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Another BH stair question


Sasha

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Hello everyone!

So far, my Beacon Hill build is going well..but I have a bit of a noob question.

I've been building the stairs (per the instructions) and almost have them done. First question, do you put the trim and spindles in place after you install the stairs (I'm going to cut the trim down and I'm using new spindles, etc.)

Also..I'm a loss in terms of installing the stairs...I just now tried to put them in place, but it's not working. For all the previous steps, I dry-fitted everything before gluing... It seems I really have to push/pull to try and place them, so after trying a bit, I pulled it out (so that I wouldn't have an issue if I do have to do the trim and spindles, etc. beforehand). Am I seeing the instructions correctly, where the top of the staircase actually goes under the ceiling of the first floor? and..the tabs at the end of the staircase, where are they fitted to?

Sorry for the (most likely) amateurish questions...I just hope I didn't mess anything up :dunce:

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I built the stairs per instructions without different spindles, and built it all at once then slid it into place. From what I remember, the one large piece of trim went on after it was in place. It is a very tight fit. I actually cut the tabs of mine, so I could slide it in and out while I was decorating. Made doing the ceiling trim behind there much easier as I could measure and test fit. When everything was all decorated, I slid it back in and put in that final piece of large trim. There is no chance that stair case is going anywhere.

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If you're doing different balusters (spindles) and banister you might want to consider Tracy's suggestion about making the stairs to slide in & out until the stairwell is otherwise completed.  It also might save a lot of frustration if you insert pins into the bottom of each baluster and drill a wee hole at the side of the tread where it will go and glue it in so that it survives a lot of handling and moving around.

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Ahh..thank you to both of you! It seems today I just don't have my brain in place. I guess I was too rigid in the concept of needing to keep the tabs so that it never dawned on me that I could remove them! Thank you for the great suggestions!!

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This was awesome informative thread. If I ever get a BH, I'll remember this re: the stairs.

Btw, I am always trolling Craigslist for a built BH. There is never one in my neighborhood - and the one time one appeared in perfect form, it was 3 hours away and disappeared from CL in 2 days. Some lucky person got a good one...built well and decorated lovingly with varnished floors and nice furniture...for $75.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm working on the staircase also.  I dry fitted the staircase without railings into the house, that's fits in much easier than with the railings.  I think I'll attach the railing after the basic stair structure is in place; putting it in with the railings attached is awfully difficult to put in place.  Trying to install a completed staircase is a tight fit and possibly cause the railing to crack when trying to put the posts into those 2 slots in the 2nd floor opening.

We'll see how it goes. 

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I very carefully dissected the staircase and removed tabs so that I can slide the pieces in and out with the intention of holding them in place with tacky wax or something similar. However, having seen a staircase modified with spindles and railings, I'm tempted to pull it out and redo the whole thing. (Sorry I can't recall who did this, but it has been on my mind ever since I first saw it.)

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  • 2 weeks later...

So, I had to put things aside for a bit because of a crazy work schedule (and then getting pneumonia) so I'm back to working on the BH. I may have totally screwed up my stairs....not sure yet, still trying to fix the issues (I broke several pieces accidentally). But...I was wondering, is there any staircase kit/or pre-assembled that would work with BH? Not that going the bought route is my first choice, but I'm looking at it as a backup should it turn out that I messed up the current kit stairs beyond repair.

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  • 1 month later...

I just wanted to take a minute and say thank you so much for the fantastic advice!! I've had a house full of puppies non-stop the past few weeks (I foster for a puppy rescue) so I had to put my build on hold a bit, and only steal a few minutes here and there. But, over the past few days, I finally managed to get the stairs done! They aren't perfect, and I fudged a few things (cutting spindles, etc.) but I'm please with the final result especially since this is my first build ever! Thank you again for the great advice and tips from everyone! Now it's time to continue the build!!

Stairs1.png

Stairs2.png

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