"philip cosson" wrote in message
...
Hi,

I'm trying to find out the strength required for the top support for a
set of albini and fontanot modular stairs. The stairs are called
snipped

Has anyone used these stairs in any project? what did you do? where is
the weight mostly? hanging from the top or transfered to the bottom?
what is the assumed load on a stair, besides it's own weight?

Any help would be really appreciated...

Cheers

Philip

A staircase is like a ladder and, depending on its construction, should be used in the
same sort of way. A ladder is placed against a solid object that is known not to be
so weak as allow the ladder to fall through it. So your staircase would need to be
like the ladder against a wall, but remember that the support is going to take the
weight of the stair and also more than one person using it at a time.

The other specification for a ladder is that it be supported at the bottom to prevent
it from slipping away from the support of its angle, i.e. the wall. So your staircase
will need to be fixed at the bottom to stop it slipping away from the top support that
you know is going to take the weight which you want the stairs to take.

If you have a landing at the top of the staircase that you know takes the weight of
many people standing on it at one time, then I'm sure you could assume that this
landing will be suitable to support the top of the stairs.

If you know that the floor you're setting the bottom of the staircase on to is
suitable to take the weight of many people standing on it, then you could also assume
that fixing the staircase to it, so that it will not slip away when in use, should
also be fine.

Now, depending on how flexible your staircase is, just like a ladder, you should be
able to work out how many supports it needs to stop it breaking in between the top and
bottom supports when people are running up and down on it.