Looks great. as always, David....but fur cryin'-out-loud, we have stud
finders now...( http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/oldstair1.jpg)

r

Hello everyone,

In the first two shots you can see the old staircase in the background
through the old dining room doorway into the main hall. That was the day I
took possession of the house. I had just started banging holes in the walls
to see what was behind them before I went into full demolition mode and
removed all the walls on the main floor. I knew the carpet was coming off
the stairs, but I didn't know what was underneath them. It turns out the
staircase was nothing more than dimensional lumber with carpet on it. Pretty
low end. This would not fit in with my plans for the house.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/oldstair1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/oldstair2.jpg

Once all the demo, structural work, electrical rough in, drywall and new
subfloor were in, I contacted a friend from work who owns a staircase
company about a new staircase. He came over on a Saturday and Katarina and I
talked with him for a couple of hours about what could be built. While the
old staircase may have met code 30 years ago, simple dropping a new one in
today would not. We would need one more tread. He came up with the idea of a
platform at the bottom to get that additional tread. The old staircase had a
wrought iron railing with a plastic cap that went on the outside and bent
inward where the stair went into the ceiling and up to the second floor.
After much discussion we settled on a design. A diminishing railing on the
outside that would die into the ceiling, a full railing on the wall, square
pickets and a panel newel post.

The stair case was supposed to take 4-5 weeks from order to install, but it
took longer. It turns out you can not just go to one of those big square
places and pick up a sheet of Jatoba plywood (for the risers). Once the
custom sheet of Jatoba ply showed up, the staircase was finished and ready
to be put in. I was out of town the day it was to be installed. I was eager
to get home and check it out. Just the main staircase body was installed on
the first day, it was 90%+ built off site. All the railing and trim
materials had been milled oversize and were fitted on site over the next two
days.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair2.jpg

I then had to lay the tile in the entranceway, flooring on the two landings,
finish the trim myself, prep and finish the staircase. I have never spent so
much time on such small areas of flooring. I really am embarrassed to admit
how long those two little platforms took. I bet half the main floor will not
take as long.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair3.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair4.jpg

I shot four coats of Magnalac pre-cat lacquer with a Kremlin HVLP system. A
staircase is probably not the best spray project for a first timer, but it
went well. I only had one run, which was caused by me bumping my head and
stopping the gun. This was sanded down and fixed on the last coat.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair5.jpg

I am very pleased with how things went and I could not be happier with the
outcome.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair6.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair7.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair8.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair9.jpg

I have some time off over the holidays and I hope to get a lot of the 1600
sq ft of Jatoba flooring out of boxes and down on the floor.

My plans to take a 30 year old house and turn it into a 80-100 year old open
concept are taking shape...

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him

Absolutely gorgeous. Looking at them finished, it seems ashamed to
think people will be walking on them with dirty shoes. Nicely done.

Robert

Really nice work - especially for such a skinny dude - make that
thin and wirey.

charlie b

Robatoy wrote in news:53c1efae-6c57-4b09-8495-
:

Looks great. as always, David....but fur cryin'-out-loud, we have stud
finders now...( http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/oldstair1.jpg)

r

Well, it started with this new pencil, you see. As he was working on the
wall, he got called away and it fell in to the wall. Since it was such a
nice pencil, he decided repairing the wall would be easier than getting a
replacement pencil. So, the project began. He just knew the pencil was
in the wall, but didn't know *where*. After a few hours of searching, he
finally found his pencil... in its case on the kitchen table where he
left it when he left.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

"charlieb" wrote in message
...
Really nice work - especially for such a skinny dude - make that
thin and wirey.

charlie b

Very nice work. I hope to be able to get the same result.
I live in a 4 levels side split house. The stairs were originally made with
2" pine finished to 1 1/2" thick with housed treads. Then they were covered
with carpet. Now we would like to do all the floors with hardwood and
installed new treads to match. The problem I have is I can only get
hardwood tread finished to 1 1/16" thk. These will not fit in the housed
grooves made for the 1 1/2" thk. pine tread. As a result that I may have to
made new stringers and groove them to suit the 1 1/16" thk. hardwood treads.
May be there is a way around this that I do not know yet.
I would appreciate any suggestions. TIA

David F. Eisan wrote:
Hello everyone,

In the first two shots you can see the old staircase in the background
through the old dining room doorway into the main hall. That was the day I
took possession of the house.

My plans to take a 30 year old house and turn it into a 80-100 year old open
concept are taking shape...

Very nice!

I did exactly the same project in July, in a different wood. My house
is only 12, though.

There was NO WAY I could have made the existing staircase work with all
the new work, so out it went on a recip saw.

Don't beat yourself up over the time estimates. I've found that small
areas, like stair landings, nooks, and small closets, take far more time
to install flooring than we estimate. No chance to build a rhythm, and
it seems like every board gets cut! My upstairs closets have sloped
ceilings, so the last 12-16" of flooring got installed with me on my belly.

Keep it up!

wrote:
I would appreciate any suggestions. TIA


After going round and round, I tore mine out and replaced the whole
deal, lock, stock, and barrel. In hindsight, it came out far better
than any of the other ideas would have.

Get some quotes. While I was thinking of workarounds, a respected
local stair builder gave me a quote that made it not worth my
aggravation to "learn by doing". As a side benefit, the pro shop came
up with some of the clearest, straightest grain, stringers I've ever seen.

I got to sand the last grit, apply the finish and stringer moldings,
build the newell and railings, and move on with the rest of the house.
I still haven't installed the railings, as I'm still carting hardwood
doors up and down the stairs.

Total time without upstairs access? 9 hours on install day, and 4 more
over two finishing days. G

On Dec 20, 1:30 am, charlieb wrote:
Really nice work - especially for such a skinny dude - make that
thin and wirey.

charlie b

Well, this fat dude (who used to be skinny) adds his congratulations.

Really nice work and very, very nice design. I really like the post
with the applied moldings, the extended rounded last two steps at the
bottom turn are really distinctive, classic and very well
porportioned. It is really worth the time to get excellence in design
so your craftsmanship delivers such a beautiful result. I aspire to
build such nice components into my home some day. Bravo!

I wonder, do you now have a Jatoba hall table with some matching
details in your future for that little wall space under the stringer?
You could use that same rounded detail for the top or maybe a
stretcher shelf that cantalevers at each end and some scaled down
panel posts for legs.

BW


On Dec 19, 9:27*pm, "David F. Eisan"
wrote:
Hello everyone,

In the first two shots you can see the old staircase in the background
through the old dining room doorway into the main hall. That was the day I
took possession of the house. I had just started banging holes in the walls
to see what was behind them before I went into full demolition mode and
removed all the walls on the main floor. I knew the carpet was coming off
the stairs, but I didn't know what was underneath them. It turns out the
staircase was nothing more than dimensional lumber with carpet on it. Pretty
low end. This would not fit in with my plans for the house.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/oldstair1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/oldstair2.jpg

Once all the demo, structural work, electrical rough in, drywall and new
subfloor were in, I contacted a friend from work who owns a staircase
company about a new staircase. He came over on a Saturday and Katarina and I
talked with him for a couple of hours about what could be built. While the
old staircase may have met code 30 years ago, simple dropping a new one in
today would not. We would need one more tread. He came up with the idea of a
platform at the bottom to get that additional tread. The old staircase had a
wrought iron railing with a plastic cap that went on the outside and bent
inward where the stair went into the ceiling and up to the second floor.
After much discussion we settled on a design. A diminishing railing on the
outside that would die into the ceiling, a full railing on the wall, square
pickets and a panel newel post.

The stair case was supposed to take 4-5 weeks from order to install, but it
took longer. It turns out you can not just go to one of those big square
places and pick up a sheet of Jatoba plywood (for the risers). Once the
custom sheet of Jatoba ply showed up, the staircase was finished and ready
to be put in. I was out of town the day it was to be installed. I was eager
to get home and check it out. Just the main staircase body was installed on
the first day, it was 90%+ built off site. All the railing and trim
materials had been milled oversize and were fitted on site over the next two
days.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair1.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair2.jpg

I then had to lay the tile in the entranceway, flooring on the two landings,
finish the trim myself, prep and finish the staircase. I have never spent so
much time on such small areas of flooring. I really am embarrassed to admit
how long those two little platforms took. I bet half the main floor will not
take as long.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair3.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair4.jpg

I shot four coats of Magnalac pre-cat lacquer with a Kremlin HVLP system. A
staircase is probably not the best spray project for a first timer, but it
went well. I only had one run, which was caused by me bumping my head and
stopping the gun. This was sanded down and fixed on the last coat.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair5.jpg

I am very pleased with how things went and I could not be happier with the
outcome.

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair6.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair7.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair8.jpg

http://www.federatedtool.com/david/img/newstair9.jpg

I have some time off over the holidays and I hope to get a lot of the 1600
sq ft of Jatoba flooring out of boxes and down on the floor.

My plans to take a 30 year old house and turn it into a 80-100 year old open
concept are taking shape...

Thanks for looking,

David.

Every Neighbourhood has one, in Mine I'm Him