This spiral stair was cast in concrete and clad with marble and formed the centre-piece of the foyer of a guest villa for Prince Khalid in Riyadh
The first construction problem was that I couldn’t find anyone to bend the rebar to the necessary spiral so I decided to ‘heat’ bend the rebar in place.
Because heating destroys the temper of the High Tensile bar I had to re-design the whole rebar based on using mild steel.
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Replies
Ian,
The picture opens just fine.
The pouring of the concrete didn't cause any problems and the Filipino masons are now cladding the treads and risers with white crystallino marble.
The 3/4" thick marble is on a sand/cement backing, using white cement with white sand as the marble is slightly translucent and gray cement would show a dark stain.
Once the marble cladding was finished the soffit of the staircase was plastered
The stair is now finished and fitted with handrail and spandrel panels
The handrail was made from 3" dia. brass tube in Germany and air-freighted over to Riyadh. The spandrel panels are bronze-tinted tempered glass, held with bronze cleats
The finished foyer shortly before occupation
The floor was travertine marble, with 3/4" longitudinal joints and in those joints the interior designer decided to place flashing disco lights!!
Edited 3/30/2002 2:35:42 AM ET by IanG
Ian:
I love freestanders. That is once piece of work.
This is amazing! A work of art... tacky and not to my taste but the construction should make you proud. Disco lights??? I guess all the money in the world still can't buy good taste.
Can you or anyone else answer the following:
I'm pretty sure I could form something like this. I have an engineer I can get the rebar, etc requirements from. But I can no longer get a Ready-Mix truck and a concrete pump up here, be/c it'd be too easy to mess up the drive and tick off my neighbor and nowhere to clean out the pump, etc. So, if I hand mix concrete, or borrow back the drum mixer I sold to my buddy when we finished here, and haul buckets inside, I'll still only be able to do so much in a day. My question is: what will be the effect of one or more cold joints on the integrity of the stairs? What other concerns should I have that don't occur to me right now?
Thanks.
Especially Stan, Armin, Mike, and other project picture posters,
In thinking about this this morning, I'll take the inline pictures, such as in this thread, ANY DAY over those stupid yellow image links that prospero uses. I find that click-and-then-you-can't-return nonsense or right-click (on a Mac it's a different process) stuff to be an entirely awkward way to look at all your inspiring work. Why not just see the pictures as you scroll, be/c most computers are fast enough now-a-days to handle the bandwidth efficiently anyway.
So, the question is, if a place was found to easily store your pictures, would you prefer to post them inline like the ones in this thread, given that it takes just one small line of html to do so, and you can easily copy that line from post to post, rather than rethink it each time? Then we'd only need a place to store them and an easy way to do so.
Imagine the following... Stan is an acknowledged project poster. So he's able to send an email with attached picture(s) to a certain secret address where a mailbot (email robot) strips the picture(s) and loads it into a reserved Stan folder on the Taunton server, and keeps the same file name. Then all Stan has to do is add the following line to his post and the picture will show up inline with no stupid yellow icon and no memory limit. This capability would only be offered to people posting projects, and not just any old Tavern T&A picture.
Here's the code: img src="http://www.taunton.com/stan/pictureX.jpg"
Think how much easier a project thread would be to follow...
Why would Taunton go for this? Well, I think that threads like the project threads you guys create are a tangible Taunton resource, and vault this site above others. If all that's required of them is a little space on their server and a simple mailbot, man, they'd be awfully shortsighted to lose these project threads just be/c Prospero ain't convenient. This doesn't require any changes to Prospero.
Edited 3/31/2002 11:58:53 AM ET by Cloud Hidden
Cloud:
Anyway that pictures can be posted without deleting previous pictures sounds good to me.
For myself...it has to be simple to do...or my eyes just glaze over .
Thanks for any input. Speaking of pictures...your dome home would make some interesting viewing. That thing was cool on that "Extreme Homes" show
Thanks. One of the designs I'm doing should break ground this summer. If so, I'll have a thread w/ photos on building a thin-shelled dome. And the guy who's doing it (homeowner/GC), has plenty of experience in construction, so it won't be an amatuerish effort. He's semi-retired now and doing "rustic art", but I've seen his work and it is awesome. Things like $16,000 carved mantels. Rustic, my butt!
I'll see what I can find on storing pictures somewhere. The process would have to be as simple as sending an email, which excludes stuff like Yahoo Photos, which are usually more trouble than they're worth. So that's the goal, anyway...
I found a site that met almost all the criteria for convenient pictures.
1. Easy and free sign on
2. Lots of photo storage space (50 mb).
3. E-mail upload of photos (no website sign-in required for uploads). It was real, real easy to create an email and attach as many photos as I wanted and get them all uploaded automatically.
4. Links to individual photos from within this forum. (It even gives you the html code that will create an inline image within Prospero, and will resize the photo proportionately for you.)
I'll run it by Luka and Mark and see if they have improvements or better ideas. Here's a sample image I uploaded and then posted: http://forums.taunton.com/tp-thesandbox/messages?msg=124.1
Edited 3/31/2002 3:14:31 PM ET by Cloud Hidden
Cloud,
I really wouldn't like to put a cold joint in a concrete stair of any kind -- I'm not saying it couldn't be done but before I'd try it I'd be looking at using a retarder in the mix, filling from the bottom (natch!) and sealing in the treads as I fill them so that I could -- if necessary -- take all day to fill the formwork.
The formwork design would have to take into account the extra pressure that having all the concrete plastic would put on the forms but with good planning, a couple of helpers and a mixer it'd be do-able.
(Beautiful "stair-ornament", by the way!!)
Stan,
Storing the pictures off-site and incorporating a link to open them in your post IS the way to go.
The coding isn't too difficult -- even I have only stuffed it up 3 times -- and it will get around the 1 MB limit. I think pictures opening within posts look a lot better anyway.
C'mon, -- post some of yours!
Ian:
You have to know how my mind works. I have little trouble figuring out the complexities of constructing curved stairways.
But when it comes to anything more that "attach files" something just shuts down in my brain, and my eyes glaze over.
I dont know....maybe I have a handicap or something.
Stan,
Once I work out one more thing in the process, I'll send you a step by step and you can tell me if it's doable or still too much of a pain. Ya gotta know that once you start posting in-line pictures, others will too, be/c it looks so good that way. But I know what you mean about shutting down the brain--some of the stuff you describe is second nature to you, but when I think of picking up the tools and following your guidance, my brain just glazes over.
Those stairs look great, Ian. Nice formwork.
Nice formwork
I know it looks rough but it worked!
Edited 3/31/2002 10:50:52 PM ET by IanG
Ian - you said, "I know it looks rough but it worked!" That's all that counts, man. But I don't think it looked rough. I'm not even sure what "rough" form work would look like. What matters is what the concrete looks like after you strip the forms, right? I wouldn't know where to start forming something like that. I'm just a rectangle guy.
Sorry Jim -- I thought you were having a little poke at the rough (and it was!) appearance of the formwork.
For the formwork support I had the carpenters build two concentric circles out of 2" x 2" and line them with 1" x 3" boards and I marked out the treads and risers directly on this. They then built the soffit and, after the rebar was in place, the formwork for treads and risers.
The whole thing was either plastered or clad with marble so the sawn forms didn't really matter and it was a lot easier than trying to wrestle with ply.
ian, cloud , stan.. i'm listening....
one thing... i kind of like a two-step.. read the text, click & see...
i think the tempo is important in the photo essay also... if it's just one photo after another , it loses some of the flow...
i use playboy as my model....hah, hah, hha,... a little teaser here, another teaser there... and then ...
the centerfold....
so maybe a two-step.. with alternating imbedded ( view on display )...just to make the viewer work a little..instead of picture, picture , picture
Mike Smith
Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mom always said, "'To each their own,' said the old lady as she kissed the red cow." Still don't know what the #### that means!
What I like about the inline photos is that I can see a project's progression more easier! The need to open other windows slows me down. With inline, if I scroll fast enough, it's almost like time-lapse photography. <G>
And of course, the stuff we're talking about here allows text and pictures to mix in any proportion. Text w/o pictures reminds me of too many news stories that use words to describe stuff that a concurrently visible photo would make clear automatically.
Ah well, that's why there's different drums (to fracture another pithy quote).
All this talk of glazed...over....
well then....just...
Gonna have to go buy a box of glazed.....
Donuts now!Lakeside...On the mountain, near the stream,aj Builder of Fine Homes & Tennis CourtsAnd featuring; Great Camps of the Adirondacks
Stan,
Post something with one of your photos as an attachment and one of us will take it and re-write it so the photo comes up within the post.
Then we'll post it so that you can read, copy and save the code and all you'll have to do for the next photo you want to show us is to alter the address in the code.
Once you've done that a couple of times you'll be able to take off the training wheels <G>
Stan,
Here's the difference
View Image
Stan,
Here's the code
<img src="http://www.pstation.co.uk/images/smilies/yelrotflmao.gif">
Now, if you take out everything between the quotation marks and put in the address of YOUR photo it'll come up instead of the little smilie.
Ian,
I think the aggravating part is not posting in a little html code, but finding a place to easily store the photos in the first place. I just ftp 'em to my own site, but that doesn't cut it for everyone. So I've tried a bunch of the Webshots, Yahoo Photos type of places over the years, and they all are a bloomin' nuisance to use. Having to run through hoops to load the pictures onto most of these sites is a lot of work compared to just the ol' attach and go. That's the part I'm focusing on--how to make it easy to get pictures stored someplace appropriate, so that referring to them in a photo thread or any other thread is a breeze.
Drool...
I so wanted to do something like that here. Still on my mind. Either this or a laminate. Mine needs to be a freestanding S curve.
Can you share any of the specs based on the original rebar (I bend it here)? Rebar size and spacing...thickness of the pour...anything else...
It's beauuuuuutiful.
Ian, Mighty fine indeed!
great work..
how did you post the pics so they display ?
much better than the stupid yellow 2-step process i've been using..
also...how many megs of display did this use up ?Mike Smith
Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
The only hitch is the photos gotta be posted somewhere on the web. If I remember, Ian had at least some of these on his site. But, the size (his were about 200K) doesn't count against your allocation. So another way to think about it is that you can find a place to post your own pictures for your own other purposes, and then have them do double-duty here. (I know, just trying to put the best light on the situation.)
Try this code:
> img src="http://www.cloudhidden.org/frontsteps.jpg" < )
View Image
Hey, at least it's a staircase, maybe not worthy of a Prince, but worthy of my princess!
Edited 3/31/2002 11:40:18 AM ET by Cloud Hidden
beutifull (and the stairs don't look to bad either)
View Image
Sorry, didn't mean to step on Ian's toes. Just happened to pass by and thought it'd be a good test.
Edited 3/31/2002 10:30:33 PM ET by Cloud Hidden
Thanks for the picture post. Now your challenge is how to train this eye glazed blockhead how you did that.
Stan, I'll put a short guide together if you're willing to try it and tell me where the guide or the process fall apart. Then I can improve it where possible, or look for something better. Least I can do for all I've learned from you.
Cloud:
I am making an effort. I went to that website and opened a free account. I uploaded a picture to it. Now I am trying to figure how view it mysekf first, and after that, I am going to try and attach it. Will each picture require me to type in that long address everytime?
Cloud. I read your step by step thread on posting pictures. I uploaded a picture by e-mail.
Went to my album...no picture...I cant find the picture I sent last night either. This is the frustrating part.
I agree it is a very eye catching to have the pictures come up with your post. What I dont understand is why the "experts" that set this new gallery up , didnt do it your way.
I will keep trying, but for now...I have to go build a curved stairway. I will probably have it built before I can post a picture of it. <G> Thanks for your patience.
Taking the good news first and building from there, seems like you got your account set up easy enough, and that when you clicked Email Upload, you were given a fully-addressed email in your email program. You attached one or more files to that and mailed it, right?
Did you ever get the reply mail saying they had been successfully uploaded?
Can you find the email that _you_ sent in your "Sent" mailbox and forward it to me. And/or the reply email from them. Do you remember the name of the album you created? I'll look up some stuff and see if I can find anything.
That's for starters. One step at a time. As for why they have and haven't done certain things, I'll be able to answer that only when you tell me why we have to search here on Member Name, but are only shown Nickname?!?!?! Lots of silly stuff. But, Stan, I gotta tell you that I really appreciate your "let's try it and get down to work attitude" rather than the incessant bitchin' and moanin' that passes for some people's attempts. I don't see that much crying in a group of 4 yo's on their first day of school.
Jim:
I sent an e-mail to you with one of my photos that is now in my hyperlink photo album. It has the html address...whatever that is. and wants me to cut and paste. The last time I have cut and pasted was in kindergarten. Ha
Just getting caught up now. Had client phone calls all night, be/c a couple of designs are ready to move from the drawing board to the heavy equipment. Also sick daughter. But she's in bed, the designs have been put to bed, and we'll see what's up w/ da pix.
(If I could sit at a computer next to you for 5 minutes we'd have this thing licked w/o a problem. Long distance makes it oh so much more fun. <G>)
Jim:
I appreciate your help a lot...take some time off....Iwill get it eventually. Thanks
Ian, Stan, and other stair experts,
I'm planning to build an S-shaped version of Ian's princely concrete staircase this summer. Of course I'll have the structural engineer look at the plans. Here's the question.....
Another staircase on the same floor is a spiral with a 9 1/8" rise (tread to tread). Should this other staircase match the rise of the spiral, or take on it's own rise that's more traditional for a non-spiral. Of course, code restricts me to 8 1/4", so I guess the question is, does the difference in step height on different staircases on the same floor make a big difference?
Jim:
Your spiral will fall under a "secondary" stair code and can have a taller rise.
I could live with a spiral with a 9 inch rise because a lot of times you need to do this for headroom when you are winding back under the treads above.
But for the main stairway, I would adjust it anyway I could so as to get your rise down under 8 inches.
Send me a drawing and I will see what I can come up with. I will need maximum allowable parameters for the top and bottom dimensions. Basically,,, I need all the run I can get so as we can squeez another tread in if possible.
Jim: I hit a dead end on being able to post pictures like you are trying to have me do. Believe me,,, I have a bunch to unload. I have run out of most of my useable megabytes, and refuse to even mess with posting anymore picutes if I have to delete previously posted ones.
View Image
Here's the drawing I'll eventually be sending to the engineer and using as my construction drawing. I'll take all suggestions, etc.
I've been thinking about the rise, Stan. The front steps into the house are 8" because the supporting structure is block, and so 8" was easy. I'm inclined to keep 8" just for consistency. Plus, if I add a 4'x10" tread up top, I'll come 10" closer to the thing marked "Nearest Wall". If I add another tread in the straight section, I'll sneak a little close to the pool table, and I don't want DW to have the excuse that the stair railing got in her way! But still open to reconsidering. Adding a tread would give a rise of 7.544118". Give or take.
If anyone want's a guessing game, place your bets on the thickness of the concrete "stringer" and the rebar pattern. 60 milkbones to the closest. I'm having it engineered regardless, so no harm in guessing, 'cause I won't listen anyway. My guess is 6" clear concrete w/ 7 #4 @ 6" crisscrossed with a #4 @ 10" and another one or two in each tread.
I think the trickiest engineering part is the uneven stress on the W14x43 that forms the edge of the upper balcony. I have a feeling that the engineer won't want this freestanding be/c of that (one column at the fat part of the upper curve, for example, but we'll see). Bonus milkbones for guessing this right.
And Stan, I cannot say with a straight face that this picture posting nonsense is easy. The absolutely proper solution is for Prospero to put a stinky little button next to the Attach button on the Post page. That button should say "Thumbnail" and if you check it should automatically create a thumbnail and display that instead of the stupid yellow picture indicator. But then, that seems too clean for them--we'll have to find a way to muck it up a bunch before it's acceptable.
CloudI use Opera as a browser and have set it to notify me before accepting cookies.When I came here to look at your post the following 3 cookies were set on my machine by photoloft. Here are copieshttp://hyperphoto.photoloft.com/view/exportImage.asp?s=cano&i=9270597&wThis page wishes to set the cookie
dirty="4%2F10%2F2002+12%3A41%3A04+PM"
This value will be sent to documents on all servers in the domain photoloft.com, and paths that are starting in /.
The cookie is valid until Thu, 11 Apr 2002 19:41:04 GMTCookie number 2http://hyperphoto.photoloft.com/view/exportImage.asp?s=cano&i=9270597&wThis page wishes to set the cookie photoloft="55389729"
This value will be sent to documents on all servers in the domain photoloft.com, and paths that are starting in /.
The cookie is valid until Fri, 31 Dec 2010 08:00:00 GMTCookie number 3
http://hyperphoto.photoloft.com/view/exportImage.asp?s=cano&i=9270597&w
This page wishes to set the cookie
ASPSESSIONIDQGQQGVVC="DJCNENFBFIKNEMPAIAJIOKLF"
&wThis value will only be sent to documents on the server hyperphoto.photoloft.com, and paths that are starting in /.
The cookie will be deleted when Opera is closed.
IDGIDG.
Beyond chocolate chip, I'm not much up on cookies. Can anyone translate that to tell if they are info that helps hyperphoto/photoloft display pictures properly, or if it portends something more insidious?
You will never have to type anything. When you see the address of the picture, you can select the text, Copy from the Edit menu, and then in your forum post, click and Paste.
Does that sound right?
No problem -- is this
http://hyperphoto.photoloft.com
the web-site that you're suggesting as a photo host?
Yeah. I tried about 5 today, and it's the best of the lot. Why? Biggest two reasons:
1. You can email any number of photos at one time for upload. Then it returns an email with links to the individual photos. Beats the heck out of a web-only upload interface.
2. When you look at a photo, there's a "View the HTML" option that will give you the html code for posting it here or wherever. Not only that, but it has a proportional resize build in so you don't have to use Photoshop or anything to figure out how many pixels the thing is.
Tried all the others with email upload, and they either didn't work (dotPhoto) or did a bad job of linking to individual photos (Sony Imagestation). Webshots and a bunch of others don't support email uploads.
Whaddya think? It's almost everything I was asking Taunton to provide on their server, with one exception. I had hoped that it would retain the original file name, so that people could email upload and create the html code without ever looking to the host server. But turns out you still need that extra step of finding out their unique link to the photo. At least hyperphoto will give you the html and size info, so that makes the step a little less irritating.
I think it's a very good idea -- it's ironic, isn't it, that Taunton was trying to discourage us from opening images within posts on the old board because of the slowing down of the thread and now we're forced to do it that way.
I think all of this computer stuff is relative. Relative to what you understand and what you do not.
I built a freestanding stairway for probably one of the top computer geeks in the world....seriously. He invented the "Windows" program and sold it to Bill Gates. He also invented "Flight Simulator", and also has two computer chips he designed that are aboard the space shuttle. He is a consultant to Microsoft also.
My point is he was in awe at how anyone could build a curved stairway....and he is probably one of the main reasons Bill Gates is the richest guy in the world.