McHugh/Gant Hangar House

Day 466 - Spiral Stairs

Wednesday, September 20 -- It took a group effort to get the deck's spiral stairs installed today. First, the guys had to slip the treads onto the support post from the bottom because the landing plate was already installed. Things went smooth until they got to the handrail.

The handrail came pre-bent and didn't fit very well. A quick call to the manufacturer confirmed the tight twist was normal and that "the installation will get easier after the fourth or fifth tread." Great.

So, on each tread, Dave manned the drill, Rick lifted, pushed out, or pulled in the end of the handrail to get the rail close to the baluster, and Kelli hung on the handrail to pull it down to baluster.

The stairs are very cool and will be appreciated when we need to exit the deck on the south side...

One small design planning flaw -- there is quite a big space between the CableRail railing and the spiral stair landing rails. So, Kelli made a quick call to CableRail to order 22 short premade-up cable pieces to fill in the gap for final inspection...

A predictable art shot of the stairs...

John spent the day finishing the spa tub backsplash - making some tricky cuts and grouting his previous work...

(Happy anniversary to John and Sherry - year 3!)

Ken brought over the "new to him" mini excavator to start the rock planter bed building and clearing the hangar apron area. First he started by placing one of the big rock up along the south hangar retaining wall...

The excavator has a new leak in the hydraulic system that allows the "thumb" to lose its grip. Several times the big rock got dropped. Rick nicknamed the machine "Butter finger"...

Kelli applied the second coat of anti-slip coating to the hangar steps and a first coat to the garage steps...

A picture perfect, chamber of commerce day made all the outside work enjoyable.

Last night, Kelli exchanged phone calls with our interior staircase sub to go over design changes for the stairs. Work should be underway shortly.