Thread: Compact Stair Advice

That's pretty amazing ! Ive never seen one like that before. I wonder how safe and stable they feel.

Id say use Aussie hardwood like Vic Ash or something like that.
And steel hinges which are not the folded around the pin type if possible.

Rob

I suspect that the design in the first 3 pix might be made to have the better structural strength, hinge-wise, IF constructed properly. It also folds more neatly, of course. I have my doubts about the capacity of the pictured stringers though.

The only time I've seen this type of thing is as part of modular counters, a slide-out panel about 1-1/2" wide x counter height. It slides out and a set of kitchen steps can be folded to the left or right to provide access to the upper cabinets. Safer than drawing up a kitchen chair, I guess. But you only fall a couple of feet if kitchen steps fail.

Used as stairs I'd have some doubt over carrying capacity; I certainly wouldn't want to be heaving heavy boxes up them without some serious testing first!

I'd also have concerns about how to lock them safely in the stowed position. Wouldn't want 'em to come thumping down when some curious kid wonders "what's this?"

Not saying it's a bad idea... but I do think you need to give due thought to beefing them up a bit.

(FWIW, I seriously doubt that any buildinginspector worth his salt would pass them; they fail to meet Building Safety Code on so many levels. But that's a different question, no? )

It’s overly complex, you could achieve a similar result by hinging a ladder off the wall so it folds flat against it. That design puts all load bearing on the hinge pins. If you are going to do stairs you need to have a comfortable rise/run ratio as specified in the NCC, otherwise you may as well just use an attic ladder.

there used to be an attic ladder called a "disappearing staircase". From memory it was a regular set of stairs that, using a pulley and counter weight, could be made to disappear into an attic space.

In your instance, you could construct a set of regular stairs, fixed one end that could have the bottom end hoisted above head height.

Originally Posted by ian

there used to be an attic ladder called a "disappearing staircase". From memory it was a regular set of stairs that, using a pulley and counter weight, could be made to disappear into an attic space.

In your instance, you could construct a set of regular stairs, fixed one end that could have the bottom end hoisted above head height.

This is what I'm planning for my mezzanine. But rather than use a pulley and counterweight, I'm trying to design it using a tailgate spring from a horse float to counter the weight, and gas struts to control speed and the range of motion. It can be done with just struts, but they get pretty pricey in the Newton force size needed. There's a lot of leverage in 4 metre long stringers. The lighter the stairs the better as this design puts a lot of rotational force on the support the stairs are mounted to.

The advantage of the pulley and counterweight is the load is more like a single span beam, the pulley is dealing with half the mass which lessens the load on the hinge end.

It doesn’t look a very comfortable stair to use, particularly if you are going to be carrying gear up and down

I like Ian’s idea of a hinged conventional stair , rather than the horse float spring hinge and struts etc where things can get complicated and expensive Why don’t you just build it lightweight and use a simple rope and pulley to operate
You could use aluminium planks on edge as stringers with lightweight ply or aluminium steps