Favorite Stair Job / Project of "06"

[Roger Everett]

Well 2 week ago I was getting it together and going over paper work to get my taxes done. Yea I know last minute, but when you owe, might as well pay up at the last minute. And reminded of my favorite job of 2006.
What made it a favorite-
1-A lot of what I do is subing, where someone else designs and I put their ideas together, of course that calls for spliting the coins. Now and then I get my own contracts and get to be the designer/ salesman / craftsman, and keep all the profit $$.
2-The project was less then 2 miles from my home, very , very rare. The homeowner saw me doing his neighbors stair remodel and had me come look at his.
3-He and his wife were really great people, he was retired and had an after retirement business at home. He had a second, small office in the garage, so we would BS all day as I was working. I also took over 1/3 of his garage to store stock and store my TS , saw horses, and bench ( saved a lot of loading in my trailer ).
4-Not only did they give all freedom in design, but One "really" good part was ( I work on draws ), all I had to do was mention money and he wipped out the check book and said how much Roger.

The first 2 shot are the " before" pics, standard contractor "tunnel stairs and wall rail" with carpet.

Cont.

[Steve Clardy]

I just love those types of customers.:D

[Roger Everett]

As I started to do the demo. I notice a 42" knee wall on the wall side and made a suggestion to change this over to a balcony w/ railing, they loved the idea and I made a quick quote and got a " do it". One design consideration was that the owner wanted to keep a wall rail, plus what you don't pick up in the pics is that their walls have one of those Faux ( sponged like )wall finishes the would be almost imposible to match up for any patching, so I designed so as to cover up any demo work, to elem. any patching.
pic 1 is the bottom with the 2 lower winders I incorporated , I might mention the bottom starter step took a 30" x 72" glue-up to cut the tread and keep the grain running right. I Had to make a custom starter step, but I usually prefer to make my own, rather than buy one.
2-is the going up view
3-is the bottom newel
4-side view w/ balcony to his main office
5-is a side upper shot

CONT.

[Roger Everett]

I felt the balcony worked out good with the stair and the homeowner loved it.
pic6-is the balcony
7-is the upper stair wrap which had to be padded out on the door side to meet ctr. of rail , I also wrapped the balcony ends to match ,also it covers any demo.
8-close-up of the upper wall wrap, and trim , which I made to match the tread nosing profile.
9-is the wall rail as it transitions past the balcony. I had decided on a wall board to cover up where the orig. wall rail was mounted, so no patch-up

I might add I am now at their request working up a cost on redoing a built-in small emterment ctr. in his balcony office

Roger

[Bruce Page]

Beautiful job Roger. I bet it will bring in a lot more work to you!

[Kristian Wild]

That's really nice Roger! Red Oak I presume?
How many hours did that project take you to design, build, install and finish?

Kris

[Steve Clardy]

Looks great Roger!!

[Tyler Howell]

Wow Roger.
Changing the world one board at a time:cool: .

[John Miliunas]

Ho-o-o-o-o-o-o-ld on just a minute there, Roger!!! Different house between the "before" and "after", right???? :eek: Wow!!! What a magnificent difference! :) I can see where you'll be getting a lot of referrals from that! Great job!!!! :) :cool:

[Richard Wolf]

Nice job Roger.

Richard

[Ken Belisle]

I think "WOW" says it all............

[Roger Everett]

Thanks all for the comments.

Kristian---yes all Red Oak--design time didn't take long, about 1 1/2 hrs. with client, showing rail, newel,and baluster selections and my recommendations, along with a not firm SWAG on price. I can pretty much picture in my mind what I want to do. then about 3 hrs. or so to make some measurements and a rough sketch, to figure out the parts and pieces. price them out and est. time, profit, and a allowance for the unknown, and little time to write up the bid and contract, and collect a deposit. Install - didn't figure it out in hours, in weeks ( I work alone ). I don't do the finishing ( to time consuming ), client wanted to do, so I just left him a bouch of scrap for samples and advised him on what would give him a good finished product. He did a good job on the finish, rail and balusters smooth as a babys butt, I think he spent 2 or 3 months doing it.

Roger

[Corey Hallagan]

That's awesome work, nice job! It looks great!

Corey

[Jay Knoll]

Roger

That is a great piece of work, I bet your work increased the value of that house signficantly.

Nice that you didn't have to do the finishing!

Jay

[Tom Jones III]

Amazing, really changed that house. What do your clients think about you bringing all your teddy bears to a job site? Oh well, if you do work like that I don't think they will mind the bears.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Fantastic work Roger! Those changes sure changed the character of that area of the home!