Friday, September 27, 2013

Pallet Staircase

So my Hot Little Contractor came up with this ingenious, resourceful solution to a recent problem of ours.
We moved into our double-wide in July, and upon inspection by the County Inspector, were told that the stairs we were using (given to us....bought by us...from the manufactured home company) were illegal.
We failed our inspection and had only 90 days to remedy the situation.
So The Hot Contractor spent a few hundred dollars on nice lumber, and built us a staircase. Out our laundry room door.
Then we called the inspector back out.
We failed again.
He saw us using a "pallet staircase" we had created (a bunch of pallets piled on top of each other) out our back sliding door.
*Busted!*
He told us we now had to build another staircase.
We weren't planning on ever building a staircase in the backyard. We eventually want to put a big deck back there, but we don't have the time or money right now for a deck as large as we'd like. So, in an effort to not waste another few hundred dollars in lumber, just so we could pass our inspection and legally live in our home, The Hot Contractor took all those free pallets we had, and turned them into a real, genuine staircase!
And I must say, I think they are supah cute! I kinda wish the other (very expensive) staircase matched, because its just so shabby-chic and homesteady to me. I heart them.
So let me show off my hubby's handiwork, if you don't mind me bragging for a minute.
Here he is mid-project, putting the stairs together.












And here is the finished product!




The only part he couldn't use pallets for was the handrail. So he used a piece of scrap 2x4 and, using one of his fancy tools (which I have no idea what it was called) formed the wood into a circular hand rail that meets the specific requirements by our county.
















Looking down from the top




They are super sturdy too! To prevent our feet from falling through those pallet cracks, he sawed off some other pieces of pallet to fit in the spaces. Other than the handrail, it is completely made from pallets.
And guess how much it cost us???
$0.
I love that price!

We just got the report back from the inspection office. It says "Passed! Very inventive staircase!" Woo-hoo!

Thank you, Hot Contractor! ❤❤