Loft Stairs

As planned, we went up to our camp this weekend to recreate and put some more work in to the shabin. This week's project was to create easy access to the sleeping loft. My original plans where to have a simple ladder that could be hooked to the loft edge for access, then hung out of the way on a wall during the day. However, a ladder is not the safest or easiest way up and down. Also, since head room is an issue in the loft, I also wanted to come up near the center line. Putting a ladder in the middle of the room would really intrude on the area below, where we want to have a pull out bed.

My next plan was to install stairs. Given the space constraints, I wanted to put in alternating tread stairs. An example is pictured at above. They provide the same foot fall and riser height as normal stairs, but they require one to always alternate stepping up or down the same way, allowing them to take up roughly half the amount of space. In our case, the stairs would run from one side of the shabin up to the center line, where I would build a landing on the front of the loft. The stairs would hang over one end of the sofa we plan to put downstairs. After some thought, and staying in the shabin a couple of times, we decided we really needed something that would get out of the way. So, I changed my mind one last time and decided to go with the more conventional pull down attic stairs. Those are available as assembled kits from any home supply center. The typical ones are a bit flimsy, so I special ordered a set of heavy duty stairs.

To use the stairs, I needed somewhere to hang them as well as somewhere to land when you reach the top. I built an extension to the front of the existing loft, a little over two feet wide. On the left side I framed in an opening for the stairs, and on the right side I would add more floor. In the picture above you can see my framing for the extension, with the stair kit already hanging in its opening. The loft was originally half the total space, leaving eight feet open to the living area below. Now we have about six feet open. I think this also adds some critically useful space to the loft, enough to stand at the end of the bed and change clothes. The feeling of openness downstairs is largely the same, so I think this was a good compromise.

Here we see Lizz making the inaugural climb up the stairs. I guess she had some confidence in my construction abilities. I did hang the stairs using twenty 3" and 4" lag screws, so there is a pretty good chance it will hold up. At this point, I still need to trim a bit more off the bottom of the stairs, which is why they are a bit crooked. Still, they were perfectly functional and much easier than clambering up and down a ladder.

Here is a shot of the stairs running up to the new landing. I am hammering down the particle board flooring to create the landing. For our next trip up, I will lay down the cherry laminate floor and we will move our mattress upstairs. I plan to finish the loft with a set of safety cables to serve as a railing. I may wait until the walls are finished to install those, though.

It was not all work this weekend. Carleigh got some quality time in nature. Here she is teaching Buzz Lightyear about nature, showing him the leaf she found. We made it down to the river on both days. Carleigh loves to swim in the cold water, and I really appreciated cooling off in the water after working in the heat.

I should also share what everyone else was doing downstairs while I labored above. Note that Carleigh only eats the middle of Oreo cookies. It was great that we got to relax a bit, and the stairs were a fun project. All in all, it was a really great weekend.