Our build thread, renovation and extension

[Muncher]

Has been stalled a little as I changed the design and the structural engineer took a long while to come back to me to redesign the steels, they have now been ordered and should be delivered now next week.

I am putting in a full sized staircase which runs the length of the garage (far end to the midpoint) which hinges down which is operated by a winch to raise and lower it, so it sits flush within the ceiling when not in use.

Similar to this (skip to 50 seconds in) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd-YL-uppf8

In the meantime the scaffolding is making an excellent viewing platform for the bowls!

[Meeja]

Just catching up after a while away from PH.... Cracking stuff Muncher!

Regarding the garage and security, I would have probably done the same.

I appreciate what others say about a space like that with no windows never having enough light, but with modern LED stuff, you could get that space bathed in daylight white light (rather than normal white light) for relatively little money without huge running costs...

[Muncher]

All of the steels are now fixed in situ including the ridge beam, I just asked my builder to check whether my plan for a genie lift would work and I came home to find that him and his labourer had put them all up by themselves in 2 hours. Not a chance you'd find me at that height trying that but, plenty of brute force and ignorance did the trick!

[Muncher]

[Muncher]

Roof timbers almost finished, I'm absolutely knackered though after 3 days carrying them up there.

[Muncher]

Do we think a pair, or possibly 4 of these at 200mm long would be strong enough to support the top end of a fairly heavy 3.8m long hinged staircase?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-HEAVY-DUTY-STRAP-HIN...

Something like this:

[jke11y]

I would try and find some sort of heavy duty barrel hinges for moving end, then a pair of cables / winches at the lowering / raising end - my worry with those plate hinges would be if you lowered the stair squint it wouldn't take much to kill them.

[Muncher]

They should only ever lower flat due to how the winch will be positioned.

These may look a little better.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pair-2pc-Backflap-Heavy-...

[Peanut Gallery]

Agree with jke11y, also don't forget that when you are standing on the top step your weight + what you are carrying will be going through the hinges as well.

I am thinking about a decent bit of pipe through the stair stringer and through decent rafters either side?

edited 'cause I'm slow

[jke11y]

You've probably found this already but it looks useful http://www.spaco.org/MyShop/StairHinges.htm

[Minemapper]

Where does the winch and cable attach in that scenario?

[Muncher]

Peanut Gallery said:

Agree with jke11y, also don't forget that when you are standing on the top step your weight + what you are carrying will be going through the hinges as well.

I am thinking about a decent bit of pipe through the stair stringer and through decent rafters either side?

edited 'cause I'm slow

That's exactly what I was thinking initially, but when I was drawing it out I couldn't get it to work, the floor is about the same thickness as the rise on each step so I couldn't see how you could put a pole through the middle of the string.

[Muncher]

jke11y said:

You've probably found this already but it looks useful http://www.spaco.org/MyShop/StairHinges.htm

Yes I saw that, metal fabrication isn't my forte however and I suspect paying someone to make them would end up with a very expensive set of hinges.

The winch connects to a cable running across the back of the bottom step so lifts from once central point, when it is down it simply unhooks and the winch can be raised back up.

[dxg]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FREE-P-P-2-x-18-Zinc-Pla...

Edited by dxg on Tuesday 20th September 20:31

[dxg]

Or something like these, bolted to a suitable spreader plate on the trimmer (trimmed?) joist:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Heavy-duty-hinges-for-ho...


I was trying to find some of the spring loaded ones to help the winch, but no luck...

[SonicHedgeHog]

Slightly off topic....that is a massive garage. In fact, let's face it, it's the size of a house. I don't know how to do it, but if I had something that size in the back garden I'd be trying to soften its appearance so it doesn't dominate the whole plot. I'm not saying it's too big, I'm just saying clever finishing and choice of colours will make a lot of difference to how it blends with its surroundings,

[dxg]

But, personally, I'd go for a high-strength steel bolt through the stringer itself (with spreaders to stop the hole through the timber opening up) onto some kind of heavy-duty metal bracket bolted to the upper floor.

I mean, what's the weight? 100kg? 150kg? Certainly a lot.

[Muncher]

About 100kg for the stairs, I weigh 70kg and I guess I would be carrying 30kg up there, so about 200kg on there. Split between 4 hinges that really isn't a huge load.

I take the point about softening the impact and it's something I am giving some serious thought to. I may do it by varying the cladding, but I'm not sure how yet. The 1m tall brick plinth will split it up a bit too.

[Muncher]

That's how the stairs sit relative to the first floor, with the strap hinges shown in red.

[Jobbo]

Have you already built the stairs? I don't like that, since the stairs themselves will be trying to rotate about the bottom which is putting a lot of pressure on the hinge fixings and pin. How about the top part of the strap hinge being horizontal along the top side of the beam, so the stairs rest on the beam when they're down?

ETA: very poor Paint attempt to illustrate this:

Edited by Jobbo on Tuesday 20th September 22:37