A Ladder to the Basement

  

Every old house has its flaws, and our house is no exception.

Show above is a top view of the new stair to our basement.

Here's a three-quarter view from the bottom:

Here's a full-on view:

 Notice the logs framing the stairway at the top of the stairway. They date from the house's original construction in 1940 and there's just 24 inches between them. This means the maximum width of the stair can be only two feet.

Compare the top step of the new stairs,above, to the top step of the original stairway:

That's a whopper, far more than the ten or eleven inches between the other other steps. It was so high, in fact, that I was unable to make it. I could have if there had been something I could have pushed down on or pulled up on, but the angled end of the handrail was too sharp for comfort,and so whenever I went downstairs I would crawl out into the hallway when I came back up.

Here's a blurry three-quarter view of the original stair. See how steep they were? They were more a ladder than a stair. It didn't help that two of the treads were loose. Going into the basement was a real adventure, I tell you.

Such construction, by the way, is not atypical for older Ringwood houses. The town was created as a resort and many of the houses, including ours, were once cabins-- and some still are. Heather saw a far worse basement stairway in the first house at which we looked.

For my first 30 and more days in the house using the outside door to the basement wasn't an option because of accumulated snow and ice. That means I pretty much stayed out of the basement.

That might not have been a problem if the movers hadn't put things meant for the main and second floor in the basement.

I persuaded Heather job one should be to build a workable stair. And so we asked plumber Dave Harvey (Heather knows Dave's wife) for a referral. He gave us Mark Fanella's name.

I called Mark and he came out and looked at the old stairway and named a price. And then he tore it out and built us a new one.

Mark worked under several physical constraints. First was the aforementioned 24" width restriction. The second had to do with headroom-- if he made the stair descend too gradually we would be likely to bump our heads when descending. If he made the stair descend too steeply we would have another ladder. He made the perfect decision, leaving us with a stairway we can easily climb and in which we have confidence because he built it in a most sturdy manner. The old stair, he told us, had been secured only by nails. Yikes!

Mark worked quickly and neatly and a little more than 24 hours after he brought in his tools and a supply of wood, we had a new stairway. Every edge of every board is routed, and everything is held together with long screws.

Lag bolts and long screws ensure the the top of the stair will forever remain in place.

Considering the amount of wood needed and the time it took, Mark's price was reasonable. He was considerate and polite and left the basement clean-- not an easy thing when sawdust and wood shavings are involved. I'm sure we will use him for future projects.

If you happen to be looking for a carpenter, Mark's phone number is 973-670-5899.