Tag: stairs

Back Basement Steps

December 2, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Formed steps

Formed steps

Our concrete mason, Mario, was back this past Saturday building the forms for the stairs. He pointed out that the basement drain we put in was too high. Somehow, between the time we put it in and when he came by it had lifted by about an inch, which I confirmed with the laser level. Since I needed to adjust it anyway, he asked if I could center it in the landing because it would be easier for him to slope the landing to it. That meant not just shortening the length of pipe, but adding an elbow that I fortunately already had.

Drain reposition

Drain reposition

I got that taken care of Saturday afternoon, and Mario was back on Monday to do the pour. He wound up tenting the whole operation with a tarp to keep out the rain. Yesterday he came back out to remove the tarp, clear the forms from the basement footing curb, and make sure everything looked good. We’re pretty happy with the finished results, and we plan to bring him back to pour the basement floor once the plumbers finish their work. If you need a concrete mason in the Chicago and Northwest Indiana area, we recommend MG Concrete.

Finished steps

Finished steps

It was snowing this morning when I snapped a photo of the finished stairs. I need to check the basement and see if the drain is working. I also plan to grind down the bit of footing stone that is proud of the landing by a couple inches so we don’t have a tripping hazard. Hopefully I can get some photos of the finished footing curb as well.

Back Basement Steps Drain

November 24, 2015 / / 0 Comments

Mario, our concrete mason, is planning to form and pour the steps and landing outside the back basement door soon. One important feature of the landing is a drain for rain and snow. I’m a bit paranoid about flooding in the basement. I’ve known too many people get water in their basement and cause thousands of dollars of damage to half-ass the drainage when we have the opportunity to do it the right way now. The good news is that even without any weeping system, the old basement never flooded, despite some heavy rainfall. The bad news is that was before we dug it down by a foot, and we’ve definitely had water at that level, though mostly due to bad gutters. I have extensive plans for storm water management with our house, but most of them haven’t been implemented yet.

Catch basin drain

Catch basin drain

Two of the people I know that have had flooded basements live in houses very similar to ours, with a basement door to the outside and steps up to grade. In both cases, water coming in from the back door was a major cause of the flooding, so I want to be extra careful with ours. First, the landing outside the back door is going to be a couple inches lower than the basement floor. Second, I’m using a 6″ catch basin style drain that ties directly to our interior weeping system. The advantage of this style drain is that any debris that gets past the grate settles to the bottom of the drain rather than going down the pipe and causing clogs or problems with the sump pump. Using a 6″ drain means that it will be more difficult for leaves and other debris to clog the grate. Third, rather than center the drain in the landing I put it towards the retaining wall, so that when Mario pours the landing it will slope away from the house. Doing that math on square footage of the stairs and landing, this system will easily handle the 3″ per hour 100-year storm water rate for Chicago as long as the drain doesn’t get completely clogged, and this drain should resist clogging.

Area drain installed

Area drain installed (looking out from basement)

The installation itself was pretty straightforward. We dug out the landing a bit and took out the old concrete threshold at the footing level of the basement door so we could run a trench to the weeping system. A bit of pipe, some stone, and the drain itself went in with a bit of test fitting and trench re-grading.

Ready for stairs and landing

Ready for stairs and landing

Mario came out and put in more stone to prep the area for the steps and the landing. We got some snow over the weekend and a holiday coming up, but hopefully we can get them formed and poured soon.

Back Steps Demo

October 22, 2015 / / 0 Comments
Back steps

Back steps

This project was a quick one, but it portends bigger progress afoot. When we took down our back porch we left the stairs from the first floor down to the ground and the steps from there down to the basement. In fact, I shored up the structure underneath it, Matt B and Dean built a railing for it, and Sarah and Matt B cut a new piece of plywood for the floor of it, all so we could have usable back steps and a way to get from inside the house to the back yard. After I took out the concrete steps that led into the basement to make the ramp, the wooden porch steps to the side remained as a safer way to get in and out of the basement. Well, this past weekend I demolished the back steps.

Demo in progress

Demo in progress

This is in preparation for the new concrete retaining wall and steps that will lead from ground level down to the basement. We’re replacing the existing retaining wall and steps because we want to put a deck on the back of the house, which means the stairs need to go to the left instead of straight or right as they do now.  It actually makes more sense to go to the left anyway, since that’s the side of the house that has the sidewalk to the front.

Steps removed

Steps removed

Once the new wall and stairs are in place, we’ll build some temporary stairs down from the sliding door, since we won’t have the deck for some time. In the mean time we’re going around to the front or climbing in and out, sometimes with the help of a step-ladder. Hopefully the concrete guy will be starting in the next few days and we can get the temporary stairs built in the next few weeks. The plumbers finally started yesterday and I met with some tuck pointers that should be able to fix up the basement door and window openings in a couple of weeks, and last night we picked up the new exterior door for the basement, so we’re making progress on a few fronts.

Porch Stair Removal

September 9, 2014 / / 0 Comments

When I originally started building instead of demoing, I was really looking forward to it. Building gives you a sense of progress that demo does not. After demoing you have a sense of accomplishment, but you can’t really say that things are “better” when you’re done. However, after months of construction, going back to destruction felt really good. While it’s really hard to build right, it’s hard to demo wrong.

Existing porch stairs
First run removed
Landing floor removed
No more stairs

So, what are we doing? The porch stairs are in the way of the new sliding door that we’re putting at the back of the house. I already moved the electrical, and I got the old radiators that had been sitting on the second floor porch down during the week, so taking out the stairs is the next task. They consist of two runs separated by a landing. The landing also needs to come out, and I need to make railings so that everything is safe for our son Derek.

Upper railing

Upper railing

The process went fairly quickly. I started with the upper railing, taking it off the stairs and re-purposing it to the second floor porch. Then with a bit of sledge hammering and prybarring, I took the treads and risers off, top to bottom. Then I pulled out the stringers, using my reciprocating saw to make short work of it. Next was the floor on the landing, followed by the railing, treads and risers on the lower stairs. Then I took down the structure of the landing and the stringer for the lower run. I left the stringer on the outside wall, since the porch isn’t built very well and I didn’t want to loosen anything (such as siding) by prying against the wall. I did cut the stringer back to make room for the lower railing. This one was a bit more involved, since it was an ‘L’ shape, it wasn’t braced on both sides, and the bottom didn’t rest on framing, so I had to add some reinforcement.

Lower railing

Lower railing

With that all done I started cleaning. I wound up filling two toters with the scraps. There wasn’t much that was worth saving, since it was coated in several coats of unknown paints. So far Derek and Emily have tested for low levels of lead and we want to keep it that way. I have a bit more scrap to cut down so that it will fit in the garbage, but otherwise it’s done. I started planning out the sliding door installation, so that’s the next undertaking. Back to construction!

Second Stair Run

August 26, 2014 / / 1 Comment
First stringer

First stringer

With the first run of stairs done and the landing subfloor in place, the next step in the stair project is to build the second run from the landing up to the second floor. This went more smoothly than the first run, partly because I had done it before, partly because I knew going in that the landing wasn’t square, and mostly because it was a shorter run.

Sarah installing risers and treads

Sarah installing risers and treads

I used the laser level to establish distance from the beam and height to the last step. The joist above the beam forms the last step of the stairs, so the stringers rest against it. The stringers also straddle the edge of the landing so that the first step is far enough forward that when the second floor landing is built there will be enough head room. Since I also put down a 2×4 as a kick plate for the stringers, I wound up cutting a zig-zag pattern at the stringer bottoms. As before, I sistered 2x4s to the stringers for added strength, but because these stringers are only 9½” instead of 14″ thick, I had to cut the edge of the 2x4s back slightly to fit against the kick plate.

Tread and riser connection

Tread and riser connection

I cut the treads and risers slightly differently than the first run. I still cut the tongue and groove at the back of the tread so it locks into the riser, but rather than simply having the riser stick up ¼” high at the front and notch the leading edge of the tread, I used the same type of tongue and groove that I used at the back, so the tread actually locks onto the top of the riser. Not only does this fit more snugly, I didn’t have to swap blades on my dado and cut different sizes. In hindsight I should have done that for the first run, but it’s fine. Sarah glued and screwed the risers and treads into place, so all that’s left is to open up the doorway at the top of the stairs and add a temporary railing and door.