It is that time of year again when our attention turns to the outdoors and the curb appeal of our homes. One easy way to give your front porch a quick face lift is to add or replace an outdoor stair rail.
A few things to keep in mind, along with design, have to do with observing city and county codes.
Residential properties generally have to have at least one handrail along a flight of stairs. The height of the handrail should be mounted somewhere between 34″ and 38″ above all of the stair nosing.
The grip-able area of the handrail should measure between 1 1/4″ and 2 1/4″.
If the handrail is to be hung along an existing wall, like the example in the photos, a 1 1/2″ clearance between any projection in the wall and the handrail should be observed. Sometimes this gets a bit tricky if the wall has an uneven surface like stone.

Tom built this handrail to fit a new home. The handrail needed to bolt to a stone faced wall at the top and also bolt to a stone faced concrete planter at the bottom of the stairs. Tom used a lag screw that fit into the metal railing bracket and sunk it through the stone and wall behind. The bottom bracket was fastened using a concrete anchor through the stone into the concrete planter underneath. Tom used 1 1/2″ .109 wall E.W. round tubing bent using a Shop Outfitters Universal Fabricator.

The Millers continue to plug away at building their new energy efficient home themselves. Visit our last two posts here and here to catch up on the progress.

Greetings to All,
First, we want to wish everyone a superb Thanksgiving. We hope that you can all gather around with family and friends. We know that the English clan out in Eugene will have a house full, and know that the Gabriels down in Laramie will be cooking up a huge meal.

Daylight has become scarce, and our weeks have filled up with other activities. Katie is on the Middle School Swim Team, Dan is in Boy Scouts over in Powell, and this week Dan decided (after being encouraged by the coach), that he should start swimming as well. So both kids are swimming M-F. Katie keeps improving her times at the meets.

We have been trying ever so hard to finish up that pesky metal roof on the house. We are up to the skylights that we have cut into the roof. The flashing kit that came with the skylights requires that you perform delicate maneuvers with tin snips and other sharp objects while tethered to the roof with your life line. Kind of like trimming your toenails sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

In addition to the wind and weather not cooperating, yours truely took a pretty good fall from a ladder about ten days ago. I cowboyed things out for a few days until Peggy insisted that I go to the doctor. -A sprained left ankle, and a small radial fracture in my right elbow. So I have been slowed but not stopped. About the only thing that really hurts to do is pound with a hammer with my right arm.

We lost some sleep, planning strategy for placing the large front door unit (w / two side lights and a transom) and large bedroom exterior french door and transom unit. Both are large, heavy, expensive, and full of glass. So we rigged up a contraption to move these things so that they could be edged into place. We had success, no broken glass, no more broken bones. The house is now locked, and sealed from the elements. We have moved all the rough electrical and rough plumbing supplies into the house in anticipation of doing some of this work over Thanksgiving.

From the photos, you can see about where we are with the roof. We have also installed the porch rafters and completed the framing of all the second floor walls. Dan did a great job of securing the door units while riding on the front of the tractor forks. Less, you think that we are in violation of international child labor laws, I was close by walking alongside the tractor to secure the load.

So Happy Thanksgiving to All.

-Chip, Peg, Dan and Katie

-Our Holiday Break has just ended. We put some 9 days of work into the house and have accomplished a lot. The kids have been great between working hard and playing around with their Christmas gifts. Most of our days have ended in sheer exhaustion.

We have run several thousand feet of electrical wire in the house, and a lesser amount of low voltage Cat5, and speaker wire, installed some 50 can lights. A big accomplishment was the installation of all the R49 fiberglass insulation in the main body of the house ceiling (the great room vault, and over the second floor rooms). Chip and Dan donned hazmat suits for this task.

It is hope that all had a great holiday. We tried to get some Christmas cards in the mail. To those of you who missed one, we applologize for the lack luster replacement of an email greeting.

-Chip, Peg, Dan, Katie

-What a wild weekend! -We had high winds Friday and Saturday preventing us from starting on the install of the standing seam metal roof. So Friday and Saturday we switched gears and installed windows on the house. Most windows are in – except the West wall (prevailing winds), and the kids second floor bedrooms. Sunday the weather cooperated, consequently we were able to start roofing. About 1/3 of the South face of the house roof is done.

-Cheers! -Chip

-This weekend we rented a Squirt Boom, thus allowing us to place the 600lb green 8 x 16 green Spruce beam at the ridge of the porch peak. Next comes the framing for the porch roof. We made good use of this wonderful machine to finish up the Tyvek Stucco Wrap, install all of the west wall windows, start the scary installation of the gable end metal roof pieces on the house and garage. The lifting rig we used was certainly quite a bit safer than our last contraption.

The wind blew pretty good (out of the West) on Sat. so installing the windows on the West wall was akin to having magnets stick to metal. -Hold up the windows…..and whoosh……they stuck right to the wall!

After a busy day Sat. Peggy and I found the opportunity to make it to a Halloween Party dressed as our favorite movie characters – James Bond and the Bond Girl “Camile” from “A Quantum of Solstice”. I think that Peggy made quite a remarkable transition from construction grubbies to glam for this event. I sure am a lucky guy to be able to pal around with such a beautiful gal!

We are just about weathered in. Coming up we have a three day weekend, that we may extend to four days. All of the roof metal is delivered, so we may make a big push to install all the roofing on both buildings as well as the skylights.

Best to all.

-Chip

We are destined to have Wind Power in our future. Seems like that greater Yellowstone Plateau just West of us, keeps throwing high winds our way. We had a three day weekend, and planned to put the roof on the house. Friday saw gust up to 60 mph. Saturday we did a half day and about 40′ of metal roof before the winds kicked in. Sunday brought turbulent winds all day.

Not to loose any time, we switched gears and installed two skylights over the loft area that will become Pegs botanical painting area, and put a skylight in each of the kids bedrooms. The two skylights in the loft painting are have a sweet view of Carter Mountain. We also just about licked the second floor framing of two kids bedrooms, two walk in closets and a large second floor bathroom.

The second floor now appears to be a labyrinth of wood. The photo with Dan shows the partially completed bathroom with the ladder in it. Next in line other than the roof – second floor rail partition, stair cutout, fire blocking, fireplace chase, then finally rough electrical and plumbing. We anticipate the garage doors and exterior doors arriving this week.

A great week to all!

-Chip

We spent the weekend with family near Boulder Colorado. Any trip to the Boulder area really requires a visit to Pearl Street Mall.
Pearl Street Mall is a four block pedestrian mall with many locally owned shops and restaurants. The mall was dedicated in August of 1977 and has seen many transformations since then.
The one thing we noticed was the many and various types of outdoor railing used at outdoor cafe spots. Most of the railing was metal, which makes sense given the sometimes wet and snowy Colorado climate. Metal is simple to install and looks nice against wood, brick or stone. Metal is also a good investment as it requires little upkeep and lasts a long time.
Incorporating a railing around an outdoor eating area belonging to a restaurant is often part of city code. There are usually requirements concerning furnishings, awnings, foliage as well as railing. A restaurant can be sure that their outdoor eating area must be directly adjacent to the building as well as allow for several feet for pedestrian access.
After considering these necessary building codes, an establishment should be concerned with how the railing blends in with it’s existing architecture and what kind of first impression it will make to potential customers passing by.
We found several good examples of metal guardrail at the Pearl Street Mall. One we found utilized stone pillars that connected radius aluminum tubing that was most likely curved using a large roller. The metal pickets were either cast, liquid metal poured into a mold, or forged, heated to the point of malleability and then pounded into shape for texture and detail. This design had a pleasing curve that allowed for a spacious feel on the cafe side of the metal railing.

Another of our favorite metal guardrails was this green rail. The designer started by anchoring the metal rail with large square tube posts. The bottom rail is two pieces of angle iron fitted with the baluster straps. The top rail is channel iron with a metal top cap painted black. Flat strap formed in diamond shapes is welded into an interesting design. The one and a quarter by three sixteenths strap has been punched for rivets at each intersection as well as having a notched out pattern.

One example of a corporate look is the highly functional and polished handrail at Old Chicago Restaurant. Old Chicago had by far the most outdoor seating area on the Pearl Street Mall. Their outdoor venue stretched around the corner and onto a back porch. The straight steel one by two inch top and mid-rail combined with one inch and a quarter square tube pickets combined for a clean contemporary guardrail. The contractors also incorporated a nice finishing touch by welding the “OC” boarder out of metal cast ring.

There was plenty of great metal handrail to look at on a recent trip to New Mexico. Tom and I spent most of the day wandering around the Taos area and snapping pictures of interesting custom metal handrail and guard rail. Taos is a mecca of metal artwork and the detail is not lost on a few of the commercial properties located in the town.
We found this example most interesting as it was laced with common objects. The handrail was at The World Cafe and included lots of whimsical items welded into the scrolled metal guardrails. A couple of examples are below. A great online source for metal stair material is Stairwarehouse.com. They have numerous examples of all kinds of handrails, guardrails and even stair treads. You can even view a great do it yourself project online. Another great source for metal stair rail work is Orleans Ornamental Iron & Casting Distributors, Inc. out of New Orleans Louisiana. Tom has ordered several items from Orleans and has had a good experience each time. Orleans Ornamental carries iron castings, aluminum castings, steel forgings as well as castings for furniture and accessories.

Another fabulous looking handrail we saw was located in the Taos Inn. This small stairway in the lobby of the hotel was speckled with chili peppers.
Metal handrail has developed into an artwork as there are more options for design and weld looks. Metal handrail also is a good choice to stand up in all kinds of elements. It can draw attention to a business and add to the overall atmosphere. Something to keep in mind is requirements for spacing metal pickets. Pickets are to be spaced so that a four inch spherical ball may not pass through at any point.
Check with building officials in your area to find out about other codes and requirements.

Outdoor Commercial Stairway

Metal Hand Rails are widely used in both residential construction and commercial construction.
The International Building Code has hand rail code requirements listed under the means of egress section. Both stair hand rails and ramp hand rails are required in most situations. Talk to the building official in your area to clarify whether your stairway or ramp should have a hand rail.
Metal hand rails are used indoors and outdoors. Metal hand rails tend to be more durable, last longer, and leave a finished look on stairway projects. Metal hand rails can be fabricated in most machine shops that also take on welding work.
Two important things to consider when contracting with a machinist/welder to fabricate a metal hand rail for your residence or business are the height requirements and extension requirements of your new hand rail.
Section 1009.11.1 states that: “Handrail height, measured above stair tread nosings, or finished surface of ramp slope, shall be uniform, not less than 34 inches (864 mm) and not more than 38 inches (965 mm).”
This means that starting from the stair or ramp surface, the hand rail should slope somewhere between 34 and 38 inches above the tread line.

Where the metal hand rails are free standing and do not continue on they must extend at least twelve inches at either end. Section 1009.11.5 states that “Handrails shall return to a wall, guard or the walking surface or shall be continuous to the handrail of an adjacent stair flight. Where handrails are not continuous between flights, the handrails shall extend horizontally at least 12 inches (305 mm) beyond the top riser and continue to slope for the depth of one tread beyond the bottom riser.

These series of articles will include pictures and email from Chip and Peg. They are embarking on building a new home for their family in northern Wyoming. They will do much of the work themselves with an eye on incorporating sustainable construction. They are building a home, shop and green house. Attached are photos of our our latest project. Monday we poured 42 yards of concrete into Logix Insulated Concrete Forms. Had four concrete trucks lined up along with an aged pumper truck. Luck was with us on the Garage – Greenhouse and House pours – no blowouts, no great “hurry up events”, just a hot day and lots of aerobics circulating around the construction site. First read – the Logix blocks are a fantastic product. Easy to use, and make a strong insulated wall. We are most impressed! -Stay tuned for the next round of “The Miller Family Construction Academy Health Club”.

Layers and layers! The sub grade plumbing – drain – waste – vent pipes (PVC) are in, countless hours of wrist breaking action with the dreaded “Wacker (wacko) Packer” have compacted the soil along the ICF stemwalls (from Canada), a layer of 6 mil plastic on both buildings is in along with 2″ of foam board insulation. Many 4′ x 8′ steel remesh mats lashed together, along with rebar from C H I N A. Some 2000 lineal feet of 3/4″ Pex radiant tubing (from Switzerland) layed down and fastened with over 2000 zip ties (from Austria). Jeez – ya think that we could at least start making some of this stuff here again! We zip tied to a loudly played Science Friday, A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, BBC World News, and numerous other Wyoming Public Radio Shows. We remind the kids frequently that this is brain food. (The Libertarian neighbor believes that we are certified, collective, workaholic, family nut cases.) (He is still not quite sure what to make of us and the large piles of dirt we have created.) The concrete flat work guy shows up this week for the finished floor over it all (will eventually be stained – acid etched concrete). We have the lumber package for both buildings arriving later in the week.

Hello All, We are looking down the barrel at 3 weeks to returning to our day jobs.  Boy will that be easy!  Attached are photos of progress to date.  We have both concrete slabs in courtesy of James Shulz construction.  He did a silky smooth finish on the concrete on both buildings.  Trust us – the slabs are major slippery when wet.  This guy is a concrete artist!  Tomorrow he shows up to cut and bevel the house slab.  We will later acid etch stain and grout the cuts to look like marble flooring. Tomorrow the building package shows up for the house.  It has taken us about 6 days to frame and sheath the shop – greenhouse – garage.  We anticipate about the same on the house.  Both buildings will then be awaiting the delivery of the roof trusses.  The greenhouse – shop is about done as far as the framing goes. Wow!  What an interesting summer for the weather – cooler than normal.  The landscape out on the Southfork is ever changing with the rapid changes in the weather, the light and clouds blowing through.  When the wind picks up you learn to quickly put down any sheet materials, less you become a Davinci flying experiment.  We are ever entertained.  The only other place we have seen such dramatic play in color and light has been the Grand Canyon. Cheers! Chip, Peggy, Dan, Katie,

-Greenhouse – Garage – Shop is ready for trusses. Trusses have been delivered for the building, awaiting the crane truck and crew. The garage and master bedroom area of the house right down to the north kitchen wall is framed. We continue to make progress daily. The house slab has been pattern cut with a concrete saw. James Shulz just has to finish chamfering the cut pattern. We have less than two weeks – then back to our day jobs.

Chip. Peggy, Dan, Katie
(The Crew From The Diamond Basin Construction Health Club)

“Work Hard – Never Grown Old – Just Keep Moving”

-Attached a photo of the just completed West wall of the great room.  We did it today.  The ceiling will vault to 19′ on the inside with T & G Aspen.  The upper (3rd tier) of windows will be finished and cut in when the gable truss is set.  Sheep and Jim mountains are framed by the windows.  Lots of wind to the West so the wall will have enhanced 100 mph, “thickened glass”, Energy Star rated, 30% kick back on cost (thanks Barak O.)  We have a big time thermostatically controlled air recirculation system to move the air about in winter and summer months.

-We just keep moving, summers are short.

-Cheers – the Diamond Basin Construction Health Club.

We move to part time this week, as we start our “day jobs” again. The house interior walls are framed up. We have installed the second floor decking. At this point we are starting to get excited. The great room is shaping up. We now have visions of the vast open space being created. James Shulz shows up this week to do the concrete front porch complete with stamped in grizzly tracks (will make a great tale for the grand kids). We will hopefully have him set the garage / greenhouse and house trusses in a week or so. Chip & Peggy, Dan & Kate We are back to the day jobs. Have James Schulz Construction hanging the trusses and sheathing the roof. Photos attached. The weather has been most cooperative so far. Next windows and exterior doors. Brrrrrrrrr……..cold and snow have slowed however not stopped us. Coldest Oct. on record to date. Wed. Chip heads up to the Park with his GPS – GIS – Engineering Surveying class to map out West Thumb Geyser Basin. There will be some good snow up there. We have a semi protected roof cover on the house, and on the greenhouse – shop building. The blue stuff in the photos is an all weather titanium roof paper product. The standing seam, Energy Star rated metal roofing has been ordered for the two buildings. This past weekend Peg and I stood under eaves dripping with snow melt in a foot of mud, hanging the windows and placing the doors in the greenhouse – garage. -This after a howitzer loaded with H1N1 bombed our house over the last two weeks. We have all recovered and are all the better because of the experience. Today our four panel solar hot water system arrived. The truck driver could not locate our address with his GPS so I gave him directions when he stopped in at school. -Good to know that we are still Google incognito for a bit longer. WE have pieces of the solar assisted radiant floor system arriving daily. Soon we will have to sort through and make sense of the boxes of Taco valves, manifolds, electronic controls, valve actuators etc. Our house windows and exterior doors will at long last be delivered on Thursday. Last Friday, Chip drove down to Manderson with the trailer and picked up 9 hefty Spruce timbers to be used to build the front porch on the house. We have also been placing six large sections of channel iron on the West wall of the house as bracing against the potential 150 mph micro bursts that mother nature can send. These are being lag bolted onto the wall to stiffen it. (Thank you Tom for getting us set up with the metal!) -You can bet that wind power will be in our future. This next weekend we will be setting house windows and getting the place dried in. If we get that mystical “indian summer” soon, we will be up on the roof hanging metal. For now, we are just stuck in mud, however continue to be entertained by the ever changing seasons of Carter Mountain and the upper Southfork.

The weather has improved recently. Today our standing seam metal roof arrives – the project for the weekend. Last weekend we started construction on the Timber Frame Front Porch. We used some sweat and the full capacity of the Kubota to hoist into place several green 8 x 12 x 16′ Spruce Timbers. As you can see from the photos, we still have to do the peak beam. -This will have to wait until we rent a squirt boom to place the upper windows.

With winter knocking at our door…………the windows will be next. The kids saw a Grizzley munching on a Buffalo in the Park yesterday.

View of leak in concrete foundation.

Tom received this letter from Daron and MaryAnn of Idaho. Sound familiar to anyone?

Tom,

Daron and I have a new segment for “Tips by Tom”. We found water in our
basement a few days ago. We found out it was coming in around were the
sewer line exits the house. Luckily there is a cut out in the closet
where the leak was for the sewer cleanout, so it was easy to see. We dug
down outside to see if we could see why it was leaking. I took some
pictures and attached them so you could see what we found. There is
concrete on the top of the pipe to seal it where it goes into the house
but underneath the pipe there is no such concrete. We need to know how
to seal the bottom area so it will quit leaking. The contractor who
built the house said to contact the sewer people, the sewer people said
they don’t fix it to call a plumber, the plumber did not want to come fix
it but told us to buy a 5 gallon tub of “water plug patch” for $65.00
which they said to use a putty knife to fill the area around the pipe,
let it dry, and apply it again, and repeat 4 or 5 times. The supply
store said to use roofing tar, another said to use concrete crack filler,
someone at Daron’s work said to use Bentonite and tar. It is a really
tight area to work in and you can not actually see under the pipe, you
can only feel along the pipe. What is your suggestion?

MaryAnn

What To Look For In A Gas Grill from Dave Dugdale on Vimeo.

Dave asks Tom what to look for when purchasing a backyard gas grill.  A few years ago, Tom finally invested in a gas grill that wasn’t patched together from parts he had picked up from the town landfill.  He purchased this middle of the road gas grill at a Lowes store.  Dave was over for the weekend and wanted to pick Tom’s brain about his thoughts on purchasing a gas grill.

The first thing Tom mentioned was looking for a gas grill with a side burner.  Side burners come in handy when boiling corn or noodles.  Side burners often keep the heat, mess & cooking outside on a warm summer night.

Before purchasing a gas grill lift the lid.  Cast iron grates are nice because they don’t rust out.

Perhaps one of the most important things to look for when purchasing a gas grill are the burners.  Look for a gas grill with cast iron burners.  Normally, on cheaper models, the burners won’t be cast iron and tend to rust out fairly quickly.

Another thing to consider if you are looking at having a backyard gas grill is connecting your gas grill to a permanant gas source.  Tom ran propane gas out the back of the kitchen to connect to the gas grill on the patio.

Several things are key when exploring this option.  Check local building codes for remodel requirements.  Pipe specifications may vary from area to area.  Tom used black gas pipe.  Special pipe thread sealant is required when running propane as well.  Look for a propane listing on the label.

Make sure your system also includes a shut off valve, rated for propane, near the gas grill.

It is also important to do a gas pressure check after hooking up your new gas grill.  This involves isolating all gas appliance’s and then charging the gas line with compressed air.  Pressure is monitored in the pipe in insure it is holding contents.  Any connection beyond the isolated points should be checked using a leak detector found in any local hardware store.  If you are not comfortable running the test yourself then your propane supplier should also be able to come out and do a shut in test as well.

A good grill should last about ten years or so.  This grill has been in operation on the Gabriel patio for two to five years.  Depending on who you ask.

Tom often gets requests to build custom metal handrails from both residential builders and commercial companies. His various projects will be posted to this site as they are completed. I thought it might be handy to review a few steps to consider as you begin a handrail fabrication project.

Tom’s years spent as a building inspector for our city comes in handy when tackling projects such as building and installing a custom metal handrail. A handrail is required if there are four or more stairs. Commercial and residential codes differ from there on.

Commercial code requires that the builder must extend the handrail a foot beyond both the top and bottom landings of the stairs. The handrail should continue it’s slop with the stairs in relation to the bottom stair. At the top of the stair landing the handrail should bend and level out so as to parallel the top landing. Both top and bottom handrail should extend at least a foot.

If there is a drop off the side of the stair at any point that is thirty inches or more, a guardrail should be built as well. Commercial code dictates that guardrail should be forty two inches minimum. The guardrails should also be fixed so that the guardrail bars are fixed so that a four inch sphere can not pass through any part of the guardrail. This safety rule prevents kids from putting their heads through the guardrail and having the misfortune of getting stuck. Residential guardrail is measured at a thirty six inch minimum.

The first step in designing and building a handrail is to measure the rise and run of the stairs. This will give you the slope of the stairway. An angle meter can also be used. Tom usually measures the front of the bottom tread and the front of the very last tread, or landing of the top. This gives him a starting point for where the bends on the handrails will be located.

When measuring the rise of the stair note that they are all with in 3/8″ of each other. After measuring a few stairs, take an average of the rise. Tom takes his measurements of the rise and run of the staircase and chalks them out on his shop floor. He then uses that as a pattern to shape the metal handrail.

It is also important to consider the architecture of the house or building when constructing a metal handrail. Square handrail often looks nice, but code likes round handrail because it tends to be more graspable. Code also specifies that handrail should be at least an inch and a quarter in diameter with a maximum of two and a quarter. The height should also be between thirty four and thirty eight inches.

Metal handrail was 1 1/2″ tubing with a wall thickness of .109.  Tubing was fabricated using Shop Outfitter’s Universal Fabricator.  The Universal Fabricator bends up to 1 1/4″ pipe or 1 1/2″ tubing.  Dies are also available for square tubing up to 1 1/2″.