Temporary stairs?

[readiescards]

Misses wants some fancy oak stairs, but these need to be fitted after plastering completed.

 

Question: what is the normal practice to allow safe easy access to the second floor?  A cheap set of stairs from ebay or just leave the trades struggling on a loose ladder?

[Gone West]

I made a simple ladder stairway out of 4 x 2. It is about 700mm wide and fixed at the top. The BCO checked it was fixed and was happy for all to use it. It's been there for six years no problems and hopefully in the next couple of months will be replaced with the proper staircase!

[Nickfromwales]

Cheapy one off eBay or gum tree. A ladder will not suffice. Health and safety would have a field day and you'd also have to get some form of mechanical handling sorted for carrying plasterboard a etc as a ladder won't have the weight capacity.

 

On 27 August 2016 at 08:42, PeterStarck said:

I made a simple ladder stairway out of 4 x 2. It is about 700mm wide and fixed at the top. The BCO checked it was fixed and was happy for all to use it. It's been there for six years no problems and hopefully in the next couple of months will be replaced with the proper staircase!

 

I did the same on an extension so we didn't have to go through the existing house. I used 9x2" for the sides and treads with glue and chunky screws. Carried all the sheet material up it so two guys and gear at a time without a creak. Securing it well top and bottom is of equal importance as it doesn't matter how strong the stairs are if they aren't secured properly. Pay close attention and inspect it weekly, ( as if you provide it you'll be responsible for making sure it's safe and for keeping it that way ). 

 

[ProDave]

I have a "scaffold staircase"  6 "treads" each 2 scaffold boards wide, and 0.5m rise per "step"

 

So it's big steps put perfectly do able to walk up them, and big items can be lifted up a "step" at a time. That's how all my windows got up to be fitted from inside.

 

I'm out all day but I'll try and post a picture this evening.
 

[TerryE]

I used a couple of unused roof rafters as stringers and made up 13 stair cassettes in a jig again out of some left over floor board and OSB.  Cutting the bits was trivial, given that I have a table-saw and chop-saw.  The design, cutting and jigs were my work.  Each cassette was made of two parallelograms of OSB, a floorboard tread with under brace.  Jan assembled the cassettes (screw and glue), and then screwed them into the stringers one-by-one from the bottom working to the top.  When she got to the top, all that remained was to add the rails.

 

Here is the final result below.  It's pretty steep because the final stair will include a ¼ turn, and this was a straight span.  Still, a damn sight easier to go up and down than a ladder or the like.  We added rails and the 1st staircase was going to be used a lot more so I did do this as a ¼ turn.  OK,  I am a pretty handy carpenter, but doing this is easy and the cost for me was a box of wood bolt fixings, so about £5 IIRC.  The rest was leftovers from the frame erection.   The stairs are designed to be taken apart for plastering and reinstalled until we fit our permanent stairs after we've painted the halls. 

 

I personally take a different view to Dave and Peter.  If you are anything like us, then you'll be going up and down the stairs 100s off times carrying kit.  You need proper stairs and banister rails, even if temporary.  If you aren't confident making your own then do as Nick suggests as buy a cheap flight on eBay or whatever.

 

My only regret is that if I'd realised that we were going to use the stairs for a year then I'd have built a ¼ turn upper stair as well (to bring the pitch under 45%).

Edited August 27, 2016 by TerryE

[Onoff]

I made something very similar to TerryE but for access to my kids tree house a few years ago (10+?) before the spiral one that's on there now. Proper dimns on the rise and going. 42deg pitch rings a bell. I too made up a jig and routered all the stringers to accept the treads. The jig was designed to suit my router base. Worked a treat but I let it fall into disrepair over the years. Out of 8"x2" from memory. I do remember putting some (3?) lengths of studding from side to side to keep everything together just in case  as well as gluing and screwing the treads in. I've only just scrapped it tbh but think there is a couple of steps section lying about, I'll grab a pic later. Doddle tbh.

[Bitpipe]

HerbJ negotiated site stairs as part of his MBC package - I wrangled the same deal. They're a standard set of Jewsons MDF and softwood stairs.

 

We've had to pop them out a few times to facilitate flooring and plastering /painting works and you really feel the difference having to use ladders instead.

 

We will replace them with 'fancy' stairs in due course (just getting final quote now) but even though practically all decorating and other 'dirty' works are complete we wont have them installed until everyone is off site and we have fully moved in.

[Stones]

10 hours ago, TerryE said:

I personally take a different view to Dave and Peter.  If you are anything like us, then you'll be going up and down the stairs 100s off times carrying kit.  You need proper stairs and banister rails, even if temporary.  If you aren't confident making your own then do as Nick suggests as buy a cheap flight on eBay or whatever.

 

+1.  I've just ordered my staircase for this reason, although in reality, as the staircase only serves one small room, the actual need for it is probably quite limited.  

 

[ProDave]

Here's my "scaffold stairs" that are serving me at the moment.  I think part of the reason for me not wanting to fit a temporary set of real stairs, is mine will have a half landing and return, so it's a lot more complicated than just bang in a cheap set of mdf stairs.

But here is what you can make cheaply.  These are my garage stairs in my present house. the upstairs of the garage is technically only a storage platform so these are not meant to comply with regulations. they are in effect a permanent ladder.  they are made from leftover bits of 8 by 2, and (you can tell I am not a joiner) each tread is just fixed to the stringer with three 6" nails.

 

[Onoff]

This is a couple of steps I made with the same home made router jig as the full set I scrapped. Each tread set in about 1/2" and the stringers through housed. Then 6mm screws in from the sides with glue:

 

 

 

 

 

 

One option I did consider was say a 9"x3" as a single, central "stringer" then thick treads set into that. 

Edited August 28, 2016 by Onoff

[readiescards]

In the end I went with a Speedistair from Ladders999, really pleased with it. Hope to sell it on afterwards too

[ProDave]

How much did that cost?

 

 

[readiescards]

£550 + VAT + free 2 day delivery 

[Frogeye]

I got a straight flight from Howdens for £120 + vat, it wasn't worth thinking about getting the chippie to make one at this price. They seem to sell on ebay at £80 ish second hand, so I should get some cashback at the end of the build.

(added to the thread as an information source only!!)

[jack]

2 hours ago, Frogeye said:

I got a straight flight from Howdens for £120 + vat, it wasn't worth thinking about getting the chippie to make one at this price. They seem to sell on ebay at £80 ish second hand, so I should get some cashback at the end of the build.

(added to the thread as an information source only!!)

 

We did the same, although bear in mind that they only come in one or two standard sizes. If you have a higher than usual first floor you may need to make some sort of extension.

[Declan52]

Or set the bottom up on a few blocks and make another step out of a few more.

[Frogeye]

Yes, that is true. Ours had a couple of 'pallet steps' under it

[readiescards]

 

[Nickfromwales]

Job done ? . 

[TerryE]

Nice ladder Almost as good as my approach at a price of £0.00 (+ £0.00 VAT of course)!

[Nickfromwales]

All depends on how you valued the time it took to make yours  

[TerryE]

Not really, it took less than a day to make and fit the stair.  I am sure that it took some time to fit the metal stair. I don't cost my time at anything like £600 a day.

[PeterW]

So like @TerryE we have made some temporary stairs. Downside is we need a double winder as the permanent ones and I'm not up to building one of those but given it's only an off cut of Egger and 4 pieces of spare 8x2 and some rails I'm pretty pleased with it ..!

 

 

 

I've got a joiner on site who usually does 2nd fix but he's been worth his weight in gold as he happily cut this lot from a quick sketch - no it's not to building regs but it doesn't half make it easier to get things up and down stairs ..!! 

 

 

[Guest Alphonsox]

This is exactly what we put in place as a temporary stair (built by the timber frame crew). It lasted for over two years before being replaced with the final stair. So much easier and safer than using a ladder.

[Pete]

Exactly what I propose to do when our frame goes up. Definitely make life easier especially where the ladies are concerned!