August 3, 2007

stairway to heaven

ok, that's a bit of a stretch but they are basically level

we decided to straighten the stairs from the parlor to the 3rd floor
and right up front, i must apologize for not having taken a "before" picture
(to say nothing of not documenting the entire process)

2 excuses
first i never thought they were so bad,
i might have even found them "charming"
but they bothered g/ immensely and i'm sure he's right;
once the house is done, they would have appeared totally askew.
second, it was one of those things that happened without too much warning
all of a sudden there was a day when the regular crew wasn't going to be on the 3rd floor so it was possible for the stair guys to come in and do their thing
and that happened to be a day when i couldn't be around...

so all i have to offer are the "after" pix

the top of the stairs,
that gap gives you a good idea of how much they had to be shifted

basically the process is:

• first the panel covering the underside of the steps was removed exposing the the steps from underneath


• next the connection between the top and bottom posts was cut


• and then the connection between the top and bottom of the stairs to the floor was cut


• this left the whole stair virtually hanging off the wall


• two jacks were used, one at the top and one at the bottom, to maneuver the stairs until they were level


• The steps were reattached to the posts and floor


• and shimmed where they had pulled away from the support underneath

another image showing how big an adjustment was made
once the steps were straightened, the banister was bowing
so they had to cut it and reattach it at a higher point

the finished product in a very unfinished state

Posted by neene at 9:24 PM | Comments (8)
Categories: house, house

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.brownstoner.com/mte/mt-tb.cgi/1775

Comments