Hello homeowners and everyone who plans to become one,
we are at the stage in our house construction where we are starting the interior finishing.
We have concrete stairs and want to cover them with 4cm (1.5 inches) high oak treads. The treads will be cut and installed by a carpenter.
However, I have a problem: the total rise height on the upper floor and the penthouse level is different.
Apparently, this difference was not taken into account when building the stairs from the upper floor to the penthouse level. As a result, the first 15 steps have a rise height of about 17cm (6.7 inches), and the very last top step has a rise height of about 29cm (11.4 inches).
My builder says this can be easily fixed by adjusting the height of the upper steps. I am just concerned that the “low-wage workers from abroad” will tackle the stairs and, if they even understand the issue, will have to fix it.
What do you think, is it possible to correct such a staircase by yourself?
What would be the best way to approach this?
And how much would a professional stair builder charge for a fix like this?
Best regards
we are at the stage in our house construction where we are starting the interior finishing.
We have concrete stairs and want to cover them with 4cm (1.5 inches) high oak treads. The treads will be cut and installed by a carpenter.
However, I have a problem: the total rise height on the upper floor and the penthouse level is different.
Apparently, this difference was not taken into account when building the stairs from the upper floor to the penthouse level. As a result, the first 15 steps have a rise height of about 17cm (6.7 inches), and the very last top step has a rise height of about 29cm (11.4 inches).
My builder says this can be easily fixed by adjusting the height of the upper steps. I am just concerned that the “low-wage workers from abroad” will tackle the stairs and, if they even understand the issue, will have to fix it.
What do you think, is it possible to correct such a staircase by yourself?
What would be the best way to approach this?
And how much would a professional stair builder charge for a fix like this?
Best regards
Harun54 schrieb:
What do you think—is it possible to fix a staircase like this yourself?
What would be the best approach?
How much might a professional staircase builder charge for this kind of repair work? Oh dear, a few people really dropped the ball here one after another...
Was the installation height of the stair covering known to the construction company/architect? This kind of detail should be included in the execution plans (and you usually approve/sign off on the architect’s design). The drastic jump to a 29 cm (11.5 inches) step height also suggests that underfloor heating or screed at the top wasn’t accounted for.
Anyway... according to DIN standards, any step height over 20 cm (8 inches) is considered poor design and a serious trip hazard.
What’s beneath the staircase? Is there a wallboxing?
If yes, I can still see the option of installing a new folded-stringer staircase (with treads and risers) on top of the concrete stairs, gradually gaining height and resting on the concrete stair structure (the folded-stringer staircase can also support itself alone if needed, and is generally easier to build than a surface-mounted version). This would cost around 7,000 gross, plus about 1,000 more for extensive painting and filling around the edges.
Here’s how ours looked (at the time, still under construction and without the glass wall):
Of course, it looks a bit odd when the concrete stair is cantilevered, because the wood on top and concrete below visibly don’t rise symmetrically or parallel.
Then the only option left is demolition and starting over...
I don’t see this as a DIY job.
Hello,
thank you very much for your responses.
It is a cast, straight concrete staircase with two quarter turns.
It leads from the upper floor up to the top floor. On the inside, there is a wall from floor to ceiling, so the corrected differing heights would actually not be visible.
I have watched some do-it-yourself videos online where formwork boards are used to adjust the height of a staircase.
Since the issue mainly concerns the step height and not the tread width, I thought I might be able to handle it myself.
Maybe someone has had a similar situation in their building project and can share their experience.
thank you very much for your responses.
It is a cast, straight concrete staircase with two quarter turns.
It leads from the upper floor up to the top floor. On the inside, there is a wall from floor to ceiling, so the corrected differing heights would actually not be visible.
I have watched some do-it-yourself videos online where formwork boards are used to adjust the height of a staircase.
Since the issue mainly concerns the step height and not the tread width, I thought I might be able to handle it myself.
Maybe someone has had a similar situation in their building project and can share their experience.
What do the plans say? Was it already planned incorrectly, or was it just executed wrong? There’s a big difference between the two. We had a similar issue with my best man (although not as severe). The builder used the basement staircase plan for the upper floor to attic transition.
Here, it sounds like either the wrong plan was used or the floor structure wasn’t accounted for somewhere. But that should be the builder’s responsibility, not yours, so it’s not something you should have to fix yourself as a DIY project.
Oh, and for him, the problem was solved by gradually increasing the step height so that it worked out in the end. But if he had insisted, the builder would have removed the staircase and redone it!
Here, it sounds like either the wrong plan was used or the floor structure wasn’t accounted for somewhere. But that should be the builder’s responsibility, not yours, so it’s not something you should have to fix yourself as a DIY project.
Oh, and for him, the problem was solved by gradually increasing the step height so that it worked out in the end. But if he had insisted, the builder would have removed the staircase and redone it!
Harun54 schrieb:
Maybe someone has had a similar situation in their construction project and can share their experience. I think this kind of poor workmanship is quite unusual.
So, if I understand you correctly, you want to create something like this for about 15 steps:
Step 14 gets a 9cm (3.5 inches) rise
Step 13 gets a 6cm (2.4 inches) rise
Step 12 gets a 3cm (1.2 inches) rise
At first glance, that doesn’t sound impossible.
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