Stairs in shop

[Jon Endres]

Looking for advice & opinions on stairs. I am building a 24x36 garage workshop from scratch, designing it to use 1 bay for regular use of a car (mostly in winter); 1 bay for infrequent use of car and winter occupation by tractor & snowplow; and the last bay as permanent woodworking shop space. The entire building has an attic/loft with 30" knee walls, giving me another 800 sf of space "upstairs". I have 10' ceilings on the main floor. I am planning on using the upstairs space for storage of some lumber, as well as a hobby space for other things - maybe a pool table, or a model railroad setup, etc. I don't see myself going up there every day, but it might be possible that I need to go up there once or twice a week.

If I put in a traditional stairway, it eats up way more room than I would like it to. I am looking at possible options, including an exterior stairs, pull-down attic stairs, spiral stairs, a homemade elevator, and non-code-compliant but traditional stairs (no code enforcement where I live). I could lower the ceiling a few inches but I'd like to keep it at least 9-1/2'. Every option seems to have possible problems. Not sure what the best option is.

[Mel Fulks]

Well, I hate steep stairs, don't like to go more that 6 and 1/2 to 10 and a 1/2. Since you will probably be carrying something every time you travel them ,consider that. Even without code enforcement a sale could make poor solution a problem. Out side could be good especially if you use low maintenance metal.

[Kent A Bathurst]

If it was me.........which it ain't..............

I would put in a platform elevator -- maybe 3' x 4' or 3' x 5', with a capacity of 1 - 2 tons. Manual chain-fall operated? Then you can move larger stuff up and down. No permanent consumption of shop floor space.

You'd need ladder access somewhere, of course -- - just in case.

Guy I knew had his workshop in the basement. Restored Model T's, stuff like that. In one corner of his garage was a lift like this one - bigger of course. Took the cars up and down as needed. Always thought that was pretty cool.......

[Martin Wasner]

Put the stairs outside?

[Richard Wolf]

You need a set of space saving stairs, I've always wanted to build a set.

http://www.stairplan.com/spacesaver.htm

[Thomas Canfield]

I have a pull down stairway in my shop to access the storage space. The stairs work OK for getting up and down, but are more difficult when trying to carry a load. The space for the pull down is marked on the floor to be sure and keep that area accessible when needed. You might consider having a larger opening to pass large objects up/down since a stairway can be limiting. There are lots of options out there for fold-down stairs to get more width and the height you need, and you will need to do framing different for the floor joists to accommodate the stair unit.

[roger wiegand]

I've found that having real stairs renders the loft in my barn useable, and a real extension of the space in my shop, meaning that I actually use it for everyday storage as well as projects that want more room. When the access was by a ladder things only went up there for semi-permanent interment. The loss of square footage on the main floor has turned out to be a very worthwhile investment. I made them 42" wide so it's easy to maneuver larger things up and down. I still have the hole in the floor for quickly moving things down and the big hayloft door on the end.

I've found pull-down attic-type stairs to be too small, steep, and wobbly for real use every day.

[Bob Falk]

I have built both a garage and a shop with hinged staircases that swing up into the ceiling when not in use. Pretty simple to build. Same as building a normal staircase except I used 3 strap hinges to connect the top of the stair with the ceiling framing. The first one I built I used a cable system with 200 lbs of lead counter weight to lift the stair. Worked well and could lift the 14' long staircase up into the ceiling with one hand. The second one I built, I mounted an electric hoist up in the roof rafters and use the cable to lift the stair...a system I prefer.

In both cases, I built the roofs with attic trusses and at the stair end of the building spaced the first truss at 4' giving me an opening in the ceiling for the staircase. Room is needed for a landing at both the bottom and top of the stair (mine are 3' long which is not huge but adequate) so you have to calculate your stair to fit your opening without getting too steep (and still have headroom at the top of the stair). My stair rise/run is about 9"/9"....a little steep, but not uncomfortable. You also need to think about Code. In my case, the steepness was not code issue as the stair only accesses a storage area (my lumber stash) and the building official was ok with that.

[Don Jarvie]

Put a set of full steps in another part of the garage. Maybe between the car and tractor bay or against the back wall of the 2 bays. If your going to store wood etc you need a solid set of stairs so you can go up and down and not fall.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Mine are OUTSIDE, but in your location you may want to enclose them. Alan in Little Washington has a hoist that sticks out of end of second story shop, similar to a hay hoist.

[Jon Endres]

Well, I spent the past few weeks doing more than enough research and trying to "think outside the box". What kept coming back to me was - what do I do with the space underneath the stairs? Turns out that any solution other than an exterior stairs (which for various reasons has been ruled OUT) or an interior stairs in the corner (an "ell" shape) would have been more trouble than the innovation was worth. I decided to build a 4' x 6' closet in the corner, with a 7' interior height. This closet will hold my dust collector and possibly my air compressor, and will be sound insulated and sealed. I will build the first run of stairs up to the top of the closet, and turn the corner and build the second, shorter run up to the second floor loft. The closet ceiling will be my landing. It gives me the most efficient use of the space and does not affect the open layout of the second floor. I think I will be using that space more than I expected to, so I don't want to limit my accessibility. I do appreciate everyone's suggestions though.

[Roger Feeley]

It seems to me that putting the dust collector and compressor upstairs would buy you some space and reduce noise.

My air compressor has one of those little auto-drain thingys (Harbor Freight) that bleeds water everytime the motor kicks on or off. So my compressor could go anywhere. Just run copper pipe through the ceiling and put the air where you want.

Putting the DC upstairs seems like a no-brainer to me. reduced noise. The ducting runs along the ceiling anyway and you just route it through the ceiling.

[Roger Feeley]

I will be moving soon and building a new shop. My plan is to put drawers and cabinets underneath the stairs.

[Rick Potter]

I put full size stairs along an outside wall, and used the area under the stairway for a small workbench with metal working tools and my compressor. Worked out well. You adapt.

I sold the house to my daughter and SIL, and they pulled the stairway out, and put in outside stairs with an outside door to the loft. I preferred my setup, because they lost a large upstairs window doing it that way, although they regained some shop space.