U-Shaped Stairwell

[Sandra]

All,

I'm a new user, so forive me if this is a dumb newbie question.

I'm trying to add a U-Shaped staircase into my design, going from my second floor to my third floor. I had a heck of a time building two landings, but I finally overcame that. Now I'm trying to build a stairwell, and I keep getting errors (see attached).

First, do I actually need a stairwell? And second, what does it mean "can't find a floor above"?

Thanks in advance,
Sandra

[crisw]

It doesn't look like the stairs to the left are connected to anything. And (silly question, I know!) is there a floor above the stairs where they land? In the stair dialog box, does it state that they reach the next floor?

You can construct the stairwell manually, so you don't have to use Auto Stairwell.

[Homey Kent]

I cannot place a "U" shaped stair either in Home Designer Deluxe. Sandra are you using Home Designer Deluxe?

As a newbee also, most of the responses are from people that have Home Designer Pro and I don't think they know the limitations of Deluxe.

[Sandra]

Thanks for the responses! I'm using Home Designer Suite 7.09. Yes, there's a floor above this one, and yes, it says it is connected to the floor above (details in attached screenshot).

Thanks again for all advice.

[bgrant]

people that have Home Designer Pro don't know the limitations of Deluxe.

I just purchased Deluxe in April of this year ... and left it behind in June for Pro. Believe me, I am quite aware of Deluxe's limitations!

[crisw]

Same story here- bought Suite (similar to Deluxe) in June- switched to Pro in July!

[bgrant]

No loyalty there, hey Cris?!

[crisw]

Sure...loyalty to a Chief Architect product rather than Punch

It was manual roofs that did it for me. There was no way I'd ever get the roof on my house done right in Suite; it wasn't easy in Pro!

[bgrant]

Oh - you went and said the dirty word - MANUAL. That's my nemises!

[eddiee1019]

I had issues making a U-shaped stairwell that went from the basement to the second floor. I basically had similar issues. I had problems running from the first floor to the second floor. What I did to fix it was go to the second floor (third floor in your case), and label that stairwell as "Open Below". That fixed my problems at least.

Good luck.

[JDODEZ]

I am having the same problem with u-shaped stairs. The problem I have though is the landing. I have a curved solid sheetrock wall as the 42" high balcony. First, Home Designer 7.09 says it reaches the next floor but does not show up on my 2nd floor floor plan. Second, If I do a curved wall in the family room and put the stairs behind it, of course, the wall goes to the ceiling and doesn't have the "See-over".

[Dan Park]

U-shaped stairs with a single landing are easy to create.

First draw the stair sections.

Then with the stair tool selected click between the sections to form the landing.

You should have a floor above the floor the stairs are on that does not have any walls over the area you are placing the stairs.

See attached images.

[Deirdre]

Dan,

Does it make any difference if Sandra's attachment shows one set of stairs at 4' 4" and the other set of stairs is set at 3' 9"?

COULD that be possibly one of the reasons for her msg screen?

From the tutorial on stairwells and landings I had the impression that they were to be the same size; I could be misinterpreting tutorial.

Dee

[JDODEZ]

I already installed the stairs. However, the stairs are facing (or open) to a two story family room. When you walk up to the landing you can see over into the family room. When I add the CURVED WALL it goes to the ceiling and does not give me the opening. I can not figure out how to shorten the wall from the ceiling. If I just add the stairs and landing, it doesn't want to make a good curve, it is more octagon. If I add the curve wall at the second floor it is too high. The landing is mid way between the two floors.
Any suggestions??

[bgrant]

I just recently experimented with my first staircase. I might be misunderstanding you, but if I am, please ignore this post. I've found that in order for a wall not to 'block' the open view of the stairs, you have to position the wall under the stairs so that the outside of the wall is flush with the outside edge of the stairs.