I purchased the 20x30 1 1/2 story plan. Would like to know if it's possible to get a copy of plan for the U stair ?
Was going to try and widen to 24 feet but have decided to stay with 20' and just extending the plan to 40'.
Thanks for any help!

Snatched from another house I had on the computer


Sketchup file here
timbertoolbox.com/cp/Ustair.skp

What are the dimensions for the "footprint" ?

6'5-1/2"wide ... could be narrower if rails instead of midwall, min 36" finish tread width (don't forget wall coverings)... so min width ~74"
x 8' 2-1/2" deep for about 109" overall rise.

Thanks Don. Still playing around on graph paper. Thought I had things about figured out when I saw that my measurements were off at least six inches!
Still having a heck of a time with sketch up.   
Hopefully after Thanksgiving I can dedicate more time to the tutorials. Pesky holidays!

My u stairs are between two support posts - 78 or 79 inches apart. The net 36" cuts it really close at that width, leave yourself some wiggle room. Things like skirt boards eat up 3 /4" , have to think of that stuff well ahead of time.

even corner bead adds 1/8" to your drywall corners. 74" would make me lose sleep at night. I think the upper flight inside (midpoint of stair footprint) stringer would have to be finish material, you would not have the luxury of rough framing and then trimming out with finish materials at some date in the future. Then there is the overhang of the stair treads...

80 inches sounds good to me.

I'm not going to disagree Nathan, it is always nice to have some playing room. Also remember 6'8" headroom minimum, especially as you come up under a roof slope. Landing to ceiling, dropping into a basement, etc. Roofs and stairs separate the leads from the laborers  .

You can always go back and reload any of the skp files I've posted, so you aren't going to hurt those playing around. Anything you draw and like "save as" and give them a new name and then they are protected up to that save point... so have fun and experiment.

For a detail like the stair, first open your main drawing in sketchup. Then go to the downloaded stair and right click, open with sketchup and a new sketchup instance will open... you'll have 2 sketchups open. Click the stair sketchup to bring it up on screen, With the black arrow key click on the stairs and that component will light up in a blue boundary box. Go to edit and click "copy". Close that sketchup and you should be on the 1st instance of sketchup with the main house model. Go up to edit and click "paste". Move the cursor and the stairs should fly into place with the "move" tool. Play around and place them where you want.

Can you get this far? If not where are you stuck?

Let's just say I need Sketch Up for Dummies!   
Still working my what through "how to".

Quote from: Rys on November 14, 2017, 12:18:27 PM
Let's just say I need Sketch Up for Dummies!   
Still working my what through "how to".

You can get some help here: https://forums.sketchup.com/?hl=en

I happen to own sketchup for dummies  , thought it was very helpful

You can get used copies of Sketchup For Dummies at Amazon for $5.25.

 

How funny! I should have know there really was such a thing.   
Will go order one.

Ordered Sketch-up for Dummies yesterday. Probably won't get here till next Monday.   
In the interem I have another question for you all. Does anyone have a picture/diagram showing the U stair in relation to the side wall of the house? I'm hoping to run mine from almost mid point of the floor plan towards the side wall to a 3' wide landing, then turning back towards the loft above. I will be going with 10' walls as called for in the 20x30 1/2 plans. My roof pitch will probably be 12-12. Not sure how to see if there's adequate headroom at the landing? Since Photo Bucket took all the pictures off our site I'm having trouble finding any examples.

Really appreciate all the help. We've been dreaming and saving towards this for a very long time!

Maybe look at the 20x34 universal plans and pics.

unfortunately i drew my stairs to scale in one of my plan drawings. Not sure how helpful this is, but I could figure out a way to send you the file if so.

My second floor landing - I believe including subfloor and then 3/4" finish floor is 9' 5 1/8". My walls had actual 8' studs, which made them 8' 4.5" tall instead of 8', which meant an extra stair on the lower flight and higher landing.

The landing is 5' 5/16", which could be problematic with a 10' ceiling. Just to get an idea of where you need to be at for the landing, if the lowest point of finished ceiling is 10' stud + sill + double top - drywall = 10' + 1.5 + 3 - .5 = 10' 2.5".

You need to at least 6' 8" of headroom, 6*12+8 = 80, you're working with a ceiling height of 10*12 + 2.5 = 122.5, and 122.5-80 = 42.5 is your max landing height. With typical risers of 7.5" 42.5/7.5 = 5.67, which means you would only have space for 4 steps then your landing. Not sure if you're planning on a full basement, but one nice thing about having a higher landing is that it makes a really good storage closet. Also I am not sure if the 6'8" of headroom is the lowest point or based on the center of the landing or lowest third or something, you'd have to check the code on that.

That's what I was afraid of- the headroom on the landing. I swear, it seems every time I think I have things figured out I literally have to go back to the drawing board!   
I do plan on a full basement. That's one of the reasons the U stair appealed to me. 

Another common thinking difficulty happens in the loft. With a 10' wall height, 8' ceiling height on the main floor and ~1' floor thickness= ~1' kneewall height above the loft floor. At a 12/12 roof pitch you are 6' inside the kneewall before ceiling height is above 7'... loft standing room is about 10' wide down the center of the loft. Many folks forget this when in plan view and draw stuff all the way out to the kneewalls.

To load a model you have saved on the desktop, right click >open and it should come up. You can manipulate the model with the swirly icon, pan with the hand icon that is right beside it. Zoom is your mouse wheel.

I'm finding that even with a shed dormer on one side it's still tight. Good thing I don't see the need in a big bedroom!   

Can you extend the dormer over the stair landing?
2 story the loft with something like a 4/12 and switch to 12/12 over the greatroom, basically a double shed dormer. At that point use garden variety 4/12 trusses and scissor trusses over the greatroom. You would have to play around with the "window" inside, looking off the loft down into the greatroom.

I think I've got an "L" stair that will work. I borrowed it from a friends plan. Need to learn how to post stuff on here so I can get feedback. Do pictures need to go through a seperate site to get here?

Yes, photos do need to be hosted offsite and linked to in your post. There are several free hosts, for now.

I'd be happy to post skp files from some webspace I have if you don't see a host for that, pm me and we'll trade emails if anyone needs that.

Hi Don!
I have lost your email. Could you please message it to me?
Thanks!