Tag: clearance

Stair Planning Redux

May 12, 2014 / / 2 Comments

Almost exactly a year ago I spent some time working out where the stairs would go and how exactly they would be configured. This was because the original design work I did had overlooked some issues that the architect caught, but in so doing he caused a lot of other problems. For example, in the approved drawings we have there’s only 5′ 10″ of headroom on the first floor landing. So I recalculated everything last year and had worked out a plan that was pretty good. I used that plan to position and size the basement stair opening.

However, since then I have leveled the first floor subfloor, which means the height from the first floor to the second is slightly different than it was when I made my calculations. Not only that, but if I plan to level the second floor as well I need to consider its height when it’s done rather than its height now.

Stair Planning

Stair planning with minimum required headroom

Another factor is that I read up on load and span limits for the stair stringers. Since the opening for the basement stairs prevents me from having any intermediate support for the first floor stairs, they need to be able to span the whole distance to the first landing, which is nearly ten feet. That means I need to use 1 ¾” x 14″ thick, 1.55E stringers, which are bigger than I planned. That affects the headroom in the landing going down to the basement. Finally, the rise for each step must be equal and no more than 7¾”. The current rise floor-to-floor  averages about 10’11” (131″). I can’t fit more than 17 steps, so the closest rise match is 7 ¾” for a total rise of 131 ¾”. I guess I’ll just level the second floor to that height.

So, I went back to my model in Sketchup and started re-working the plans. I got a bit frustrated because I was spending a lot of time drawing things out just to figure out it wouldn’t work. I finally realized I need to draw the required headroom and clearance, so I could see how much space I needed.

Second floor stairs

Second floor stairs

Once I did that, it started to come together. It’s a tight fit between the multiple stories, roof slope, and other available space restrictions. There are a couple of things that are less than ideal. In the picture above you can see that the second floor landing will need to be notched so there’s enough headroom coming up from the first floor, but structurally it will be fine. There’s also the roof pitch clipping a triangle of headroom above that landing, and the stringers which are notched onto the edge of the landings rather than completely on top to provide enough space to meet code.

The good news is that I can figure this out on the computer and that it will all meet code requirements and I should be able to get a queen-size mattress up the stairs (and not bonk my head on the underside of the landing). Now I can get my LSL stringers on order and start framing the first floor landing.

Stair Planning

May 15, 2013 / / 0 Comments

We’ve got two parallel tracks for the next little while: framing the first floor and the mechanical room plumbing. For now I’m working on the framing. My friend Matt B. will be down tomorrow and Friday to help work on the house, so we’ll be tackling the opening for the stairs in the first floor. In order to be ready I had to go back over the stair calculations, re-measure everything and come up with the final plan and position of the stairs. The stairs are extremely complicated because everything has ripple effects and there are some tight constraints.

Stair Planning

Stair planning

For example, the first floor stairs will go straight up to a landing, turn right 90° and go up the remainder. The bottom of that landing needs to be more than 80″ above the floor so that we can put the stairs down to the basement underneath it. The stairs from the second floor to the attic are above the first floor stairs. Those stairs have a landing directly above the first floor stair landing. We need at least 80″ from the top of the first floor landing to the bottom of the second floor landing plus another 80″ from the top of that landing up to the roofline, and there needs to be a consistent rise and run to the stairs to allow them to get to the correct height at the correct place.

To further complicate things, the brick foundation is thicker than the frame walls, so the finished first floor wall will be 9″ from the finished basement wall. In order to have the minimum 36″ stair width going down to the basement, the stairs above them must be wider, which means the landing must be wider and deeper, and the stairs from the landing to the second floor have that much less space to go up the remaining distance because they can’t go through the LVL beam we just put in. Despite all of that, we did have some play in where the stairs could go front-to-back. Moving them back makes the front bedroom on the second floor bigger, but the coat closet, pantry, and walk-in closet in the master suite smaller. We eventually figured it out.

First floor stair opening

First floor stair opening

Despite the stick drawing of the stairs, I did account for the head room under the stairs after stringers and drywall. Everything checks out, but it’s very close to the 6′ 8″ minimum height. I’d really like to have more clearance, not just for tall people but for moving furniture, but unfortunately there’s no good way to fit more in without building a dormer in the attic above the stairwell, something we really don’t want to do.

The stairs from the first floor to the second will be 42″ wide with 11″ treads (including a 1″ bullnose). From the floor to the landing they’ll rise 7 ⅝” per step, and from the landing to the second floor they’ll rise 8″. The stairs to the attic and basement will have an 8″ rise and a 10″ tread. We’ll build the stairs from framing lumber (rimboard for the stringers, OSB for the risers and treads), and eventually cover them with finishing treads and risers that match our floors.

New Electric Service

December 29, 2012 / / 1 Comment
New Electric Panel

New Electric Panel

Let’s take a break from the beam project for a moment. I often post incremental progress on our many simultaneous undertakings, but I’d like to be able to have each post be about one topic. It was that line of thinking that had me holding off on posting about our upgraded electric service. See, it was supposed to be simple. For one, we hired someone to do it. To be more specific, we hired someone in July. I held off posting about it because I was waiting until it was finished, so I could have a start-to-finish post on one topic. I didn’t realize we were in store for an epic saga of electric company obstinacy. If I had, I’d have posted along the way. Instead, here in December, I’m going to give you one big post about how we got our electric service upgraded. Unfortunately, I don’t remember all of the dates.

The story starts with us selecting contractors. We had met Percy, our electrician, at an open house hosted by Marcus and Cathy. They had hired Percy to do their work and from what we could see of it, he’d be perfect for what we needed. At the time we were hoping it would be possible to get the radiant heat installed this fall, and so getting new electric service was a priority. Percy quoted us the new 200 amp service with a new breaker panel and whole-house surge suppressor and we hired him.

Right on time, Percy and his assistants arrived and spent a day and half installing the new equipment, moved all the breakers into the new panel, and put the service pipe on the side of the house for the new service to connect to. Everything was done very well. Lots of clamps securing everything, neat connections and professional work all around. We originally had two meters (for the two flats) on the side of back porch. Because we’re eventually removing and replacing the whole back porch, we wanted to put the meter on the house itself. After some discussion with Percy, he put the meter box about three feet from where the old one was.

Percy told us that ComEd (our power company) would be out in a couple of weeks to hook up the new line from the pole. Two weeks came and went but there had been some storms that had knocked out power for people so we waited a bit longer. Then, one Saturday morning I got a phone call that someone from ComEd would be there to perform an inspection in a few minutes. I met the inspector along the side of the house and he succinctly told me that the location of the meter wouldn’t work. It was too close to the neighbors house, too close to their meter, and it was too close to the property line. I should explain here that we have a sidewalk along each side of the house. One (on the South side) is our sidewalk and one (on the North) is our neighbors’. The meter box was along the neighbors’ sidewalk, and our house sits right on the property line. It never occurred to us this was a problem because the old meter was along that side as well.

The inspector left and we called Percy. He said he would call ComEd and get it straightened out. He explained that he could appeal but it might take several weeks. We told him that was fine and waited. Eventually, in late August or early September, he was told that it would in fact need to be moved more than three feet from the neighbors’ meter. That meant that Percy had to come back and spend a whole day moving the box and the pipe three feet over and re-run the cable.

A week or so later the inspector from ComEd came back and this time Percy met him there. He said that while it was now far enough from the other meter, and he could forgive the distance to the other house, once a meter was put into the box it would be over the property line (by approximately three inches), and he couldn’t pass it. The only place the meter could go was the other side of the house, along our sidewalk. With no recourse, Percy came back and spent another day and a half again moving the pipe and meter box, this time to the opposite side of the house, adding a cutoff switch in the basement because the meter box was now more than five feet from the breaker. Because the line from the alley was still connected on the other side, he had to run temporary wires around the back of the porch to connect to the new pole.

The inspector was due out, but we never saw any sign of him. Instead we got a letter from ComEd that because we no longer had a working meter (just the box for it) they were going to disconnect our electricity. Sarah called ComEd and we were told not to worry about that. They said the inspector had not approved it because the wire that would connect from the house to the alley would run past the window on the porch. She explained that the porch was going to be removed, but they said unless we could tear it down now, that didn’t matter. Finally, they agreed that if we boarded up the window it would be acceptable.

The inspector finally came back out and reluctantly, as if searching for any excuse to deny it, approved the work. We thought that now, finally, we were in the clear. By now it was October. The next visit from ComEd was supposed to install the new wire to the alley, but the guy that arrived looked at the house and told us they couldn’t do it because there wasn’t enough room to safely put a ladder against the side of the house, and then left. A few days later a man arrived from ComEd to install the new meter and told us he couldn’t because the wiring around the back of the porch wasn’t safe. We explained it was temporary, but he said he couldn’t install the meter and left.

A series of phone calls to ComEd got a visit from the foreman who reiterated that they couldn’t safely put a ladder against the house and the only way to do it would be to bring in a scissor lift. They measured the clearance and determined it wouldn’t fit through the back gate and wouldn’t fit between the house and the neighbors fence at the front.

We asked it it could be brought through the garage, since we have an overhead door that opens to the yard. He wasn’t sure how tall the lift was and said he’d let us know. Further phone calls revealed it was too tall. Finally, Sarah told them we would remove the section of the back fence adjacent to the gate so they could bring in the scissor lift.

Removing the back fence

Removing the back fence

All of this brings us to early December. I pried off the concrete along the edge of the sidewalk and dug out the post for the fence, which unlike much of our house was actually done well, with a concrete footing nearly three feet into the ground. I finally had to use a 2×4 to lever the thing out of the ground and a sledge hammer to break off the concrete. The next day, the crew from ComEd showed up and used a ladder. They were apologetic about the previous people that told us to dig up our fence, and even helped Sarah put it back in place so she could pour new concrete.

Re-poured fence footing

Re-poured fence footing

Finally, we have new 200-amp electric service. We didn’t wind up getting the radiant heat installed this fall because we didn’t have permits yet and we weren’t far enough along in the other work. Other than meeting code requirements, we probably don’t even need it. However, after countless phone calls and seemingly endless frustration it’s done. Percy, having spent quite a bit of his own time, money, and material dealing with their bureaucracy is considering legal action, but we just want to put it behind us and focus on the next piece of this massive puzzle.