Stairwell Partition Built

The frame around the new stair well has been erected in readiness to receive the glass panels. It is a very simple construction of a header rail screwed up into the ceiling, a base rail on the floor and vertical 'T' section studs between them :

Here you can just about see the outline of a double socket which was right in the way of the wall stud. It was one of a pair, so the second one can remain in the stairwell and it was an easy job to remove this one from the circuit :


The door is slightly offset so that it lines up with the staircase, hence there is a fixed sidelight to the left hand side :

Before the joiner came I had done all the calculations for stud spacing. The line of 4 of these studs will be continued below floor to meet the outer string of the staircase. The first of these will rise upwards from the bottom newel post of the staircase, hence the distance of the newel from the wall dictates the spacing of all of these studs (to make sure they are all the same distance apart). I worked out two sets of figures, one with the stud at the centre of the newel, and one with it on the inner edge. There is approximately 35mm of difference between the two, but of course, when multiplied up by the number of studs, the total length of the partition varies a lot.

In fact, with this stud centered on the newel, a 9 stud partition did not give sufficient landing between the riser of the last step and the door, to meet building regs (400mm). An extra stud would be needed. I opted instead for the positioning on the edge of the newel, so that the building regs for the landing were satisfied by a 9 stud partition. I marked the position of each stud with a strip of red sticky tape on the floor.

These lower studs, down to the string, are also designed to be infilled with glass and my calculations allow the 'T' edge of the stud to overhang the edge of the newel, thus giving a straight edge for the glass across the junction between them.

When I returned home from work, the framework had been built, but I could see that the studs had not been aligned to my red sticky tape markers and that the whole wall was about 10cm shorter than I had expected. The reason is the alignment of that first stud on the newel post. It has been shifted such that the outer edge aligns with the newel edge :

This is going to prove a problem with the glass which is now going to have to have a step nibbled out of it.

When questioned, the joiner just thought I had got my calculations wrong. He now understands what I was getting at. He doesn't think it will be a problem, and the overall shorter partition still gives us the 400mm landing, so all should be well in the long run.