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Quick question about steps (dimensions)


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I'm building steps from the bow doors into the saloon. I have height to the door threshold 72cm, but outside the well deck sits 12cm lower.  I want two steps but unsure whether to include that 12cm difference in my calculations (ie 72 divided by 3 or 60 divided by three, to give the height to each step). I'm leaning towards a compromise, or going toward the 60cm and not counting the 12cm extra of the door threshold.

Just about to start cutting...

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Thanks. Infact I made a mock up with couple boxes etc and found that agree with what you say. I'm doing the tops of the steps at 24cm and 48cm, the top of the door ridge being 72cm. Now just figuring out depth and overhang! (Appros 24-26cm with 1 or 2cm overhang.)

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Thank you for the pics - I love to see what other people are doing/have done and will be sure to get a couple of snaps of my efforts. I am indeed making them as boxes, but was planning on doing piano hinge lids. I like the handle holes on yours - I may do leds on mine :)

In the end I've gone for a fairly deep step - 26cm plus any over hang, might as well make life as easy as possible though of course it takes up floor space.

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I think it's to do with having to kind of stoop through the doorway as you come in - makes being in good balance harder. When I was experimenting earlier with my boxes, the deeper the step the easier it all seemed. One box done, do another tomorrow, maybe even the tops then I can really test them - if necessary can make a bit smaller. No room for a banister though :(

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13 hours ago, Johny London said:

Thank you for the pics - I love to see what other people are doing/have done and will be sure to get a couple of snaps of my efforts

I'm on a widebeam and used two sets of caravan steps covered with some leftover oak worktop from my galley fittout. The steps are heavy but I can move them to get behind and into the space under the bow deck if I need to.

IMG_20190321_073841_5.jpg

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13 hours ago, Johny London said:

I think it's to do with having to kind of stoop through the doorway as you come in - makes being in good balance harder. When I was experimenting earlier with my boxes, the deeper the step the easier it all seemed. One box done, do another tomorrow, maybe even the tops then I can really test them - if necessary can make a bit smaller. No room for a banister though :(

Steeper steps make it more like a ladder, which people will instinctively approach by coming down backwards. You stoop more easily in that direction to get under a closed hatch while staying balanced. Much safer. Another consideration is the depth of any sliding hatch above the steps. It is better to keep the steps within the profile of the hatch opening, or it is more likely that a tall person will hit their head on the ceiling, or the edge of the hatch going up with the hatch open. Again, this will make the steps steeper. The only limitation is having enough depth of tread to safely get a foot on.

 

Instead of a bannister I put vertical grab rails on the cupboard and control panel to each side of the stairs. Visitors often use them. Not yet fitted in the very old pics I posted earlier.

 

Just read your first post again and you are looking at bow, rather than stern doors. The rise from the floor to a well deck is generally less than to the stern, so more height is available for people without stooping so much, but then again, most (not all) boats don't have a sliding hatch at the front. Exceptions tend to be tugs with high front decks, rather than well decks. All other considerations still apply though. 

 

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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16 hours ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Like this:

 

DSCN9215.JPG

DSCN9217.JPG

I see you've got one of those anchor lines on a reel, be very careful when handling, use leather gloves: we had a guy airlifted to hospital after he put his hands on the warp as it was deployed, he came back with arms raised to the heavens, and bandaged from finger tips to elbows. Having a pee proved somewhat problematic!

Edited by LadyG
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4 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

Looks like a roll-flat hosepipe to me, just next to the anchor.  Unless the hozelock couplings are a new method of attaching the rode ...

Yes, roll flat hose. It could be used for the anchor too, but I'd worry about getting the river silt out of it afterwards, so got some chain and rope instead. ?

 

Jen

Edited by Jen-in-Wellies
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7 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

Looks like a roll-flat hosepipe to me, just next to the anchor.  Unless the hozelock couplings are a new method of attaching the rode ...

I thought it was a stainless waste bin, do they use them as anchors now? 

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2 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Would you set a hozelock brass internal connector into the concrete to attach the lay flat hose to 

The brass ones are only adding to the cost, as the cheap plastic ones from the pound shop are slightly quicker release mechanisms.

 

Deploy anchor ... and released!

 

 

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2 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

The brass ones are only adding to the cost, as the cheap plastic ones from the pound shop are slightly quicker release mechanisms.

 

Deploy anchor ... and released!

 

 

No more worrying about if you'll be able to get the anchor back when you know it is gone forever.

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2 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

No more worrying about if you'll be able to get the anchor back when you know it is gone forever.

That'll be why you use a bin full of concrete instead of an actual anchor.

 

Mind you the anchor looks like a Danforth knockoff, so the bin might bite your bottom better. :D

 

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11 hours ago, TheBiscuits said:

... the bin might bite your bottom better. :D

Is this a new boating fetish of which I have been previously unaware?

 

 

Edited by WotEver
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I've finished the basic boxes and lids - though lids will need cutting near their rears to add piano hinges - will wait till I get the "penny coin" rubber flooring first so that I can put the hinge in the most appropriate place, aesthetically speaking.

The heights feel ok - obviously I was used to something else (there was just one box/step as a temporary measure). Looking at pictures of other boats, more than not seem to have divided the height equally to the top of the door ridge, as I have. Though I did see one that seemed to have the first step exactly level with the deck, then two more after, which I think would have been pretty good but then more steps means either making them shallower or encroaching into the floor space more. All a compromise.

 

DSC_0005.JPG

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  • 3 weeks later...

A bit more progress, steps now edged, covered and hinged. I should add some pegs to the backs so they lock together when in place without any risk of toppling, though they have my car jack and spanners in and are weighted down nicely...

Was very pleased with the look of the "penny coin" covering, and in the end I used kitchen cabinet hinges - the lids stay up unaided. Just to decide on a finish for the ply which will either be black or white.

 

Bow Steps 4.JPG

Bow Steps 5.JPG

  • Greenie 1
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