How to make a staircase to the 2nd floor

If there is more than one floor in a private house, you cannot do without stairs. But besides the fact that it must connect the floors, the staircase must also fit into the interior. Therefore, when choosing a design, you need to pay attention not only not to the dimensions and how much space it takes up in the room, but also to take into account the style. Then a staircase to the second floor, made by hand, will not only be a functional item, but also an interior decoration. The work is difficult and responsible, but you can do it.

Types of stairs to the second floor in a private house

If we talk about the device, then the interfloor stairs are of three types:

• Screw or spiral. They take up the least space, look good, but not very convenient to use. Most often used as additional.
  

  The smallest interfloor stairs

• On the bolts. The steps are mounted on special metal bolts - bolts. There are no heavy attachment elements in the structure, which makes the structure visually light.
  

  The stairs on the bolts - look very interesting

• Marching. The most common type. They can consist of one, two or more flights (elements). In the presence of several marches, platforms are made between them - turning or not - depends on the choice of the owners, but is mainly determined by the dimensions of the room and the allocated area.
  

  Marching there are two types - on stringers and bowstrings

All of these structures can be made of metal, wood, concrete, glass, marble and other decorative stones, and combinations of these materials are often used. But most often the stairs to the second floor are made of wood with their own hands, a little less often - from metal or combinations of metal and wood.

In addition, there are two types of degrees - open and closed. In open stairs there is only a horizontally located part - the step itself, in closed ones - there is also a vertical part - a riser.

Steps can be open or closed

Design standards

When developing a staircase project, it is important to make it comfortable and safe. There are very specific numbers and recommendations that relate to the parameters of the steps and the general angle of rise:

• The tilt angle should be between 30-50 °. The optimal slope is 45 °, at a lower angle it is comfortable to walk, but a lot of space is required, at a larger one, too steep a rise is difficult.
  

  It is desirable that the angle of inclination of the stairs fit into this sector. The table shows the standard tread and riser dimensions for each angle of inclination

• The number of steps is odd.
• The width of the step (tread) is in the range of 22-30 cm. The most comfortable steps are about 25 cm wide - you become your whole foot on them. With narrower heels, the heel hangs, and the main load falls on the toe.
• The height of the riser (the distance from one step to the other) is 15-20 cm. If the height is too low, you often have to rearrange your legs, which is uncomfortable; if you are too large, it is difficult to lift your legs (especially for the elderly).
• Railing height 90-120 cm.
• The minimum staircase width is 80 cm.

The number of steps is determined by simply dividing the height of the planned staircase by the selected riser height. For example, the height of the room is 285 cm. It was decided to make the elevation angle 40 °. According to the table, we see that the height of the riser is 19 cm. Divide 285 cm / 19 cm = 15 steps.If the number is even, we accordingly slightly adjust the size to get an odd number.

If one of the steps turns out to be several centimeters less, this height is "taken away" from the first step. All others, including the last one, must be the same.

When choosing the size of the steps, the comfort can be checked. If the doubled riser height is folded with the selected step width, the result should be from 60 ms to 64 cm. The second check option - the sum of the tread and riser lengths is optimally 45 cm, but deviations of 2 cm in both directions are permissible.

How to check the comfort and safety of the stairs

All these parameters should be laid down when designing a house. If the house has already been built, you have to proceed from the fact that there is and adjust the dimensions to the existing dimensions.

Spiral staircase

As already mentioned, a spiral staircase in a private house takes up the least space. But it has a serious drawback: it is inconvenient to walk on it, and it is almost impossible to lift anything bulky to the second floor. So they are not very popular, although they look good and fit well into any interior.

Calculation features

When designing a spiral staircase, one must take into account that in some positions, there are other steps above the head. Therefore, making small risers will not work.

The next feature is that the steps all have an unequal width - with one narrower, with the other wider. With a narrow part, they are attached to the central support (post), with a wide part - to walls or balusters. The standard for the width of the tread is measured in the middle part, and the wide one should not be more than 40 cm.

The span width is from 50 cm to 100 cm. The entire structure is doubled - a square with a side from 100 cm to 200 cm is required.

Precast column structure

This type of spiral staircase is the easiest to make: a pipe is placed on which wooden elements are put on - steps, intermediate cylinders, etc.

Spiral staircase on the central pillar

If you look in more detail, then in addition to a metal pipe (in this case with a diameter of 40 mm), steps and balusters (available in any design), there are turned wooden cylinders (segments) that set the distance from one step to another.

Elements of a spiral wooden staircase

On the other hand, the distance between the steps is maintained using saws on the balusters. Steps are attached to these grooves (with glue + fasteners).

The same device, but in metal

Do-it-yourself installation of stairs to the second floor begins with the installation of a pillar. A hole is made in the floor of the first floor and the ceiling of the second, equal to the diameter of the pillar. We insert the pipe into the hole, put on an enlarged washer, tighten the nut. Further, the assembly is simple: the corresponding elements are put on the rod, in parallel with the installation of the step, a baluster is placed and fixed. The dimensions of the steps for this spiral staircase with the given parameters are in the drawing.

Drawing of elements of a spiral staircase with dimensions

Steps are cut from glued board or furniture board. You can use an array, but furniture quality, that is, without any defects and dried, with a moisture content of no more than 8-12%. Although glued wood is considered more reliable: it will definitely not lead and it will not crack when it dries.

For an example of an assembly of a similar design, see the video. It has a prefabricated post, but you can also use a solid one, although it will be inconvenient to assemble the steps - each time you have to climb the stairs.

The construction of a spiral staircase made of metal is presented in the following video clip. For those who are friends with welding, this option will be easier.

Spiral staircase to the second floor: photos of interesting options

Marching stairs to the second floor

Marching stairs are the most popular. Firstly, they are convenient to use, and secondly, the technology of their construction has long been developed. There are few features of the calculation. It is important to decide on the number of marches. In one area there should be from 3 to 15 o steps. The most convenient ones have 11-13 pieces. If by calculation it turns out that there should be more steps, they are divided into several sections, between which platforms are made. The dimensions of the platforms are multiples of the step length (600-630 mm). Then the ascent and descent will not cause inconvenience.

Views

Ladders with platforms take up a lot of space. If there is not enough space, turns are added. The most common option is to place the staircase on two adjacent walls at the corners. Also, to save space, you can make cross-country (turning) steps instead of a platform. Only one moment: the section with winder steps is the most traumatic. If the family has small children or elderly people, it is better to make a playground.

Winder steps can also be described as turning

As mentioned earlier, marching stairs are made on kosoura (beams with a sawtooth edge) and on terivs (just an inclined beam). Attaching steps to string beams takes more time and skill. Usually, a seat is cut out for each step - a groove is selected in the board. For additional reliability, bars are still nailed from below or corners are installed. The option with corners is reliable, but rather controversial from an aesthetic point of view. If the entire staircase is made of wood, the metal parts are very "cutting" the look. Neatly processed bars look much more organic. However, with a sufficient thickness of the boards for the steps and the width of the bowstring, you can do without additional fasteners. In this case, it is important that the steps do not bend, otherwise they may jump out of the grooves.

Marching ladder on bowstrings

The assembly of steps on kosoura is simpler: you have two or three supports to which the cut-to-size parts are attached. The main task is to correctly mark and cut out the stringers.

This is a staircase on kosoura - one of the fragments of the assembly

Installation of a flight staircase with step-by-step photos

Kosoura are made from a wide board 75-80 mm thick and 350-400 mm wide. If there is no massive dry board, glued boards can be used. How to calculate the kosour is described in the form, but you can assemble the stairs to the second floor not only as a stand-alone one.

An example of assembling a staircase on kosoura near the wall further. First, we fix the supporting pillars on which the run-in steps will rest. We attach the upper stringers to these posts.

Installation of upper stringers

Then we put the lower ones. We fix the stringer near the wall on top of the decorative board - it is easier to wash it and the dirt is less visible than on the wall.

We fasten the lower stringers - one to the post, the second to the finishing board

Intermediate stringers are installed last. It's easier to dock all the elements this way.

Kosoura set

Installation of steps begins. After they are cut, sanded and painted, everything is simple: put in place, screw the hole under the screw, then tighten it.

Installation of steps

The next step is to attach the balusters. In this case, they are made of stainless steel tube with wood inserts. A hole is drilled under each baluster, into which the tube is inserted, it is fixed on a hairpin or in any other available way.

Holes for installing balusters

The balusters and railings themselves

View from above

Photos of interesting marching stairs to the 2nd floor

Stairs

The most unusual in appearance are the interfloor stairs on the bolets. Bolts are a special type of metal fastener that is attached to the feet with one edge, and to the support with the other.

Some types of bolts

The design is very light in appearance, but the bearing capacity of such devices is considerable - about 220 kg.

The staircase on the bolts is an aerial structure

On one side, the steps can be attached directly to the wall (also on the bolt), as well as to the bowstring or stringer. The opposite part is usually attached to a frame fixed in the intermediate floor. This is the supporting element. Bolts go down from it, which are then attached to some part of the steps. Those that have found themselves without support are kept due to the redistribution of the load. Independent calculation and design in this case is very problematic, it is more reliable to order the development of the project.

Photo of some stairs to the 2nd floor on the bolts