I can recognise that!
Nevertheless, this week have built a spiral staircase that’s only been eleven years in the planning(!)
Hard work, but great fun - it’s like Meccano for grown-ups (which isn’t to knock grown-ups who use Meccano or Erector). Remember this from Newcastle Baltic’s inaugurational private view.
Well done!
Seeing the word spiral sent me back 60 years to architectural school, why I‘m not sure, where I had to construct the shadow cast by a cone onto a sphere. I think a pyramid was in there as well somewhere. Great accuracy & determination was needed with pencil then ink pen on cartridge paper, using a drawing board, T-square, set square, ruler & compass.
One degree out constructing a metal spiral staircase….? What plus or minus allowances are allowed?
Thanks, it was complicated. We got the all important starting point right first time, but it still took three attempts to get everything else correct!
I’d used an online CAD programme to work out whether it was possible to get enough headroom when passing underneath a a large beam. It had seemed OK, but then wasn’t - because we were following the staircase plans. fortunately by removing one step that contributed nothing to the descent, all was OK.
But I take your point, spiral staircases and their ilk, are really hard to visualise, particularly if working from 2D printed plans. But ours now works well and makes a huge difference.
If you have another project like this send me your 2D plans with the elevatons etc. Required LOI and LOD. I’ll send you them in 3D with the take offs and schedules.
Forgot to say aussi the section cuts etc in 2D
We thought about a spiral staircase for when we do the loft conversion but getting furniture upstairs made it impractical for us, though I really wanted one
Once lived in a house with a spiral staircase up to my “office”. We had to take out a window to get a desk in. A pedant pal pointed out that the stairs weren’t really spiral because the diameter didn’t increase or decrease as you went up – the definition of a spiral. If I was feeling particularly pretentious, I’d call them my helical stairs.
A French nurse found a stray cat outside her front door which I later collected with a view to finding an adopter. Had a call from an English woman who wanted to adopt a shelter cat. She had two children and three shelter dogs.
Amazing. The cat wandered confidently about her house, we followed him, his tail high, exploring everywhere, including a spiral staircase which was built child size, for the kids & the pets.
Cat felt at home straight away, then the kids were later introduced, and then the dogs! Cat took over, undeterred by kids or dogs. Happy ending and I was very impressed with Dad paying out to provide his children with their own very special helical wooden staircase.
Thanks,
The 3D CAD programme I used to calculate was on a spiral staircase web site and was very simple to use I first used AutoCAD and 3D Studio 30 years ago, but this calculator was virtually automatic, one just enters all the necessary co-ordinates.
This is a neat little explanatory video on how one assembles a similar staircase - I think they used a digital skyhook to suspend the plumb line. We didn’t have one of those!
Escalier en colimaçon en Kit Viva - Upstairs24 - YouTube
One reason it’s not inconvenient for us is that our three storey house has an entry on every floor (it’s built into a steeply sloping schist rock face.)
The French is even more ‘pretentious’ - escalier heliocoidal
That’s one up on our house in Wales. A row of houses had been built by blasting a wedge out of a steep hill made of slate, and the houses built from the slate. We had an entry door on both floors and a steeply terraced garden which was about 30 foot above the roof at it’s top. It was like an Andean terraced garden.
Just discovered that the said house has just been sold. Here’s a picture from the property listing. The first floor door was at the back of the house and this is half way up the back garden 
Did you need ropes and crampons for gardening?
I just leave our steep bits alone - mainly wild box and vines
My builder’s last words after he had finished all the building work, were ‘be back tomorrow to clear up’ and haven’t heard from him for 6 weeks now.
I wrote to him by recorded delivery a week ago reminding him that he hasn’t cleared away the debris, and that he has left behind a ladder, a mixer and assorted tools, but still no response despite him having received my letter, and I have no intention of ringing him!
What do I do? Write him an ultimatum by recorded delivery that I will dispose of all his equipment by a certain date, speak to the mayor or get advice from the local notaire?
Really annoyed!
Something may have happened, it does and he maybe incapacitated. A letter received can mean that someone else signed for it, not necessarily him. Ringing is the best way forward, after that a letter by LRAR and if no response within a couple of weeks, contact a Huissier to do a constat. I think you will find that you just cannot sell or dispose of his tools etc as they do not belong to you even if on your land. You need to establish if he is OK before anything else, imagine if he has had a stroke or died and you start threatening his family, been there and been on the end of it, not nice I can tell you.
You may well be right, but I know this man and his shenanigans, and I have written more than one recorded delivery letter. He waited several weeks after finishing the work before cashing in my cheque. I know his signature well.
A friend who knows how small builders sometimes operate, said he’s likely out looking for more work and would be back for his equipment, using me as a storage facility, his stuff being safe with me. He said this was not unusual and I should give him more time.
I shall give him more time but, in the meanwhile, I wanted to know what my legal options were in case he doesn’t return to clear up.
This is not to say that the work that he organised was not done to an acceptable standard – it was & I have no complaints about that.
Does he live very far from you? If not, I would go and see him face to face and explain you wish to have everything removed and tidied up or you will go the legal route but whatever you do, you must leave his property where it is for the time being, that I do know! If he does not comply within a reasonable amount of time (10 working days should suffice), you could porte-plainte at the local gendarmerie explaining the situation and what would your rights be in their eyes to remove said stuff yourself, you will then be covered from all angles should he turn round and start any trouble. If it were me, I would cover myself well, you don’t know who he knows or who his family might be.
I know what you mean…had experience with that sort of thing in the past.
I have no intention of removing his equipment - it’s safe with me. But I don’t want to see him again and waste nervous energy over the matter. I’ve better things to do.
I shall wait some more and send another polite recorded delivery letter, making it clear that if he doesn’t remove his equipment within, as you say, 10 days or so, I shall take steps to remove it, once I’ve gotten some legal advice, or have been to the gendarmerie. In the past, I’ve found my local gendarmerie to be polite and helpful.
Take photos and put it on ebay and Lebon coin and send him the links he’ll come round to pick the stuff up
This seems to be the right thread.
Our kitchen in September 2022.
And last Saturday.
Some of the walls are just papered and the floor needs washing and sealing. Although everything is white now, we’ll be using colour later. There’s a pellet stove going in next month too. But this room is nearly done.
How do you manage to fill that chamber pot? 
I’m an International Man Of Mystery. 
