Main entrance

A new staircase and door is needed

Starting with staircase

The current staircase is not very safe, need to replace it.

-20250812

Taking some measurments an planning for how it can be done.

Initial state, and measurments..

Planning and drawing

started on a two step vid corner acces due to a ledge on th left hand side of the door and acces from the yard is necessary.

a bit too shallow.

Length between joists

Added som depth.

Attempted to estimate how many fasteners would be needed.
Also experimented with railing.

Approx 400 needed.g

Designed a railing where the ribs lean at staircase angle.

Not equal spacing, wide to narrow.

First draft, time for lumber yard.

First draft

-20250830

First load of wood transported, most likely not enough, but a good start.

Load of lumber.

-20250913

Unscrewed the old staircase, it had begun to rot severely.

Log staircase, untreated.

Door is missing protection for the threshold.
Need to fix itwith the new door.

Board to remove.

Water damage is not too bad, can be fixed.

Behind the board.

The wall panels are in bad shape, need to replace.

Water damage.

Taking some measurements to see how low it going to be cut
for where the new oaneling will be installed.

Some measurments.

Paneling needs to be cut some 10mm above where decking goes in.

Plunge saw guide rail.

Seeting up the ledger and using it as support for the track

Width of the first step.

Leveling guide rail.

Some math is needed to know what panel width might be needed.

How wide is the door

-20250920

Before cutting ledgers and joist a jig is needed for the cisrcular saw.
Prepainted wall panel is purchased and cut to size.

Red paneling 22x140mm.

Removing the bad panel, support beam behind seems to have survived.

Panels removed.

Cleaned up the area before starting.

A little bit cleaner.

Need to cut some small piece away before the ledger can be installed.

Excess wood cut away.

Squaring up a cutting jig.

The house has a concrete slab under the entrance, using it as staircase support. testing if a 45x170mm ledger can be used.

1.5m support ledger.

-20250927

Installed the ledger, it stands firmly on the concrete slab.
Staircase will be installed on the upper and lower support

Ledger installed on top of bitumen.

Some spacing is nice to allow for water and ice not to get stuck.

Setting up panels.

Nailed in place.

I do not want the ledger to directly touch the wall.
installing it with 10mm spacers.

Leveling the top ledger.

Fairly straightforward installation, using speed clamps to hold it in place.

Partially screwed in fasteners and standoff is added

6.0x140 C4 screw.

First ledger is installed

Checking length of lower ledger

Mockup of ledgers and joist to get a picture of what needs to be removed from the lawn.

Some digging is needed

-20250928

Some digging for forst step is needed.

What depth is needed?

Ground was very soft, dug down to the solid rock, som 50cm down.

-20251004

Gauging how plum the wall panels are, looks good, endstop i used and support ledgers ar pushed against it, a mistake was made in planning here...

Endstop before screwing in ledger.

Part of the entrance had som e concrete poured to support
a staircase in steel 20 years ago, need to level it enough for
bitumen protection and joist.

Joist is not level.

Time to chip away.

Perfectly level, almost.

A lot of material to remove, the lawn is not level, anywhere.
Some if the cut away lawn is saved for replanting

Barrels of dirt.

-20251011

Second hole was starte, center support for longest section.

supporting hole.

Finding approx center for where to dig, I'll be filling a pit with
rocks, gravel, stonecips and stone powder, laying on top of
ground cloth to help water runoff.

Digging in.

Filled the corner support hoel with a lot of rocks and finer gravel.
pounded the mixuture with support beams and flattened it as much as possible. using dual slabs that will allow for shimming if needed.

Corner supported.

Started adding 500mm joists

Checking if it is plum.

Second mistake made, there is not supposed to be a 900mm joist there

One correct beam and on that is not.

Working into the night, at least the porch light is effective.
F first frames are in place. forgot to document fiirst support corner.

Frame, two levels.

-20251012

Realiased my mistake and now the correct support beam goes in.

Doublechecking length for beam

Rocks

gravel and stone powder.

Digging away some lawn, the grond needs to have an air gap to allaow for ventilation.

Lowering lawn.

Thenewly cut sopport beam is installed

Support beam

installing it plum.

Staret to notice some cuts weren't very straight, used some straps to correct offset and then used a se square to fix the circular saw setting.

Strap in for adjustment.

500mm joists and a beam.

Josit cut to size.

Realized I've bought wrong hardware, fix it later...

Too small.

-20251013

Design test for decking, checking for 45° mitre cuts.
Using sharp edges can be difficult to get symmetrical.

Only mitre cuts on first step -not ok.

Top is framed and mitre cuts added.

Can't access for carriage bolts and nuts, need to screw the posts into place. support brackets must be added to dispearse the loads.

-20251016

Made a drill jig to enable installation of hidden fasteners near walls etc.

Dry wall expander size 37x8mm
Drill size 5.3mm
HECO Invisble 4.2x60mm

Decking 28x120
Ledger/joist 45x170

All jigs can be secured with speed clamp.

Thingiverse

Printed in PETG

Assembly time.

Drilling the threads out, 5.3mm.

The HECO screws fits nicely.

Bend the prongs away and file burrs.

Fits nicely.

Bit in place, end stop function ok.

Screw angle is for decking with nose.

installation is done from below the decking, angles of 50° 45° 27°

45°, decking wo nose

50° decking with nose

Added a third one for the railing

27° for 33° leaning ribs on rail

-20251017

After som reconsidering, I'll move away from 45° mitre cut framing, the chanses of it keeping it shape is not great.
Going for herring bone instead.

Top decking looks unfinished.

This looks a bit better.

Do not need to go full out on herringbones for top decking.
This design update will require som additional supports.

Support structure from top

-20251018

Bought bigger joist hangers and started installing them

Joist installation progressing.

Support for the first steps are done with reversible rafter ties on jois hangers.
900mm beams to save some on material.

Reversible rafter ties

Stage 1 completed?

-20251019

Based on updated design, additional joists are added.

Using scissor jacks to adjust

Smaller ones added.

Herring bone supports added

Cutting some decking boards to size.

This is very late for mosquitos.

-20251101

Cut some more decking, want to check all measuments before cutting and adding posts

Herringbone looks ok.

Mistakes vere made, multitool time.

Ran out of wood, lumberyard next.

Top level symmetry is acceptable..

-20251105

Got the rest of the decking to finshing cutting for the top level.

The last missing decking cut.

The railing posts will be 95x95 with railing made from 70x45

Railing posts cut to size

Bitumen protection.

Securing the railing post with reinforcements that will distribute the loads to the decking ledgers so it will not only be one set of screws holding them in place.

Reinforcements for trailing posts.

More reinforcements.

The screws are 140x6,0 C4

-20251108

Updated some drawings

Frame v6

Herringbone decking

Ribs in railing

-20251109

Hopng to get several of the decking boards in place, also hoping the 3D printed drill jig will work as intended.

Using a scissorlift the railing post is pushed firmly ino ledger befor screwed into position.
support beam added aswell.

Innermost rail post pushed in

Innermost rail post screwed in

First cutouts done

Top level RHS frame decking

Front two railing posts

Now time for deck screws
Using HECO inveisble screw has its challenges since the tool only sets free top level decking boards in place, now the 3D printed jig will be used to secure the boards "nose from below

Proof of concept