The day finally came this week when the stairs were complete. In our original discussions with the contractor this was meant to be done back in July of last year, when we were down in Adelaide visiting Tamara’s Pop when he had a stroke.
We are glad they are finally done, but they are interesting in how they have been completed so that the second set of stairs complies with council regulations. Check them out…
This is the first flight of stairs, with the original normal treads.
This is a closeup of the tread from the first flight of stairs.
Here is the second flight of stairs, with extra reinforcement added to the treads to make them extra thick at the front. Also notice the radically different colour of the strair treads. They are the same kind of timber tread, but some have been weathered a lot more.
Here is a closeup of the tread on that second flight of stairs. Notice that it has the extra attachment added to the front of the tread. I think that might be because the tread was plained down too much and made too thin, but that is only speculation.
So they are finally done, and should pass council inspection, but they aren’t real pretty. The third flight of stairs is similar to the first flight, so the second flight is the odd one out.
Tags: Stairs, Contractors
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2nd set of stairs have the extra thickening not for reinforcing, but so that the maximum opening between treads is 125mm. Require by the Building Code of Australia.
Thanks L, I was wondering if that might be the case. I don’t really understand though why the stairs weren’t just built properly in the first place to avoid adding the extra bit in front to decrease the space between the treads…
What option did you go with for internal stairs- After so much rain we have finally decided to go back to our original plan and put the stairs inside our modern Qldr.. Did you source them locally? Is it a handyman job? and yes we also will need a more narrow than usual step as will go into what was once a bedroom/office. cheers
Hi Anne, sorry for the delay getting back to you.
If I had known how much our external stairs would have cost, knowing we were also planning on internal stairs, I would not have done the external stairs. They cost close to $15,000 if I remember correctly, and I would have preferred to have put that money towards a new kitchen or something.
Here is what our final stairs looked like, https://www.renovateaustralia.com/2008/09/15/internal-staircase-construction-complete/. We were quite happy with them and had them done by a local builder.
I think that because the regulations are so strict about stairs I would not try to do it myself, but that probably reflects my lack of skills when it comes to building.
Here is a better photo of the finished and painted staircase:
https://www.renovateaustralia.com/2008/10/12/our-finished-open-tread-staircase/