Gulf Island Building.

jlhaslip · 03-16-2010, 09:59 PM

Thanks for the invite. Never know what direction my journey will take next...
Would you be interested in an Apprentice for a week this summer?

cocobolo · 03-16-2010, 10:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlhaslip

Thanks for the invite. Never know what direction my journey will take next...
Would you be interested in an Apprentice for a week this summer?

If you find yourself headed out this way, just let me know.

I should warn you about coming over here in the summertime though...there are usually quite a few nekkid ladies in the bay when it's nice!! Not that I suppose that would deter you for one minute!

The only trouble with that is it has a tendency to slow the work down, darn it!

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:28 PM

The weatherman gets a gold star today! Nice and sunny.

So it was outside and get started on the stairs down from the upper deck.

Here's a thrilling picture if ever I saw one. A high priced plumb bob doing nothing. The nail it is sitting over indicates the center of the stair radius.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:30 PM

In order to locate the plywood circles perfectly, it was necessary to be able to locate the center of the circles and line that up with that nail below. Hence the importance of the plumb bob above.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:32 PM

You can just barely make out a pencil mark in the middle of the 1 x 1. That will be lined up with a nail in the deck framing. You'll see in a minute.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:33 PM

Pre-drilling the holes makes life much easier. Here it is screwed in place, and now you can see the nail which the arrow mark lined up with,

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:36 PM

This little gadget is a connector and support for the inner stair treads. Each side has a taper cut out of it at about 12 1/2º. Then it is treated with preservative and screwed in place.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:40 PM

The top tread only needed some 2 by lumber screwed onto the deck joist. So that was easy enough. The second tread ended in mid air. So that entailed suspending a piece of 2 x 9 from the back side of the joist, then adding a filler to bring it flush with the front of the joist, then finally the support for the tread.

The outer edge of the tread is supported by a notch cut out of the 6 x 6 post.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:42 PM

Here the first two treads are in place.

Because of the change in stair plans, there was quite a bit of messing about on the first three treads. You will see from a picture later taken from above what I mean.

I think it is going to work out OK though.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:44 PM

Once past the first two treads, it became necessary to install the inner and outer 2 x 4's for the support system. Here are the first blocks in place using the super-duper handy jig.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:46 PM

The third tread was the last one which needed extra work, The remainder are quite straight forward. Three now in place.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:49 PM

Here you can see how the supports work. 2 x 5's screwed to both the studs for each respective tread. There is an allowance for each tread to extend past its' neighbour by 1".

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:51 PM

It's dark now, so no more tonight. This from above shows how different the top treads are from the rest.

They were slow going, having to make up a cutting template for each one first.

cocobolo · 03-17-2010, 11:54 PM

Here's the center studs and plywood ring from below. You can see how things are going together now. When the stairs reach about 4 feet from the ground, I will put the deck in at the appropriate height.

When that is done, the remainder of the stairs will go off the deck.

cocobolo · 03-19-2010, 11:37 PM

Yesterday was a write-off, had to go to town for the usual stuff. Picked up some more dek blocks for the lower deck.

Today the stairs were installed down to and including the 9th tread from the top. That is all the steps I need from the upper deck. Next the hot tub deck will get sorted out.

It looks like I will have to install the support cribbing for the tub tomorrow, and perhaps commence to put the tub itself together. Then I can build the deck around the tub.

I'll set up the laser so that everything is at the height I want.

The last tread coming down was about 47 3/4" above the deck in front of the french doors. This will put the tub deck height at 41 1/4", and the tub cribbing at 14".

That way the tub will be well above the deck making it easy to get in and out of. Tubs which are almost flush with the deck are a bear to get in and out of comfortably.

The final treads are shown here.