hi there…
question for you all – I’m doing some renovations on a heritage home. It’s a commercial project – the space is being renovated to accomodate a new day spa and hair salon. Part of the lease is that we can’t mess with the original home. So – we’re putting in a shower on the second floor and have built a 12″ platform on top of the oak floor to create a chase for the plumbing. To get proper drainage in the shower, the platform needs to be level. The floor slopes 5/8″ over the 5′ width of the platform base, so one end of the platform is 12″, the other is 12-5/8″. My question is – we’re building a 6″step to walk up to the shower, however the height from one end of the step to the other has a 5/8″ height difference. Stairs need to be the same height. Do I split the height across the width of the step – one end being 6″, the other being 6-5/16″, or average the difference and make the stairs one height(6-5/32″)… or is ther another solution you might suggest?….
cheers
dan
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Source control, ventilation, and filtration are the keys to healthy indoor air quality. Dehumidification is important too.
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
Is this just a one-riser step up? Then just run the platform level and don't worry about the difference. The phrase "split the difference" is your friend when working on old houses.
If it's more than one riser, keep the heights the same at the path of travel (probably the center of the tread in this case).
I would make the stair level as is the platform. The fact that the last riser is different will make no difference in this case.
In a full set of stairs the change in height might be a problem( though probably not 5/8") but that is because the walker accustoms themselves to a consistent rise after a couple of steps. There is no chance to do this with just two steps. Unless the riser height was vastly different no one will know.
The entire question and scene makes my head hurt LOL. Thats why I couldn't answer.
Tear the house down! Bob's next test date: 12/10/07
isn't the max. variance 3/8" by code? or does it not matter with one step?...
i don't know about canada (where the op's profile says he's from).
k
There is no saying what interpretation a BI will make though I have never actually had one measure all the risers in a set of stairs. This would probably only come up in the case of an accidental fall and then a variance outside of the code might result in a serious liability problem.
My point is that it takes more than one step for walker to feel the difference in heights to the point where they would stumble if the risers were not perfectly uniform. Since it won't be perfectly uniform no matter what you do in this case, choose whatever solution you think is best and nobody will ever know the difference.
The last commercial job I worked on, the inspector checked everything. (Although, the owners had previously tried to install a 2nd sewer lateral with no permit and got red-tagged, so he was probably being extra persnickety)
I believe if the op wanted to, he could do it so he'd have no more than 5/16th variance from riser to riser.
In this case, I don't actually know if the 3/8" rule even applies, I'll have to look up what the min. # of rises is for that to come into play.
plus, he's in canada.
plus the whole shebang sounds odd to begin with, so it's all probably moot.
k
I'm in western Canada, and I'm pretty sure there is no 3/8 rule. ( Guess it would be a 1 cm. rule?) There is a concept of normal construction tolerances.
Persanally I would split the diff and build the riser 5/16 higher at one end.
As for a run of steps no more then 1/4" between steps is code in my area.
But if this is just two risers and the difference is from one side to the next not between two riser heights you would only notice if you stepped down at the end with the most extreme difference.
If the max is 5/8 over 5 feet then the difference in the center would be 5/16 which is just a little over a 1/4 so you should be OK. you could split the difference but don't think it will matter since most people walk up the center of a step. and the difference is only half of the 5/8 total at that point.