Today, the Hudson Companies bloggers talk stairs. As far as staircases go, Third + Bond’s stairs are more on the order of what Michelle wore for the Barbara Walters interview than for the Inauguration or the Inaugural Balls. Simple, classy, and straightforward. The stairs will look good, befit a modern brownstone, and, of course, function perfectly.
We have 8 buildings each with a set of internal common stairs. Our budget is $35,000 and was originally based on steel stairs (stringer, riser, pan into which the tread sits, and railings) with a poured concrete topping for the treads and landings. But now that buy-out time has come and we are about to put pen to paper, we are taking another look at tread options. We’ll keep the steel stair because we like the look and price. It also meets the requirement for a fire rated stair.
The review of options that follows is nearly verbatim the discussion at this week’s construction meeting. (Did we tell you we’d take you behind-the-scenes or what?!) We talked through a lot of ideas and posed a lot of questions…
Tread Options
1) Poured concrete, trowel-finished. This is what we originally specified. To accomplish this tread, the sub has to mix up a batch of concrete and pour it carefully onto the top of each stair. Then he has to smooth it with a trowel. Anyone who has iced a cake knows that getting a smooth surface isn’t as easy as it looks. Concern: It could end up very messy to do in the field. We could have bits of concrete dried onto the metal riser and stringers and it could be tricky to trowel the tread flat enough so that it looks good. Benefit: If it’s well done, it will look good, maintain well, and comes in at or under budget.
