I need help laying out stairs for the barn. I need to build a set of stairs to get to the attic, the floor of which is 92 inches from the ground floor. Every “stair building guide” I’ve read has me building a stair case that runs horizontally for at least 12-14 feet using the 7-11 ratio. This will be an occasional use staircase to access storage. What is a safe tread depth and riser height that will occupy the minimum floor space(and still not be a ladder)? Thanks in advance.
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Domanico,
What will you be needing to store upstairs, Large easiest carried up a straight run, or smaller stuff?
Most everything but nothing bigger than a person would carry into a normal attic(in an older home). Saw a comment on "jeffersonian" stairs - the treads oppose each other so that it's more like two ladders next to each other. It sounds as if it can be build at about a 65 degrees slope. can't find any plans for it on the web. I want fixed stairs not the drop down type.
I dont know what the proper name is but I was thinking of a set of stairs that go up halfway then a landing and turn around to go up the rest of the way, if you were concerned about lenght?
If you use 7.66" {about 7 5/8"} for a rise it will give you 12 risers. For storage over a barn, You may find a 2x10 tread will do. This will measure 9 1/4". Use 8" of run, 7 5/8" rise, with a 1 1/4" tread overhang and you will need 88" of run for the stairs. This would be too steep for code purposes in your house but if code isn't a concern, I think you could live with this. Remember to give enough head room {6'10" in my area by code}. As I said this wouldn't be an advisable stair for living area but I've seen alot steeper stairs in many older homes including where I grew up.
Bish
Dom,
I think you are confusing run with tread depth. I you use a 9" run with 2x12 treads which will give you an 11.25 " tread depth but not the long run. You are calculating your run using the cumulative tread depth which is not correct. Each tread should have an overhang or they will be hard to climb. You said your rise is 92"so that means twelve treads at 7 11/16 . The upstairs floor will act as the 12th tread so that means a run of 99" (11 times 9" ) plus the overhang of the last tread. You can use 1x8s for risers. This combination of rise and run will yield a stair with an incline of approximately 40 degrees which is quite comfortable to climb and decend. REmember when you lay it out to decuct the thickness of the tread from the bottom riser or your first step will be a tread thickness too high and the last will be a thickness too low. You probably already know that but as it is an easy mistake to make I thought I'd remind you. Let us know how you make out. Also that combination of rise/run will pass code.
mark
Edited 12/17/2002 10:05:43 PM ET by the professor
Dom
Have you considered stairs on the outside of your building?
J.
Domanico,
The old rules of thumb for stairbuilding are as follows:
rise + run = 17" to 18"
run + twice the rise = 24" to 26"
If you take your 92" floor-to-floor measurement and divide by 12 (number of risers), you'll get 7.666", which is fine. Using the guides above, you'll come up with a minimum run of about 9.333" (17-7.666).
As Mark pointed out above, these numbers refer to the unit rise and run - not the depth of the tread itself, which overhangs an inch or so to make things more comfortable.
12 risers come with 11 treads (the 12th being the second floor). 11 x 9.333" = 102.667" which is about 8'-6-11/16" total run.
This is a lot less than the 12 or 14 feet you were initially reckoning with and will give you a stair design that meets the tried-and-true standards. Is 8-1/2 feet a workable length for you?
I've also built a Jeffersonian staircase before, but if you have the room available, I'd definitely recommend the more conventional staircase described above.
Ragnar
yes i can live with 8.5' and thanks for the comment on the Jeff steps.