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01
"Quick" weekend project
"I have a two story home and realized I should have some extra space under the stairs. I am not a handy person at all but wanted to give it a shot. I thought the project would be a quick weekend project but it stretched out over multiple weekends because of mistakes and reading Reddit posts trying to figure out how to fix them! After my 50th trip to Home Depot, I am done!"
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02
The before
"My Husky, Nymeria, loves to lay between the couch and my block wall. The couch is backed against my staircase. I initially decided to open up a 3'X3' opening and did not expect there to be a lot of space under the stairs."
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03
Opening up the staircase
"I measured and marked off my space and used a Milwaukee multi-tool to open up the staircase. Once I was able to get some light in the opening I realized I had a lot more open space than I expected."
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04
Not such a "quick" project after all
"Right away I knew I bit off more than I could chew. I expected a small cubby space, but there were over 46 square feet. The builders left a lot of trash and excess material I had to clean out, and there were giants pools of dried concrete everywhere. Everything was framed out with thin metal studs that were not flush or squared off. There were multiple stair supports, including in the middle of my opening. The stair supports were not lined up with the metal studs which made things even more difficult."
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05
In and out
"I did not trust myself enough to move my stair support and decided to just patch the drywall back over the cut. This definitely made my project more challenging as I had to climb in and out a more narrow space with all my tools and drywall."
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06
The project manager
"Nymeria was overseeing every stage of this project. She was a tough foreman."
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07
At first you don't succeed...
"Because the studs were not flush it was nearly impossible to get the drywall to fit right. I ended up using 1/4", 1/2", and 5/8" drywall to get the seems as close as possible. There was still large gaps, which I tried (and failed) to cover with extra tape and mud."
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08
Hanging the drywall
"This part of the project was very difficult for me. I had virtually zero experience with hanging drywall and had to find a way to properly cut and angle the drywall to fit under my stair stringer. Because the metal studs and stair supports were not flush I had to get creative with my mud and tape. I used paper tape, premixed mud, and a sanding square to try and get everything right."
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09
Demanding answers
"My furry foreman wanted to know why we were so far behind schedule."
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10
Timber!
"The floor was Trafficmaster and went down very easily. I used a speed square and a utility knife to cut everything down."
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11
"good enough"
"After my fifth time mudding the drywall I finally decided it was "good enough". I wanted to lay down flooring and decided on a cheap stick on the vinyl floor. The ground was a bare concrete slab that had several mounds of dried concrete which had to be removed before I could lay the flooring down. I bought a Milwaukee angle grinder which made quick work of the mess. After measuring out the center of the room and leveling the floor it went very quickly."
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12
The dog door dilemma
"I wanted to put up some kind of door to cover the opening but needed it to be easily accessible for the animals. I considered cutting a door down and adding a "dog door" at the bottom but eventually decided on a barn door. I had zero experience with this type of door and made a few mistakes on the way. Word of warning, there is almost zero room for error when leveling the frame. When I initially mounted the door it was just a smidge off level but assumed it would be fine. I was completely wrong! If it is not dead on a level it will slide to the uneven side, making it virtually unusable."
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13
Sizing advice and steps
"Because I had trimmed out the opening I had to add a header so my door would have enough clearance. I cut down a 2X4 to fit between the metal studs to use as a support for the header and hardware. I purchased a hollow core door to keep my costs down, but I STRONGLY recommend using a slab door if you are cutting the door down. Because I had a much smaller opening than a typical door I had to cut the door in half. Because it was a hollow core door I had to take extra precautions:
1. Measure the door out, allowing extra clearance at the base so the door does not drag against the floor
2. Once I had the door measured I used my utility knife to cut down the line and break up the paint.
3. I used painters tape on both sides of the door to help avoid the door from splintering.
4. Once the door was cut down I refilled the base of the door with a foam spray and wood. 5. The door would swing back and forth at the bottom so I had to add a bottom track.
Because I used a hollow core door I couldn't cut a groove in. I bought a cheap sliding screen door track and cut it down to size."
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14
Getting there!
"Nymeria was thrilled with the color!"
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15
The new space!
"Once I adjusted the hardware so it would not slide by itself I added anti-jump disks and door stops. I took the door off the frame and painted it a bright red."
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16
Look at all that extra room!
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17
New homes
"I moved Khaleesi and Nymeria's dog beds in and they immediately made themselves at home. I spliced into a circuit and mounted a new light fixture and switch and added some decorations for them to admire!"
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