[detail] Floating Cantilever Stairs Detail 1j465n

The first picture copies what was drawn before. The second picture is my recomendation for using the same technology with the position of the reo bar used as a suspension cable and the addition of a shim to adjust the level. The first drawing accentuates instead of conteracting the cantilever forces. because the centre line of 'the beam' step is being used to hold up the step the top and bottom of the beam step is doing nothing. In fact the bottom edge is levering the whole step through the wall and you would have to use a wall about three times as reinforced to resist its pull. It is the top and bottom of a beam that holds up a cantilever. In the first drawing the reo bar is the actual cantilever and the rest is dead wieght on the cantilever. The forces on the bottom edge of the step are enourmous crushing loads and the reo is not reinforcing anything. In the second drawing the reo is used as a suspension cable so even though the step appears to be a cantilever beam it is not acting that way. It is actually reo acting as a cable suspension. The mass of the step that is turning downwards, is halted by using its bottom edge as a chock. The shim piece can be added to adjust hieght of the end of the step or the step itself can be cast with the opposite shim and then threading the end of the rod behind the wall and use a nut to level the step. The shim (nylon is good) is then packed in from above. I would recomend using two cables that run in towards each other at about 2or 3 degrees towards the end of the step to that they also act as lateral bracing.