrand product. I think it is PSL. I can get it, but no one has given me a price. In your area, what is the price per foot for the Timberstrand? I am sick of cutting a perfect set of stringers and then bumping them and have them fall apart.
I use them all the time, I wouldn't use them outside though as they could delaminate
We always build what would be a sub-stairs, allowing for the stair contractor to put on the finished treads and railing. We've always used 2x12 (which I would still use outside because of delaminating, as stated), but I think after I show this to my boss, we'll probably use LVL next time we put up some stringers. We then normally put on 2 layers of 3/4 plywood as the treads, glued and nailed to the stringers. Finished treads go on top, or carpet if that is what they're doing. I have a project at my own house to add some stairs, and I'm definiately going to give LVL stringers a try.
Jim
A couple of issues back FH had a great article on engineered lumbers. One of the types, I think it's "Parallelam" (parallel strand lumber) can be used in exterior applications. At any rate, they are all stronger, harder, heavier and a lot harder on saw blades than dimensional lumber.
Thanks for the tip, I'll have to dig that issue out. Out here [ Denver] it seems all I can get are microlams [a.k.a. lvl]
What's the price difference compared w/ 2x12 SYP?
forget it cheapskate......nobody cares about price differences anymore.
the part I like about using lams for stringers instead of 2x's is when your trimming out and you take your hammer and WHACK off the temp tread, the stringer stays whole, a 2x 12 will split along the grain and this littl triangle of wood stays attached to the temp tread, now you have to get out some plywood and glue and fix this first step. Also you have to go look for your cats paw to take off the rest and you can't find it and ask around for someone else's , they can't find theirs or you listen to their BS about how they DON'T HAVE one because they never make mistakes, yeah, right.
well, Speaking on behalf of all of us who never make mistakes...
;)
I screw the temp treads down. That way nothing gets Whacked to remove them.
But I do prefer the LVL stringers!.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
tried that, but six weeks worth of mud, and drywall stuff, and you name it get into the screw head, can't get the driver tip in.
You must be using the famous sr screwws that break, right?
be kind to yourself and put a line of masking tape over the screws.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
Talking about stairs makes me think of a story.
I had my Sons out at the spec house the day we built the basement stairs, and they both helped build them.
The next time I went out there, I noticed one of them had written a message on the risers, meant to be read as someone walked UP the steps:
YOU.
FOR
BUILT
DAD
MY
HOUSE
THE
ENJOY
YOU
HOPE
ISea captains don't like crew cuts.
When stringer lengths were less than 8 feet, as in the case of winders with landings, I have used 3/4" CDX for stringers, two thicknesses glued together. One sheet yields two 1 1/2 x 11 7/8 x 96 stringers. It is probably less than LVL, which I have used for stringers also, but consider the rip and glue-up time, plus glue. I would not use sawn lumber for stringers, period.
That'll be one of those neat memories you can tell your grandchildren about their father.
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius
MASKING TAPE!!!!!!!!! Great idea.
You really are the Grand Poobah of the breaktime forum
ah Pooh panama,
;)
What I've got is even better then regular because it can get torn and jammed into the slots too, occasionally. I get it from Protect.
It is a heavy kind of vinyl blue tape like you see on some door thresholds when delivered saying, do not remove until....
Excellence is its own reward!
"The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit.
The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are."
--Marcus Aurelius