The Spiral Staircase...

Here's a couple shots of the spiral staircase from ground level.

Well, I must say that I am quite impressed with them and can't wait to get them into operation. Being handicapped, I really thought my wife was nuts when she said I would like them better than what is already in the house (see the pic). The old stairs do not have a handrail and really are quite shakey. My personal handicap involves to a great degree, my legs, and I must admit that the current old stairs really are becoming a very real pain for me.

The spiral staircase on the other hand, I have found to be very easy to navigate. In using them, there is a limited space to move from side to side (a big plus when my walk is unsteady) and the handrails make is so that one can assist themself with their arms, which I find of great help.

I would have to say that if one is handicapped, have small children or other limiting factor's in their life and they are making a decision about a staircase, do consider using spiral as an option. Go somewhere that has some and try them out; I think you just might be surprised!

Moving Forward

Here the floor joist's are up, the subfloor down and the long southern wall standing on the last phase of the "southern" addition. The siding is also shown in the stage where the decision to either stop the addition or continue on had to be made. As can be seen, it just seemed to make too much sense to continue while the work was at hand.

Engineered Floor Joist

During the process of adding the spiral stair's and making the enclosure to bring it to the inside of the house, I decided to extend the second floor in order to keep the addition from looking like a shaft on the side of the house, in addition to adding much needed floor space. I had plenty of 2X4 stud's, but lacked the floor joist, which I decided that 2 X 6 would work due to the fact that the addition was less than 8'. In the original part of the addition, the 2 X 6's worked fine in terms of strength. There was a small bit of spring, but they were plenty strong for the task at hand. One thing I didn't like was that the material delivered was not of uniform quality or measure (width).

The money for more 2 X 6's simply wasn't there and after kicking around a bit, decided that the project would need to be put on hold until more material could be purchased. I went inside and turned on "DIY Network", and more specifically, "This Old House" with Norm and happened to catch an episode where they were putting down floor joist in a second floor addition. The joist's they were using were engineered and they couldn't say enough about them. They were basically an OSB (orientated strand board/wafer/chip-board) spline with a 2 X 2 dadoed and glued on each side. This I could do! I had plenty of 7/16" OSB, some liquid nail, and the time.

After a couple of hours I had produced what I needed and was quite happy with the results. While the standard material was somewhat sufficient, these jewels were rock solid, exact in measurement, not too hard to make and are quite economical.

The standard 2 X 6 ran me around $6.00. The material for the homemade engineered joist worked out to be quite a bit of savings.

2 X 4 = $ 2.00

OSB spline = $ 0.50 -->I ripped 12 spline's from a standard of 7/16" 4 X 8 OSB at a cost of $5.00 per sheet....$0.46 per spline

Liquid Nail = $ 0.50 --> one tube @ $2.50 each makes five joist's.

1 joist = $3.00

Savings = $3.00

I can make eight joists in an hour (now that I have the technique down) which means I earned/saved $24.00 in that same hour over using standard board stock.

While I'm not advocating that anyone use this technique without the use of an engineer, I present how I managed it.

Cutting the Rail's

The Rail's consist of a 2 X 4 split down the middle. To make sure the rail's are both of equal height, set the rip fence to 1-3/4" and reduce it a very small increment (less than a 1/16") and make a practice cut on a 2 X 4 scrap, but only cut it until you can see the blade on the top surface. Next, back the sample board out and flip it top to bottom (not end for end) and see if the blade lines up to the cut. Keep making small adjustments until both sides are of equal width. The reason for this adjustment is to make up for the kerf (wood the blade turns into sawdust).

You will also notice in the pictures, that before the boards were split, they were numbered with arrows pointing in. This will keep the flat cut edges pointing in (toward the spline) during the dado cut and assembly, and also keeps the rails matching; not sure that it is important to keep the rails together, but it's just something I do...

NEVER GET YOUR FINGERS CLOSE TO A MOVING BLADE. TURN THE SAW OFF AND WAIT FOR THE BLADE TO STOP SPINNING!

NOTHING RUINS A DAY LIKE SEEING A FINGER SITTING ON A TABLESAW MINUS A HAND.

Cutting the Dado in the Rails...

The dado's in the rails are cut to an approximate depth of 3/4", which would leave about an inch of solid wood for nailing the subfloor to.

To cut the dado, one could use a router set up with an 7/16" dado bit, but the bit was not available. Another option is to use dado blades on the table saw, but my set will only cut to a depth of 1/2" due to their diameter. The dado's seen here we cut using multiple passes on a single blade on the table saw.

The first cut was set to leave 1/2" on the side at a depth of 3/4". Next, the rail was flipped and ran through again to make the initial cut on the opposite side. All the boards were ran through this process of establishing the outside cuts.

The process of removing the middle "meat" of the wood from the dado involved moving the rip fence out in small increments, making a pass, flipping the rail around and making the next cut, and finally moving through all the remaining boards. It only took three adjustments to the fence to dado the 7/16" from the rails.

In the initial set-up for the outside dado cuts, use scrap 2 X 4 pieces and keep the measurements tight; you really want a snug fit here!

Be very careful in this phase of cutting the dado on the table saw. The guard cannot be used in this step and after many passes, it is very easy to get lazy with safety. A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT WILL INCLUDE HAVING ALL TEN FINGERS WHEN THE DAY IS DONE!

Joist Splines...

For the spline's, 7/16" Oriented Strand Board (OSB-Waferboard), was cut to approximately 4" in width. Before making the individual cuts, the sheet was cut down to the final length to save cutting each individual spline afterward. The width of the spline is determined by the depth of the dado cut into the rail's. I always cut the rails first and then use a scrap piece of OSB cut just slightly wider than I think I need. This allows me to slowly remove material from the width until it is exactly what I want (clamp everything tight to simulate the finished width of the product). After I have achieved the right specs., I move onto cutting/ripping the actual splines.

I have learned to never experiment on what would be the finished product. Take the time to do the set-up, measure everything twice and err on the side of having too much than too little. You can always remove material, but never put it back after a bad cut.

Applying the Glue

Here a 1/4" bead of glue is being applied to the rail's.

I chose to use "Liquid Nail(s)" due to it's track record and that it will work for either interior or exterior use. It is also guaranteed to outlast the project...good enough for me.

This product comes in a tube and is applied with a caulking gun.

Assembly of the Floor Joist...

With the glue in the channel's, It is time to mate the rails to the spline. Due to a snug fit, a rubber mallet is employed to tap everything into place. It is important to be gentle with the spline as to not mess up the edge. Start the spline with your hands, then follow with the mallet after both rails are started on the spline.

This is the time to make sure all the ends are square and flush with each other before proceeding to the next step.

Time For Clamps...

After the joist is fitted together, it is secured with bar clamp's and made ready for the next step.

Mechanical Fastener's...

In this final step, I like to employ mechanical fastener's. I am using 1-1/4" staples shot in with a pneumatic crown molding nailer/stapler. They are being shot in a "W" pattern on one side, then the joist is flipped over and shot again so that there is a staple about every 6". While the glue is the real strength in this assembly, the staple's do add the to equation, but, are being used more for a way to keep everything together until the glue dries, which is where the real bond is made.

I once thought a tool such as this was a little pricey, but upon shopping around I found this one for under $20.00. For that price and the time it saves, you simply cannot go wrong. Not only am I using it on the floor joist's, but also in putting down the decking on the roof, shooting down the subfloor, and putting up the siding. So far, I've probably saved over eight hours, and for twenty bucks, it just made too much sense. I can't wait to see how fast I can build the cabinets for the kitchen...

Completed Floor Joist

And finally, you see the finished product. I like to let them set up overnight in order for the glue to cure. Tomorrow, they will be framed into the next phase.

Wall's are Framed

We finally got the wall's, as well as the roof framed. The decking is on the roof (just not in these pictures) and the siding is going up. You can also see where the second half of the upstair's addition will continue.