The Basement Renovation: Special Challenges

Finishing Under the Stairs

The staircase forms an "L".  From the side entrance, half the steps go up to the main floor, and the other half go down to the basement.

cabinet under stairs

Originally, there was a cabinet built into the area under the side landing. When I first moved into the house, I stored painting supplies there. However, storing paints in the middle of living space did not seem appropriate, and as the basement neared completion, I considered other options.

The wall was originally plywood painted dark brown. Before I came up with a definitive plan, I primed it and started painting it green to match the rest of the finished basement. I then considered removing the painted plywood, and replacing it with new cabinet grade plywood and constructing a built-in bookshelf. My wife and I both have a lot of books and I figured that this would not only be an efficient use of the space, but would also be another spot for us to put books without taking up any additional floor space elsewhere.

plywood removed

When I removed the plywood and the shelves, I discovered a very serious problem. The lower stairs and the upper stairs were both tied into a supporting post that was set in the concrete slab. Fifty years of wicking up moisture from the ground below the slab had taken their toll. The post was comprised of two 2x6's sandwiched together. The rot was so extensive that there was less than a 2x2 of good wood holding everything up. Certainly, catastrophic failure was not too long away.

rotted post

It is very sobering to realize that I discovered the damage "just in time." Who knows how much longer the structure would have remained intact?

Obviously, a major structural repair was necessary before I could consider any further options for finishing that area. This picture was taken after the rotted material was removed to reveal the extent of the damage.

Fortunately, I was able to enlist the assistance of a co-worker who had some experience with this type of repair. Before we could do anything, though, we had to determine just how the structure went together.

The hip bone's connected to the leg bone....

stair support structure

The joists (A) support the landing floor and upper stairs (B).  The joists (A) are in turn supported by the blocks of the outside wall at one end and a cross member (C) which ties into the support posts (D and E).  Both the upper and lower stair structures tie into support post E, which, as luck would have it, was the damaged post