Stairway to ...... upstairs

It took the two of us all of 2 days to build a new staircase start to finish.  Basically, it consisted of 3x 18mm  OSB boards [1.2m x 2.4m] and 2x 18mm spruce plywood boards [1.22m x 2.44m] and cost us all of R1200/ Euro100/ USD130.  We procceeded as follows:

 We had the OSB boards cut by a CNC routing company [CNC Routing Cape Town].  They were given the exact tread and riser dimensions, and their computer controlled routing machine cut the boards in the zig-zag fashion required.

 We then laminated these sections together using glue and screws to form 4 sets of stringers.

These stringers were then bracket fixed to ledger supports at the bottom....

.....and at the top of the stairway.

 The stringers were evenly spaced over the 1m width of the stairway.

And finally we glued and nailed spruce plywood subfloor treads and risers to the stringers to complete the structure and create a base on which to lay the final floor finish.  8 LED footlights were also installed either side of the stairs.  All in all, it is not as difficult as one might think it is to construct a staircase.

SUMMER PROGRESS

Quite a lot of progress has been made over the summer months. Firstly, we completed the drainage system for the pool paving surround. Essentially, we dug a french drain soakaway under what was to become a lawn. It is basically a gravel filled trench with the perforated drainage pipe wrapped in a water permeable membrane. This system allows us to replenish groundwater stocks using water collected from our hard surfaces. We provided an overflow to this system to wash excess stormwater into the neighbouring park, which has a water course. We have since also begun landscaping by planting a few plants and had 130sq.m of roll-on lawn laid to reduce the windblown sand.

Pool paving drainage pipe, with lowered french drain junctions either side

Overflow drainage pipe continues through boundary wall to discharge near neighbouring park's watercourse; perforated french drain pipe visible

French drain branch pipe covered with gravel and rubble

We have just had our builder back to erect the fibre cement cladding. It consists of 7.5mm thick fibre cement planks which are 230mm wide and 3.6m long. They are attached with clout nails every 600mm to the timber battens which were fixed to the exterior walls earlier. Each fibre cement planks overlaps the one below, so the end result resembles 200mm wide shiplapped cladding panels. He also put up the gutters [we just used an off-the-shelf PVC guttering system as the gutters are limited in extent and confined to one side of the house]. And we had our builder make some progress with painting some of the hard to reach parts of the house too, so the exterior of the house is now nearing completion....

Pool side cladding; unclad sections between windows are still to receive natural timber cladding

South side cladding

South side cladding; one of the top floor windows has its trim surround

Pool side; the lower-left interruption in the cladding is where the verandah roof will tie into the building