A lot of nuances in the manufacture of the staircase for the house confuses even those who seem to work well with wood. Actually, for a start, you should consider only the size of the useful space provided for the realization of the project (ideally, it must be placed as close as possible to the front door) and style of interior design. You can calculate other parameters by entering the desirable starting data and taking into account the observations made by online designer. Thematic photos or videos will tell you how to do it.
Future staircase: initial calculations
You should start designing the staircase made with your own hands for the house or office, not with buying the materials but with mathematical calculations. Of course, a special program will put out the final parameters, but for this, you should enter the starting data. They include:
- Width of stair flight.
- Height of future staircase.
- Size and number of steps.
- If there are several stair flights, you should measure the length of each of them.
- Desirable inclination angle.
- Type of finished product.
- Material, method of finishing, and finishing coat.
After that, an online-designer will compile all data, analyze it, and show the result in the form of drawings and 3D-images of the future staircase. If according to the initial data, the project has defects – the program will report it with a list of recommendations. You can also see the result in the video.
Starting data – how to calculate them?
According to the building codes, there are certain standards you should base on during calculations – they are mentioned in the video- and photo materials. The optimal width of the step must be comfortable for going up and down the hand-made stairs. Therefore, the specialists recommend you to opt for 250-300 mm. The distance between them is selected on the basis of the average step- 600-650 mm. Now you can calculate the number of steps. For that, you have to divide the estimated height of the staircase by height of steps and subtract 1, as the last step is ½ of the second floor of the house, and ideally, it should “point” to the front door.
In the training videos, professional builders claim that the best inclination angle is 23-37 degrees, but actually, the steepness of the staircase is calculated individually. You just need to take into account the age of people who will use the staircase. Another important point you should take into account is the height from the upper step to the ceiling of the second floor. It must be no less than 1.9 m. Otherwise, the person of more than average height will feel uncomfortable. The average width of stair flight is 800-900 mm. Smaller parameters are used only for the staircases used as supporting facilities or external devices.
Choose the materials
To make the hand-made staircase for the house durable and beautiful, you need to choose the right material. Most staircases are made of wood. The choice of wood is quite wide – pine, nut, oak, beech, and ash. It is important that the material is dry enough, and the humidity index doesn’t exceed 8-10% (it is measured with a special device). In the video you can see how one or another sort of wood will look in the house interior.
Boards that you’re going to use for building the staircase for the house should be stored in the room intended for its installation at least a week to adapt the material to the environment.
After watching the video, choosing the material, making calculations, and finishing the preparatory works, you can start to work on the building.
Manufacture and installation
The simplest option of a hand-made staircase is an installation of saddled stairs. To build the monolithic stairs, you should invite the professional, and to facilitate the work, you can make templates of all details and use them as a sample (after adjusting their size). At first, you should build the first stringer and install it in the inter-floor stab, fixing with bolts. The perfect option involves a stringer fixed on the supporting beam. Then you should mark the steps. In the video, you can see how to make it successful.
Steps should be mounted to the stringer. This can be done in different ways– on special angles, spikes, etc. The next stage is the railings. You can buy them ready. However, it is much more pleasant to build them with your own hands. If you couldn’t choose the style in advance, you have to make a decision right now. You should look at the step-by-step photos or videos, which shows the process of manufacturing the railings and decide how to proceed in this particular case. After fastening the railings and painting, the staircase for the house is considered ready.
We invite the experienced specialists and all those who wish to build a high-quality staircase with their own hands to share opinions in the comments.
