Over the years, Affordable Custom Welding has worked on a few stairs project for homes and businesses but our latest project is one for the books! We had a great time tackling this custom stairs project!
For the stairs, there are a couple of things that make these a little cooler than normal. First, this is the first time we’ve used a CAD program to make a set of stairs. Typically, they are done from scale drawings which are time-consuming and involve a lot of math that is easy to mess up and waste time and effort, and money fixing. The CAD program gave us all the angles, the rise and runs, and the stair risers.
Because the stringers are underneath the steps, normal stair calculators won’t work, so the CAD program helped immensely. Also, because the stringers were underneath, the steps need special risers. Since the whole thing was designed in a CAD program, we were able to make the risers the perfect size and angle and add a little design flair to them as well. We used one of the plasma table CAD programs so we were able to take the file from the CAD program and cut the risers out of 1/2″ steel plate on the plasma table. The big advantage to that is every single one was identical, so there were no compounding errors like you would end up with handmade risers.
The other cool part of this set of stairs is that the landing appears to be floating; once the walls are sheet-rocked, there will be no visible support for the landing. We did this by installing two 4×4 posts inside the wall framework to support the front of the landing. The back is supported on the wall studs, which are doubled 2 x 6s, with tabs with bolts through the studs. The landing is made from 12-inch C Channel, so the tabs on the back to the studs are hidden, and the sides of the landing are welded directly to the posts in the walls, which will be covered when the walls are finished.
Once construction is further along, we will install round-tube handrails with horizontal metal pickets. The steps will be stained hickory bolted through attachments on the risers. The landing will also be stained hickory.
Stay tuned for more pictures of this unique custom stairs project in the future!