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stair landings: support by hanging from above?

12K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  troubleseeker 
#1 · (Edited)
Bottom line:

Can you support part of a stair landing by HANGING it below existing joists instead of supporting it from below? And yes I do have a structural engineer speccing out my job and we'll pull permits. I'm just hoping ya'll can help me save money by educating me before I bring this up at our next meeting.


Thanks for the help
SteveEl

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Details: comment about any part welcome.....

For various reasons, I am rebuilding the upper half of my basement stairway. The lower half is fine, and consists of a flight from the basement slab to a lower landing by the side door. At that point the stairway turns 90 deg toward the center of the house.

The next part of the stairway is the part I will rebuild and consists of a upper flight, that goes to an upper landing. You turn from the landing and step up onto the 1st floor.

I have the redesign finished except for one detail: the upper landing will be lowered so that it is essentially flush with the BOTTOM of the existing floor joists. Supporting the hangar side is easy since there are wall framing members in place. But how do I support the other side? Remember, the new landing will be basically flush with the bottom of the joists, and there are no walls below the landing on the side opposite the hangar. Only thing I can think of is to HANG the landing to the bottom of the joists, instead of supporting from below. Does the uniform code allow that? what else should I know before talkign tot he engineer next time?

Thanks for the help
SteveEl
 
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#2 · (Edited)
Possible in a general sense, yes, possible in your case, depends on many job specific factors. All you need to know is what you would LIKE to do. It is the engineer's job to tell you if it can structurally be done, and what type of connections would be required. You can give him a little preliminary info, such as the size and clear span of the joists you are proposing to hang the stair from and a few photos if possible in (he may deem it not feasible because of obvious existing structural situations), but he should untimately visit the sight to assess the situation.
 
#3 ·
Thanks T, in a general sense was my main question. Since I first posted I learned that my state (and many others) building code is online http://bulk.resource.org/codes.gov/ Sure enough there's nothing in there that says there must be a support structure from below

I still don't know if there are any atypical issues that come up for suspending a floor surface below a joist instead of above it, but I guess the engineer will tell us. I just hate to present him with sketches and preliminary designs if its a no-go from the start.

SteveEl
 
#4 ·
I still don't know if there are any atypical issues that come up for suspending a floor surface below a joist instead of above it, but I guess the engineer will tell us. I just hate to present him with sketches and preliminary designs if its a no-go from the start.
SteveEl
Not exactly sure what you mean by atypical issues, but whether anything is supported by being suspended from above or by load bearing support from beneath is irrelevant. If the math works from an engineering standpoint; it is supported. Granted, out of the ordinary methods of doing things will usually cost more than the typical everyday method. No one likes to pay for someone to come out and tell them their idea is not feasible, but I don't think any decision can be made by an engineer until he assesses the particular situation with a site visit.
 
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