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We are starting back building curved stairs after a 12 year break. The previous shop never appeared concerned with code as far as tread length and walk lines. Now I look at the code – CABO – and it is difficult to understand and renders almost all stairs I’ve ever built or seen unbuildable today. Am I missing something? The competition always puts it back to the builder with the phrase “code compliance is builder’s responsibility.”
Has anyone had any experience along these lines? It appears that one can perhaps call the stairs “winders” or “spiral” and get past the most stringent run lengths as detailed in “curved stairs,” but who is defining these different classes of stairs? How can you build a 2′ inside radius stair 4′ wide to rise 11′?
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Dave: A stairway turning through 270 degrees should work nice if this you can place the starting step 270 from your top step. If you divide up 132 inches with 18 risers, you would have 17 treads that had an arc of 15.88 degrees tread. This would give you a comfortable 6.65 inch inside skirt run length.If you go in 15 inches where your walking line rin is figuted, in this case 24 plus 15, 39 inch radius, you have a very nice run of 10.81 inches. The outer end of the tread is 19.95 inches. Goy yo go. Leaving for a ballgame. Hope this helps.
*Stan, I've always figured the "walking line" at 15" from the inside of the rail. Sometimes I'm told that the codes use a different dimension, like 12" from inside of rail, or sometimes 16". My question: are you using 15" because you know it's comfortable, or is it a code somewhere?blue
*Blue: I always use 15 inches also, it feels right. In our area, code says that the run of the tread has to be at least 9.0 inches on a line 12 inches from the center of the rail. This is just a standard here and not the walking line run. I like to have my run at the walking line 10 inches or better.
*I'm in agreement that the "line of travel" (that's my term) should be at least 10" at 15" in from the rail. I have had to build a set or two, that were only 9" at 12" in from the rail. It's damn scary.blue
*Blue: I was on a curved stairway once that had the smallest run of any stairs I had ever seen. This house was out in the country where there had to have been no code. Anyway, I measured in from the rail 15 inches, and the run here was 7.75 inches. This forced you to walk 2 feet from the rail to get any kind of footing.
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We are starting back building curved stairs after a 12 year break. The previous shop never appeared concerned with code as far as tread length and walk lines. Now I look at the code - CABO - and it is difficult to understand and renders almost all stairs I've ever built or seen unbuildable today. Am I missing something? The competition always puts it back to the builder with the phrase "code compliance is builder's responsibility."
Has anyone had any experience along these lines? It appears that one can perhaps call the stairs "winders" or "spiral" and get past the most stringent run lengths as detailed in "curved stairs," but who is defining these different classes of stairs? How can you build a 2' inside radius stair 4' wide to rise 11'?