How do you build stairs? It shouldn’t be that difficult, as long as you keep a few basic principles in mind. For one, all stairs should be equal in height, and length. Then there are some standards which are worth adhering to in order to ensure that people will be able to climb the thing once it’s completed. But as long as you abide by these basic points, it should be relatively straight forward.
Or so you would think.
Or so you would think.
Alternative Stairs
Building stairs in Kenya is a different matter. And Naivasha has some of the best examples of how NOT to build stairs! Take the "Diplomat House," for example.
The Diplomat House
One level, stairs wide, next level narrow
Top stair very short to help you pay attention
Top stair very short to help you pay attention
Or how about the building where the NHIF (National Hospital Insurance Fund) used to be located? Today you'd never know how shoddy the stairs are. You can't even get in to see! In fact, the whole building looks different. It has now been converted to a bank and with a new facade on the building, it looks like an amazing building. But I'm sure the stairs are the same as they were before: all over the place!
An entire new look!
I must hasten to add that I am no expert stair builder, never having built anything remotely looking like a staircase before. But I was able to design a structure which would get us onto the next level of the house using Adobe Illustrator and some criteria I was able to find on the web.
The first problem we encountered was when the “fundi,” the building expert, accidentally laid an extra layer of stones for the ground floor. As we didn’t have much room for the stairs in the first place, this was a disaster! It meant we had to make the stairs much steeper than they should have been. I still managed to get them to come within the maximum standard limit, but just barely.
And then the time came to build the wooden stair frame in preparation for the concrete work. What a catastrophe that was! First one fundi tried his hand at it. When he made each stair a different shape (rectangle? What’s that?) I had him redo the whole thing. After his third attempt I realised the futility of it and got another fundi on the job. He didn’t fare much better. I finally got the carpenter onto the job and after two tries on his part, I realised we were getting nowhere. By this time over three weeks had passed. Everything was ready for the concrete work to proceed, except the stairs.
Finally I called the welder over and asked him to take a look. Walter has an eye for things being equal and for knowing how to measure accurately. So we finally managed to get something mostly sorted. The final problem was that the top stair was 5cm too tall: our solution? We added an extra cm to each of the top stairs to get the height of the top stair down.
After weeks on the job we were finally able to get to the concrete work. The stairs were all ready and, although they were much steeper than I would have liked, they were acceptable, and mostly equal in length and height.
But then…disaster, again! We were finally able to pour the concrete for the slab. Unfortunately the fundi in charge was just not up to the job. But we didn't know that at the time. We’d contracted the work out to a team of builders in Naivasha as they had access to the necessary building equipment – both the hoist and the cement mixer. All we needed to contribute to the job was the supplies and the supervisor.
So what did the supervisor do? He had no idea how to ensure that things were level, no water pipe, no rope, nothing. He just eyeballed it. The slab looked like the surface of the ocean - in storm - when they were done! And the stairs? After all our effort the top stair is now 5cm taller than all the rest. I was furious! Now how are we ever going to correct the problem? And after all that effort and all those weeks of ensuring that the stairs would end up well. I wonder how much extra that mistake has cost us?
I then got another fundi to help start building the walls. He used a plum line and string to ensure things were straight. He was the one who noticed that the opening to the stairs was all crooked.
I was beginning to feel like the crooked little man who lived in the crooked little house.
No wonder they had problems getting the stairs straight. Now when you look down you can clearly see how wrong everything is. I wonder how we are going to fix it? Maybe when we put tiles on that will help. As they say here in Naivasha, tiles hide a multitude of sins.
The first problem we encountered was when the “fundi,” the building expert, accidentally laid an extra layer of stones for the ground floor. As we didn’t have much room for the stairs in the first place, this was a disaster! It meant we had to make the stairs much steeper than they should have been. I still managed to get them to come within the maximum standard limit, but just barely.
And then the time came to build the wooden stair frame in preparation for the concrete work. What a catastrophe that was! First one fundi tried his hand at it. When he made each stair a different shape (rectangle? What’s that?) I had him redo the whole thing. After his third attempt I realised the futility of it and got another fundi on the job. He didn’t fare much better. I finally got the carpenter onto the job and after two tries on his part, I realised we were getting nowhere. By this time over three weeks had passed. Everything was ready for the concrete work to proceed, except the stairs.
Finally I called the welder over and asked him to take a look. Walter has an eye for things being equal and for knowing how to measure accurately. So we finally managed to get something mostly sorted. The final problem was that the top stair was 5cm too tall: our solution? We added an extra cm to each of the top stairs to get the height of the top stair down.
After weeks on the job we were finally able to get to the concrete work. The stairs were all ready and, although they were much steeper than I would have liked, they were acceptable, and mostly equal in length and height.
But then…disaster, again! We were finally able to pour the concrete for the slab. Unfortunately the fundi in charge was just not up to the job. But we didn't know that at the time. We’d contracted the work out to a team of builders in Naivasha as they had access to the necessary building equipment – both the hoist and the cement mixer. All we needed to contribute to the job was the supplies and the supervisor.
So what did the supervisor do? He had no idea how to ensure that things were level, no water pipe, no rope, nothing. He just eyeballed it. The slab looked like the surface of the ocean - in storm - when they were done! And the stairs? After all our effort the top stair is now 5cm taller than all the rest. I was furious! Now how are we ever going to correct the problem? And after all that effort and all those weeks of ensuring that the stairs would end up well. I wonder how much extra that mistake has cost us?
I then got another fundi to help start building the walls. He used a plum line and string to ensure things were straight. He was the one who noticed that the opening to the stairs was all crooked.
I was beginning to feel like the crooked little man who lived in the crooked little house.
No wonder they had problems getting the stairs straight. Now when you look down you can clearly see how wrong everything is. I wonder how we are going to fix it? Maybe when we put tiles on that will help. As they say here in Naivasha, tiles hide a multitude of sins.
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