My experience is in industrial settings. It has some advantages such as keeping clean tread as there is little surface area. OTOH, stuff does stick on the sides of it. It is heavy enough that it will take many years for rust to do any serious harm, assuming you paint it at least once.
Disadvantages are few, but getting ladies heels caught is one. It looks rather industrial too so I'd not want it for appearance at home.
Do any of you use bar grating for stair treads? How do you like it? How does it stand up to the elements and rust? I want to make some new stairs at the cabin this year, using some bar grating, having found enough locally. Just wanted to check in advance with anyone who may have used this.
Steve
Hi Steve,
I am a welder of 30+ years in the trade... I don't care what age you are ........you won't live long enough to see it rust through... I usually work in plants and that is (the norm) used all the time in extreme environments... you have made a good choice... However another poster said that ladies wearing high heels would get caught in them...That is a good point....however most ladies when invited to a BBQ or lawn environment would wear a wedge heel to prevent this.....Jim
Thanks. I learned to weld in 1974. I worked in the oilfields offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, and have seen tons of it. This is for an application at a cabin, where the sturdiness of it, the ability for snow and rain and ice to drain through, and the traction far outweigh the times when women wear spike heels to our mountain retreat. Mainly, I want to use it, because the water does not just sit on it, but goes through. I would weld it to C channel stringers on both ends.
Steve
For cold climates, make sure the top of the bars have the rough-cut edge finish on them. In icy weather, if not wearing lugged boots, those bars can still get mighty slick. We have the smooth-top bars on the fire escape treads at work. Every couple of years, they insist people actually use the escapes during drills, instead of leaving the way they came in. They usually get somebody falling on their ass, if the escapes are not perfectly dry. (Women in smooth-sole pumps, usually. Not many guys seem to wear smooth leather soles any more.)
Downside of that, of course, is that the steps will NOT be bare-feet-friendly in warm weather.
Have you considered expanded metal mesh, in a thick gauge, with suitable anti-rust coating?
-- aem sends...
Have you checked the local code? What about the paint specs? Does pink fit in with your scheme?
Hey Steve...no... lay your Channel Iron stringers out and weld angle Iron for the grating to sit on... lay it out flat then just weld the stair tread as they sit on the angle iron....I hope I explained that out well for you... I can give you stair tread info on how to build stairs if you want?...let me know...regards... Jim
I don't know how much you want to spend, but you have lots of choices for pre-fabricated and/or custom size tread grating, including cast iron, aluminum, and fiberglass.
How cheap is your local stuff?
re: "In icy weather, if not wearing lugged boots, those bars can still get mighty slick."
I'll second that.
I used to work in an industrial plant in Western NY and often had to enter buildings via the metal stairs by the loading docks.
They get pretty slippery in that drizzly weather right around the freezing point. Remember that the metal will stay cold even after the air temps rise enough for it to rain.
Ice will form when that moisture hits the metal steps and it's not like you can just throw salt on it. Well, you can, but all you'll do is melt the snow that's *under* the steps.
Yes, I would use angle for hangers, as that makes it soooo much easier and sturdier to hang the treads. What rise/run would you suggest?
Steve
Hi Steve... When I built stairs for pump jack platforms I just ran the stair stringers at 45 Degrees as it made it easy to mark the angle Iron hangers at 45 degrees using a tri-square...45 degrees is very easy to work with too....If your going quite a height you may find that a little steep... Mathematically speaking if your stair stringers are at 45 degrees take the height of your rise....say for example from the ground to the top of your landing is 98 inches...take 98 and multiply it times 1.414 and you get
138.572 inches for length of stringer (based on a 45 degree rise)...Then lay the stringers on their sides and cut the ends back at 45 degree angles so they will fit (coped to fit) top and bottom...Mark and weld the angle iron hangers.... 7 inch height would be good comfortable stair rise so I take 98 and divide by 7 and get 14...(subtract one as one will be the landing)you need 13 stair treads at that height with a 7 inch rise.... As another poster mentioned you can get the smooth bar grating and also the serrated type... I would opt for the latter... This stuff comes in different dimensions...you can buy precut stairs or it comes in 3ft X 26 ft sheets and it's not freaking light.....The premade stair treads comes with a nose generally made of diamond tread steel so that will look nicer also....Hope that was of some help Jim >HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.