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Tips & Techniques

Pivoting Porch Stairs Conceal Storage Space

Issue 232 - Dec 2012/Jan 2013

Our porch has a set of stairs in front and another on the side off the driveway. The space under the porch is adequate to house my utility trailer, so I decided to replace the rotted side steps with a door to conceal the trailer. My wife, however, wanted to keep those convenient side steps. The solution was a set of pivoting stairs. Building the stairs was easy, but I wondered how to swing them out of the way.

After discarding many ideas as inadequate in strength or appearance, I stumbled upon the fact that 1½ -in. galvanized pipe fits smoothly inside 2-in. PVC pipe. I bought a piece of galvanized pipe long enough to fit, with flanges, the 8-ft. distance between the floor joists that would house the new steps, and an equivalent length of PVC pipe. They became my hinge-pin mechanism.

Pivoting Porch Stairs

As shown in the drawings, I made loops out of 1-1/2-in.-wide galvanized perforated strapping to make the hinge straps. I wrapped the straps around the PVC and then attached them with 1/4-in.-dia. bolts to 2×6 hangers. The four hangers—one for each stringer—are bolted in turn to the stair’s header.

The top riser conceals the axle, and it’s removable. To pivot the stair upward, I remove the top riser and use a block and tackle hooked to a big eyebolt on the bottom riser.

Nicholas Kent Kadick, Syracuse, NY

Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller

From Fine Homebuilding #232

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  1. User avater
    BGodfrey | Oct 25, 2018 01:48pm | #1

    So you've got an 8' wide stairway hanging from some plumbing straps? Ingenious, but it seems a bit insubstantial to me. Have you bumped down these steps with a refrigerator or piano?

  2. User avater
    COcarpenter | Apr 23, 2021 01:34pm | #2

    I had the same concern, I have seen some very old plumbing strap that was very beefy, but all the newer stuff seems very flimsy. Perhaps we are missing something, but if the stairs did fail, while under load, someone could get seriously hurt. Otherwise I love clever storage ideas.

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