Back in December, I put together the first flight of stairs (11 treads including the first landing). Now, with the second story is nearly complete, I focused recently on installing the second landing and the remaining flight of stairs (4 treads).
The first step was to build the second landing. Because the access passage to the garage was directly below the second landing, there wasn’t enough clearance to traditionally frame it out. So, I built the landing itself from a sandwinch panel and then laid it between a metal ledger and a 2x riser. The sandwinch panel consisted of 2×4’s laid width-wise between 1/2″ plywood on the bottom side and 3/4″ plywood on the top, screwed and glued together.
The next step was to cutout and install the stair stringers. Because there wasn’t a lot of vertical clearance, I cut the stringers from 2×10 stock and then doubled an uncut 2×10 on the outside of both stringers to beef them up.
The last step was to glue and screw on the rough tread and risers using 3/4″ plywood. Overall, I’m satisfied with the results!
Elsewhere, I’ve been working on layout and prepration for installing the trusses for the first story roof. They are not on order yet but they will be this week, Lord willing. It’s taken about 3 months of back-and-forth with the truss dealer correcting the layout and fine-tuning the truss design. It’s easy to miss key details, and this will be a hip roof so it’s not the simpliest layout. Not having a ton of building experience hasn’t helped me, either.
While I wait for the trusses, I’ve been catching up on a lot of small odds and ends that I passed over in the main framing push. One small task was to frame and install the parapet wall around the small second story patio earlier this month.
I also broke away from the work for a weekend in later May to attend a conference at Polyface Farm in Virgina as well as meet my new nephew! The little man is growing by the day! My prayer is that he grow strong and will know and believe in faith that the LORD is his righteousness (Jer. 23:6).
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Rom 10:10
