Ideas needed

[Loren97]

So we stumbled upon what might be a candy-dish of work...A family with a horse farm, deep pockets and lots of projects. One of the things that they want us to work on is the staircase in their barn. The barn is probably circa late 1800's, but has had some renovations done on it. The staircase was built with dimensional stringers/treads and a rough-cut 4x pine. The pictures are what's there now.

My question is, what can I do to make it look more authentic? I was thinking about trying to get some rough cut oak for stringers and treads and essentially make a part of the tread into a through tenon on the stringers. Not sure if that would be a good look or not. Also need advice as to how to make a decent looking railing for this. It's not going to be inspected, so I'm not too worried about the baluster spacing, but more a "rustic" design. How about "distressing" the wood too, any tips on that?

Thanks!

[Loren97]

Another photo of the existing woodwork...

[calvert]

Loren97, You might check out a book "Ultimate Horse Barns" by Randy Leffingwell. Other than that I have a customer who is also in the process of building a traditional horse barn , not at the stair design stage yet though. His other barn has a rather simple open riser, straight across tread. The only frill is the newel which he carved with a nice acorn top.

I have seen other stairs with t&g back across the stringers and nosed treads with returns on the open stringer side.

I think the real focus should perhaps be on the wood itself. Maybe some nice reclaimed longleaf syp or chestnut. Lots of possibilities but I don't think the "through tenon" is appropriate. Too showy. There are certainly lots of barns in "Dutch" country to get ideas from.

[surfcraft]

Loren---

All I can say is this: people with deep pockets want to be WOWED.

It's important that you are able to get inside the heads of the client, sense the direction they would like to take their project, and give them a sense of the possibilities.

If you're not up to speed on the period or style or local vernacular,do some homework, as suggested by calvert.

Think what it is you would do if you had their bucks and your skills and imagination. Don't lose the job because you were thinking small.

Hopefully, your client has the ability to visualize, aided by your sketches so you can cover some ground without too much unproductive time invested.

If you and your client can build trust and share a vision, the project can be golden for both of you.

JW

[jim@miterclamp.com]

I don't think you could go wrong with beams for the stringers, dadoed out for the treads. Hand hewed ones would go nice, it looks like, with the roof framing.

[Lavrans]

Well... one thing that comes to mind about stairs...

I lived in a house up the Coos River when I was a kid. It had a detail that was in some of the other houses, too- the stairs were made wide enough (and strong enough) that the valuable cows and horses could be brought up them when the river flooded. Made for a cool stair- very comfortable; good for hanging out on and looked very impressive.

The house was built by the pastor/school teacher for the area. He drowned trying to herd his cows to higher ground during a flood.

[basswood]

Build it out of heavy timbers... so the horses can use it. ;o)

Actually, solid timbers the dimensions of the rise and run fit the rustic look and then the treads are the risers too (or just thick enough that the open riser is less than 4").

Here is a pic of an exterior timber stair I did below grade. And a photo of a rustic rail I did not do, but would like to (not sure it fits your style... just more ideas):

[cratylus]

I'd go with metal. Wrought iron maybe?

[Dan Clark]

Loren,

I know beans about barns and their construction. However, given that you want it to look authentic, I suspect that maintaining the architectural style for your area and for the 1800's time period will be importantl.

I noticed that you live in Pennsylvania, so I'm assuming that the barn is relatively close by. With that plus the fact that the barn is made of stone, I did some snooping online...

Some links:
A book on Pennsylvania barns:
http://books.google.com/books?id=y6T...num=3#PPR16,M1 Some interesting stuff including pics of old Pennsylvania barns. Nice details too. For example, on page 285, there's a interesting pic of a dovetailed beam assembly.

Here are pics and drawings of old stone and brick barns: http://travel.webshots.com/album/91072018hamctm .

An article on Pennsylvania barn construction with some nice detailed pics: http://pahistoricbarns.org/2009/03/0...shartlesville/ .

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Dan.

[Loren97]

Dan, Thanks for those links. It seems that the dominate style of the stairs is closed stringers and treads without risers.

I like the idea of solid treads/risers but that seems like it could get visually pretty heavy (not to mention trying to lift it into place!)

There won't be any animal traffic in this part of the barn, so I don't need to build it to that strength.

[robillard]

I look at putting better looking barn doors on the outside and rebuilding the stairs with thick timbers