Tag Archives: steel

Stair Fabrication

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Yesterday we prepped and welded the stair for the house.  As often talked about with regards to 701, there has always been a balance between off the shelf products and custom work for the house.  The stair is an instance where we felt we could create a piece that would be unique to the house and really work well with the design, layout, and interior finishes in the house.  The opportunity to custom fabricate the stair really gave us the opportunity to develop a stair that would really complement the space and become a feature in the house.

Early Stair Schematic

As you can see, the design consists of two 5″ deep steel channels as the stringers with 3′ wide, 3/8″ thick flat plate spanning between the two stringers acting as the treads.  The plates extend beyond the face of the channels 5″ to create a visible and interesting stair profile from the side view.  The design is driven by the desire to have a small profile stair that does not dominate the space it is to go in.  The risers will be left open so as you enter into the front door of the house, you see right through the stair and out a window into the backyard.  The design reinforces the open, light, semi-industrial nature of the interior of 701.

Further, the plan is to cap each of the steel treads with wood, the Purebond plywood to also be used on the second floor.  This will do a couple things for us.  One, it will tie the stair into the upstairs and be a nice transition from the concrete floor downstairs to the wood floor upstairs, and, two, it softens the industrial nature of the stair to create a nice contrast between the raw steel and softer wood.

Drew welding stair treads

Tread Welding

Drew welding

*A special thanks to Drew Garrison for all of the welding.  The stair has turned out fantastic and will really be a great addition to the house, both in terms of its design and its craft.