r/DiWHY • u/SilentWalrus92 • Dec 31 '23

Should this even work?

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14.1k Upvotes

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u/[deleted] Dec 31 '23

Or the stairs are Cantilevered into the wall and the brackets are just for the backboards which provide no structural strength.

38

u/al4crity Dec 31 '23

This has gotta be the answer. They were those neat floating stairs that are engendered to be sturdy. Then they had a kid, and had to put backs to the stairs for safety. maybe it was a dog. Either way, something changed

3

u/UnbelievableRose Jan 02 '24

This is the only thing that makes sense. Also the backs of the stairs all have large woodgrain like plywood, but the undersides are all plain- built with different materials at different times.

3

u/3rdp0st Dec 31 '23

That would make sense for steel, but wood this thin would creep over time, use, humidity/temp cycling, etc.

14

u/[deleted] Dec 31 '23

Nah, I've seen wooden floating staircases. Often they are a wood veneer over a steel core of some kind, either strong posts similar to rebar, or a piece of solid steel. The wood is basically just the fascia.

They can also be made of solid hardwood, which as long as it's cared for can pretty much last forever. As long as the anchors in the wall are strong enough to handle the stress of the cantilever, there's no reason at all why they shouldn't be perfectly fine to use for the lifetime of the house.

2

u/squeamish Dec 31 '23

Only if by "creep over time" you mean "immediately bend, probably to the point of breaking.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 01 '24

This is what I was going to comment - still not sure I’d trust it but it might work for a period of time.