Dennis and I felt we needed a stairwell railing for a bit of extra security before it became a dire necessity. We also had our carpenter, Jim Bob, take a look at increasing the top of our steps. We have poured concrete steps that are short and the stairwell is steep.
Today our railing is in. I look forward to sometime in the near future staining the handrail and putting some poly on it to match the ones that Kevin put in leading into the kitchen from the back door. The sanded two by four that was drilled into the cement blocks will be painted white at the same time the entire wall gets a new coat of paint. The railing will be done first, that way in case I get a bit of white paint near it, it will wipe off easily. Paint on raw wood soaks right in.
We cannot have the step project. If the top step would be increased to be 9.5 inches (which is still not up to code) with the remaining fours steps being increased to follow, our bottom step would only be a scant four inches to step down into the basement proper. We have a storage area to the right that has the same floor height as the bottom step. There would then be a step down into that area as well as making the opening into that storage area a tight sideways squeeze.
We were so appreciative of Jim Bob doing the workup and allowing us to know there would be more concerns being created about safety than we now had.
With Dennis and I making a few trips up and down into the basement, we already realize the railing was the best decision for us. Decades of being accustomed to the short steep steps is now just that much safer. Our 100-year-old home was moved into town from the country and put onto the basement in the late 1950s. Older homes allow us to know some things need to be contended with and money can’t fix everything. We are thrilled to have a dry basement, aka: sewing studio, half bath and storage.