Everything looks fantastic Irish! Four roses is my go to “cheap” bourbon.

Comfortable, classy hideout you got yourself. Very nice.

Finally started my "Thomas Jefferson Stairs" for the loft. I sure hope I measured everything right.

I'm using 2x10's for everything and I decided to rout out the areas where the treads attach to the stringers. I'm also going to glue and screw them. Once it dries, I may back the screws back out, drill 1/2" holes in their places and then insert oak dowels in there and glue them in just to make it look nice. I haven't settled on that.

My plans I drew up:



I had to transfer all that onto an actual piece of wood...



At first I tried to cut the dado areas with my saw and then take chisel to them, but that was a pain in the ass. So I took out my router and I made a jig out of scrap wood that would slide up and down the stringer and of course that worked out pretty good. The view from my back deck workshop ain't too bad...



All done with the stringers...



Once Mrs. Irish gets through making me an omelette and I get through with my second cup of coffee, I'll get my ass up and start on the offset treads.

Since I had never seen any, I had to Google Thomas Jefferson Staircase

That'll look great but I believe I'd stumble and break my neck.

Those are some fancy plans. They look nice. I usually use a paper sack.

Some dirt and a stick has worked for me at times.


Stair treads and risers can be and usually are very labor intensive. Good luck and post up the final results.

Well... Let's hope not. I'm not a big fan of ship's ladders, since you have to go down backwards, but we were too limited on space to have a normal stair, so I researched and came up with the alternating stair design. I didn't realize until I researched them that Thomas Jefferson supposedly came up with the idea.

I certainly hope they work out, because they are taking some time to design and build.

I use to make drawings like that all the time. Design and drafting is a dying art. (Hell... Kids can't even write anymore.) Now everything is 3D modeling. So I like to draw stuff by hand as much as possible when I'm designing stuff for myself and even still sometimes when I'm problem solving and making field repairs for the company.

Making hand sketches is kind of relaxing and therapeutic for me, and it helps me think ideas through before I build things. So it's a win win for me.

I will. I'm about through drinking coffee and relaxing in our little sitting room, and about to get back to work on the treads. Hopefully I'll be finished today.

I had to google it also. If my brain is working right this early the principal is you are cutting the stringer length in half right?

Nope. I'm basically reversing the angle on the stairs, making them twice as steep as normal stairs, but at the same time, making them have a similar rise over run as a normal stair.

Thomas Jefferson was a smart man. People can be that way if they don't have internet, Facebook, rap music and cable television.

I know y'all want to see the finished product, and since it's beer time at the cabin now, I'll take few minutes and post up some pics. I still need to finish them off, but I just had to install them to see how they worked. Honestly, they are kind of strange to go up and down, but definitely better than a ladder or ships ladder. I'm going to buy some galvanized pipe and make a handrail bolted to the wall with pipe flanges.



At least now it will be a lot easier to get started on finishing the loft next weekend. Damn... Every time I think I'm almost finished I think of a new project I need to do. I'm beyond ready to get this place finished...

Very cool

NICE!!

I don't think I have ever seen any. That is some quality work. I do stuff like that and get paid well when I do. Hats off to some fine work Sir. Looking good.👍🏻

I tripped and fell down just looking at a picture of the finished stairs.

Those look really nice and that's a cool design, but I swear, I'd fall down them first time I tried them out.

Looks great! You gonna need a “Thomas Jefferson handrail” to go with it! A steep handrail going up is not a problem, but you gotta have something easy to grip on the way down. Maybe you can come up with some sort of neat segmented wall mount design

Looks awesome!

Thanks guys. It was and has been a lot of fun for this old guy.

Well... I really appreciate a comment like that from a person who is a real carpenter. Thank you.

I really like working with wood and between wood working and forging steel, I think I will have plenty of stuff to piddle with when I retire.