DH ma-fan 'dream' stairs

‘Ma-fan’ in the sense that it has taken a lot of EFFORT not to mention hair loss from everyone to solve the design of the staircase!

It started out as a rather innocent desire and request by DH for concrete staircase. I must add that I was totally against it from the start as I was of the opinion that the original metal stair frame was fine as it is and served the required purpose. So it squeaks a little when you walk but it is still good.


But NO……DH insisted otherwise and so begins the saga. It would have been less of a headache if he was better informed what could and couldn’t be done, better decisions would have been made and not to mention time and cost-savings!!!


Issue #1 – The concrete staircase could not be duplicated in terms of size, height and width of the original metal stairs. With concrete, its all ibigger and less ‘agile’ compared to wood and steel. So what we had imagined and expected came out different.

Issue #2 – With a fixed base and top, our lovely landing was halved, literally. I was shocked when I saw it and immediately said ‘NO WAY’. For a flat landing, we had to extend the bottom of the staircase out further with 2 extra steps. Imagine the space wasted!! Quickly raised S.O.S. flag with my dad to help solve the staircase dilemma since he’s an engineer. Maybe an architect could be better but personally don’t know any.

Landing diagonally cut.


Flat again after rectifying it.


End of the steps sticking out further than the original steps - sacrifice for the flat landing. Any tall persons visiting should watch their heads as they walk up the staircase! Hm, give another few years maybe Master Prince may have to watch it, we'll see.

Issue #3 – DH then thought it’d be great to extend the wall of the staircase 2 feet high, thereby ‘saving’ (all in vain lah, tell you) the cost of railings. But it was too high, making the area rather small and dark. So we ended up compromising at about 8 inches.

Wall a little too high for the small area.

Finally opting for lower staircase walls.

Issue #4 – With a bigger storeroom under the stairs, we needed to solve the 3 steps going up from the living to the dinning.

After some discussion this time, it was decided that perhaps a fan step would be best.

When the final design was unveiled, it was rejected by the senior engineer citing that the edge was too narrow, making impractical as only one person will be able to go up at a time – ok, point taken. This lead to our sifu tiller back to the drawing board to mull for at least 1 1/2 days over the fate of the 3 steps – omg, he’s really got a lot of patience ya?

Final end result, slightly curved steps with bigger feet space & enough traffic space for at least 2 people.

The staircase as it currently stands. Simple as it may look but it took a lot of mathematical precision!! The walking path is definitely much better compared to the earlier fan design where we had to walk more to the left to avoid the narrow edge. For lazy people, we can now walk shortcut nearer the column with ease!!

In a few months I'll probably laugh it off but not right now :p

Issue #5 - How to tile the walls between each stairs??? Issue is with the rounded sides, using tiles will result in odd shaped tiles which will not look so nice and even. Contemplating instead with a) painting it; b) use smaller mosaic tiles; c) pebble wash. Currently leaning towards pebble wash. Any better ideas or comments?

More updates:
Currently renovations are at my half way mark which means I’m now deciding on the kitchen cabinets. Will be making the decision soon and hopefully one that doesn't seal me to an indefinite fate of permanent loan repayments!! At the end of the day, the determining factor and question is HOW MUCH DO YOU WANT TO PAY??