rodentraiser Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 I have a staircase question. My Brambleberry Cottage (formerly the front opening Victorian) comes with 10" ceilings. This is not arbitrary - that's how high the dividers were. I thought I could use my old Hofco house staircases for it, but like RGT, I found out that when I run the stairs from the bottom of the floor to the top of the floor above (up inside the stairwell), the distance the staircase needs to go up is 10 3/8". And all my old staircases, while saying they fit a 10" ceiling, in reality fit only a 9 5/8" ceiling. If you measure any RGT house room height from the bottom of the floor to the underside of the ceiling above, you'll see it comes out to only 9 5/8". They say it fits a 10" ceiling because with the added floor thickness above, that does indeed come out to be 10". You can see my dilemma. If I run my stairs to the top of the floor inside the stairwell, they are going to be a little crooked. If I straighten them out and only run them to the ceiling, then my little people have an extra 3/8" step at the top of the stairs. Now the HW 7000 staircase is recommended for the house I have, but my question is, does it really reach up 10 3/8", or does it reach only up to 9 5/8"? Does anyone here know? And has anyone else dealt with this problem? If so, how did you deal with it? I called HW. The lady I spoke to, while very nice, really didn't have a clue. She said that the staircase was 14" long and so it went up 14" and if I wanted it to fit, I would have to cut the staircase down. After a few, er, corrections on my end about staircases, she recommended I call Nancy Van Horn tomorrow, but I thought I'd throw this out there anyhow. I did try some math on it. I found out the height it would go up would only be about 9.8". Which is close enough to only 10" to worry me. The thing is, I won't waste money on a new staircase that is going to be the same as the ones I already have if the height is going to be the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Build a small platform under the stairs to give it a little lift like I did for the Worthington foyer. http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=view&id=120997 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted August 25, 2016 Author Share Posted August 25, 2016 The stairs are only about 2" back from the open back of the house. Unless you have a very sharp eye, you might not really notice that. A platform would definitely call attention to that narrow space, though, and really make it stand out. On top of that, your Worthington foyer looks like a full step. If my stairs only go to 10" high, then all I'd have to raise them would be 3/8". Just a big enough step to trip over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
queenannediva Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 From the floor to the bottom of the second floor (same to the bottom of the third floor) in my RGT Queen Anne it is 10" exactly add 3/8" going through the stairwells. I know this does not help you any but just wanted to mention it is advertised as having 10" ceiling heights and it does exactly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fov Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Can you post a picture? I'm not sure if I understand the problem. Are you able to position the stairs so the floor above forms the tread on the top step, like this? (That's half scale, not the staircase you're asking about. Just wondering if that would solve the problem.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted August 26, 2016 Author Share Posted August 26, 2016 4 hours ago, queenannediva said: From the floor to the bottom of the second floor (same to the bottom of the third floor) in my RGT Queen Anne it is 10" exactly add 3/8" going through the stairwells. I know this does not help you any but just wanted to mention it is advertised as having 10" ceiling heights and it does exactly. How interesting. But the staircase is a little different in the Queen Anne, isn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted August 26, 2016 Author Share Posted August 26, 2016 4 hours ago, fov said: Can you post a picture? I'm not sure if I understand the problem. Are you able to position the stairs so the floor above forms the tread on the top step, like this? (That's half scale, not the staircase you're asking about. Just wondering if that would solve the problem.) What I usually do with my staircase is bring it up inside the stairwell and position it so the back of the top step leans against the floor and the top of the top step is even with the top of the floor (actually, I bring it up just an eeny weeny bit further so that when I lay flooring, the flooring is even with the top step). I know some staircases have the back of the top step shaved across flat so it will go right against the inside of the stairwell. Doing my stairs the way you have done yours is an option, but with the steps going back to front in my house (and sort of in your face when you look at them), it would be painfully obvious that the top step would be 3/8" higher than the rest of them and I'm not sure how I would replicate the bullnose on my steps.. This is the bullnose on my steps - it would be difficult to replicate it on the very top step if I put it under the ceiling: So I really don't want to put my steps like this: This is how the back of the top step is cut to accommodate putting it inside the stairwell: This is how I usually do my stairs - this particular one will actually be a little lower on account of the top tread I still need to put on: However, if I do that, the staircase has to be tilted, resulting in this gap at the bottom: and this gap along the side - both gaps are there because I lifted the staircase to bring it up inside the stairwell: If I drop the staircase a step, those gaps go away. But then, I wouldn't have the distinctive bullnose on the top step, which would be pretty obvious. I could also recut the wall, but I've done that in the past and it always looks pretty bad. Also, this wall is supposed to go with the staircase anyway, so I assumed it would fit. My stairs are the old Hofco ones, so it could be they're just a little too long for this house as it's meant to be built. That's why I was thinking of going with the HW 7000 series. First, it's recommended for this house and second, the treads are square, so it would be easier to work with them if I need to. But if the HW staircase isthe same length and goes to the same height as the Hofco one does, then I may as well keep the Hofco ones and save myself $40 in buying the HW ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fov Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 Hmm. Yeah, I don't know what I'd do about that. I did a staircase in my Queen Anne Rowhouse that butted up under the floor, and the 1/4" plywood became the top step. It's like your first picture but pulled out a little. The stairs in my real life house were like this at the time, I used those as a guide. That staircase had treads that stick out a little and I just continued them to the top real step, and then the actual top step (that was really the floor) just had hardwood on it. They didn't stick out as far as yours, though. If you want the top step flush with the floor, then it seems like the only options are to add something to the bottom for the bottom step to stand on, or glue them in crooked and cover the gaps with trim. If Houseworks doesn't get back to you, maybe a mini shop that sells the 7000 will be able to measure it and answer you? I've found a lot of shops to be really helpful about this stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted August 27, 2016 Author Share Posted August 27, 2016 They really don't have to measure it. I know it's 14" long and knowing the angle on the bottom has to 45°, I used some trig to figure out the height of the staircase. sin 45° = y/r so since I know r = 14", then I do sin 45° x 14 = 9.9. If I plug it back into the formula a2 = b2 = c2 , I get 9.92 + 9.92 = sq rt of 196.02 which = 14.0, which is how long the staircase is. So my guess is that the height of the staircase is only going to reach 9.9, or 10" high, not 10 3/8". I guess I have two choices: put the staircase under the top floor, in which case I should probably go with the 7000 staircase so I can at least get an edge on the top step like the rest of them, or I can fiddle around with another wall or just fill in the gaps after the staircase is glued in. I'm actually supposed to call HW and I haven't done that yet. As I recall, ACP made their own staircases that went with their houses. I'd kill to get my hands on two of those at this point. But I don't think that's going to happen. Thank you, everyone, for your comments. Sometimes things seem to become clearer when I put my frustrations into a post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sable Posted August 27, 2016 Share Posted August 27, 2016 I still think the best solution is to have a small landing on the bottom. This way your 45 degree angle isn't wonkers like in the photo above and it will fit as you like on the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodentraiser Posted August 27, 2016 Author Share Posted August 27, 2016 That's definitely another option. But if I put a landing on the bottom, that means the first step up will have to match the rest of the steps and that would mean getting the 7000 staircase so I could use the plain, square treads they have and that brings me back to do I really want to spend $40 to get 2 more staircases? I'm going to have to look for closeups of the staircase in the front opening Victorian. I wonder what the ceiling height of the Garfield is, because maybe it would be cheaper to guy some sheets from Greenleaf and make my own staircase. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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