I've always taken these for granted, but when you are doing this for a real structure, you really have to be careful to get it right. An initial study for a 3-storey residential structure that I need to finish by Friday. Cheers! M

Wow very cool! Excellent Moeb hugs Eva

Very nice looking. Ermmm... its Friday now.... what're you doing in chat ;)

What country are you doing this in? If I'm not mistaken you cannot have more than seven risers per flight including the landing by Federal Fire Codes (US that is).

Hiya cryptojoe, Good eyes! :o) NFPA regulations don't apply strigently here in Thailand, unless the client is an American corporate entity. The building code and fire code here allow up to 1.80M total riser height (about 10 steps per run) in structures classified for low density residential occupancy. Commercial use structures allow for less (1.40M vertical rise max, I think). I had fun modeling the continuous handrail required by fire code. Never realized what a pain that was to get right till I actually tried it. Cheers! M

Here's another view of the staircase I'm working on. :o) I've moved out the shear wall on either side of the stairwell to give a bit more breathing space here. I'm not sure if my beam line should be supporting the edge of the landing or the top or the run of steps... I need to show this to the engineer. I may have to increase the number vertical railing supports to comply with safety regulations, but I do not want it to feel like a cage. I am thinking of glass cladding the front face of this stairwell and giving a full height glass door at the ground floor. I don't know what materials are allowed by budget, but I would like to get a nice light wood finish either beech or maple. The only worry is that this won't work for a high traffic area, so I may go with precast terrazzo slabs in a honed finish so that it is not slippery. Cheers! M

Nice work Moe! What method did you use for the railings, splines?

Heyas BazC nope, path extrusions based on the highest point of the treads. Old fashioned manual method. :o)

cryptojoe I went and reviewed the code here again with an architect friend of mine... LOL! The older version has a 3.00M total vertical height between landings in a single run, with a maximum riser of 0.19 and a minimum tread of 0.22. Scary code regulations... killer stairs! :o) I guess that makes these stairs well within what is legally allowed here.

Cheers! MMessage edited on: 11/28/2004 23:45

Cool stuff Moe! So is this your job? Are you an architect or achitectual visualiser?

BazC, neither... LOL! While trained as an architect my job as studio manager keeps me lurking over the shoulders of designers and simply nitpicking (as opposed to actually doing any real work). Once in a while, when the studio is overloaded I will take on an easy project that I cannot possibly screw up. :o) Cheers! M

"my job as studio manager keeps me lurking over the shoulders of designers and simply nitpicking (as opposed to actually doing any real work)." Ah! So you're the kind of guy I swear about every day! ;o) lol!

I've always found stairs one of the hardest things to do well. Good work

Yer lucky on another regulation here. In the US we're down to an 8" baby head (or did it shrink to 6"?) Makes the railings look even more like a cage.