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Posted by alta47 on September 14, 2008, 10:20 am
What is the height from the floor of the sun room to the floor inside the
house?
Go to Lowes or Home Depot and take a careful look at what they have in the
treated lumber section for 3-step stringers and treads. You may find that
you can buy two 3-step stringers and 3 treads for each set of steps and nail
or screw them together to make new steps. Or, a handyman can do the same
thing for you.
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=4643-152-4643&detail=&lpage=none
Depending on the width of the current steps, the new steps may even be able
to be built right around and over the existing steps without taking the old
ones out -- although that would be, and would look, tacky.
> I know every place and situation is different, just trying to figure if
> this is reasonable. (And someone's not pulling something over on a naive
> home owner).
> New to me house has a "sun room" built across the back of the house. There
> are two separate sets of cement steps from the house to the room. The
> steps are very awkward for me. I'm 5' tall, and the distance from the door
> to the first step is like 9-1/2", and different on the other. And since I
> have to step over a threshold just inside the door, it makes the first
> step *really* big for me. I'm interested in having new "user friendly"
> steps put in over the existing ones.
> I had a contractor that I've used before look at them, just to build plain
> wood steps over the existing steps, using Trex. He originally quoted me
> $450 for the two, or $420 if I did it with plain wood. Then the other day
> he came by and looked at them again and sent me an email that he'd
> realized he couldn't do them as he'd originally planned with stringers and
> needed to use a "box method" and that "there is more material required
> with this method so the new price would be $750.00."
> So questions - shouldn't he have realized what type of design he'd need
> when he first measured the steps and quoted on it? And should the
> difference really be $300 for additional material? And most importantly,
> what would a reasonable price (range) be for two sets of steps (3 steps
> each) in the Baltimore area? I was happy with the $450 although a male
> relative told me he thought it was too much since it would "only need $50
> worth of material". I wouldn't be asking here about the original price,
> but I'm confused by the $300 increase. (It's not the cost of Trex, because
> the orig price specified a $30 reduction if he used unfinished lumber).
> Current steps -
>
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v704/lurkerlee/problem%20areas/?action=view¤t=Sunroom-awkwardsteps.jpg
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Posted by Joe on September 14, 2008, 3:14 pm
> I know every place and situation is different, just trying to figure if
> this is reasonable. (And someone's not pulling something over on a naive
> home owner).
> New to me house has a "sun room" built across the back of the house.
> There are two separate sets of cement steps from the house to the room.
> The steps are very awkward for me. I'm 5' tall, and the distance from
> the door to the first step is like 9-1/2", and different on the other.
> And since I have to step over a threshold just inside the door, it makes
> the first step *really* big for me. I'm interested in having new "user
> friendly" steps put in over the existing ones.
> I had a contractor that I've used before look at them, just to build
> plain wood steps over the existing steps, using Trex. He originally
> quoted me $450 for the two, or $420 if I did it with plain wood. Then
> the other day he came by and looked at them again and sent me an email
> that he'd realized he couldn't do them as he'd originally planned with
> stringers and needed to use a "box method" and that "there is more
> material required with this method so the new price would be $750.00."
> So questions - shouldn't he have realized what type of design he'd need
> when he first measured the steps and quoted on it? And should the
> difference really be $300 for additional material? And most importantly,
> what would a reasonable price (range) be for two sets of steps (3 steps
> each) in the Baltimore area? I was happy with the $450 although a male
> relative told me he thought it was too much since it would "only need
> $50 worth of material". I wouldn't be asking here about the original
> price, but I'm confused by the $300 increase. (It's not the cost of
> Trex, because the orig price specified a $30 reduction if he used
> unfinished lumber).
> Current steps -http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v704/lurkerlee/problem%2=
0areas/?act...
Given your situation, I'd probably spend a bit more money and remove
both offending piles of ugly concrete and install at least one set of
steps that would be at the side of an appropriate small landing and
railing assembly. Or maybe a landing with steps on either side would
look nicer. Two such additions to the room might be more than you
need, so space could be gained by eliminating the seldom used entry.
Make some sketches and work with your contractor on pricing. Railings
and proper steps will be very nice to live with, especially if the
steps follow the commonly preferred 7" rise and 11" run. HTH
Joe
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Posted by cshenk on September 14, 2008, 3:58 pm
"Joe" wrote
>space could be gained by eliminating the seldom used entry.
>Make some sketches and work with your contractor on pricing. Railings
>and proper steps will be very nice to live with, especially if the
>steps follow the commonly preferred 7" rise and 11" run. HTH
Caution if I understand you to eliminate the door steps. It may be a code
issue in the case of 2 egresses per room. Codes arent always logical.
Where I am, the only thing that makes my egress 'legal' from the 3rd bedroom
which has no window, is the origional exterior door that now leads to a
sunroom. This may be the same as what she has (not mentioned is the room
the sunroom leads to inside the house).
The sun room is 'legal' because of the patio door and windows. Happens to
also have another door which we refit to proper lintels and exterior coded
door. (Inspectors quibble on that one here, and some say exterior coded
door is overkill while others mandate it due to the screened porch on that
side).
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> this is reasonable. (And someone's not pulling something over on a naive
> home owner).
> New to me house has a "sun room" built across the back of the house. There
> are two separate sets of cement steps from the house to the room. The
> steps are very awkward for me. I'm 5' tall, and the distance from the door
> to the first step is like 9-1/2", and different on the other. And since I
> have to step over a threshold just inside the door, it makes the first
> step *really* big for me. I'm interested in having new "user friendly"
> steps put in over the existing ones.
> I had a contractor that I've used before look at them, just to build plain
> wood steps over the existing steps, using Trex. He originally quoted me
> $450 for the two, or $420 if I did it with plain wood. Then the other day
> he came by and looked at them again and sent me an email that he'd
> realized he couldn't do them as he'd originally planned with stringers and
> needed to use a "box method" and that "there is more material required
> with this method so the new price would be $750.00."
> So questions - shouldn't he have realized what type of design he'd need
> when he first measured the steps and quoted on it? And should the
> difference really be $300 for additional material? And most importantly,
> what would a reasonable price (range) be for two sets of steps (3 steps
> each) in the Baltimore area? I was happy with the $450 although a male
> relative told me he thought it was too much since it would "only need $50
> worth of material". I wouldn't be asking here about the original price,
> but I'm confused by the $300 increase. (It's not the cost of Trex, because
> the orig price specified a $30 reduction if he used unfinished lumber).
> Current steps -
>