Hi guys,
drew out my deck design, and thought I thought enough about the stairs between different levels (about 3' 8" height differential) and the required run, but turns out I laid out the posts and footings kinda too close, where I want stairs between levels.
I was planning on the stairs going strictly rim joist to rim joist, with posts and footings laid out for that, given run/rise requirements, but now I have to adjust. (footings are 10' deep drilled piers and grade beams so no changing that now!..can you say whoops :) )
Setting the posts back from edge, to account for post width and rim joist thickness seems like an obvious thing now, but it got me thinking about what people normally do when laying out the position of a post relative to the edge of a deck, especially when you have stairs that want to hang off the rim joist.
In the drawings, I just had the desired run length = the center to center distance between two piers which obviously isn't quite right.
Do you normally cantilever the beam (under the joist, on top of the post) a foot or so, so you've got room to play with for deciding where the rim joist ends up? Also, do people ever let the beam extend out underneath the last rim joist, for instance if it's hidden by a stairway.
In one place, I'm thinking of having the stair come down and attach to the 2nd joist in, and just deal with the railing issues. Actually I think I might like that look, so it doesn't feel like you're out in space so much on the stairs between the two deck levels.
Any comments on stairs between multi-level decks, options, what you've got, etc, are welcome.
-lev