If you plan to make on your plot a ventilated terrace stairs to go down to the garden or if you have a balcony and, on the contrary, you want to get rid of the step in the threshold, you've come to the right place. This article will explain everything to you. We will show you how to use a system of adjustable supports to overcome various heights on terraces and balconies. How to build the perfect stairs, but also how to get rid of unwanted unevenness.
Terraces are not always installed directly at ground level. Very often the floors are poured much higher, such as the basement, foundations, and thus the door joinery.
A lower cost is to stabilize the ground for a dozen or so cm and then raise the level with adjustable pedestals, however, during the construction of the house, expenses are much more urgent than finishing the terrace, so the terraces are poured much earlier, before any plan for its finishing.
Only after some time, investors decide on the perfect cladding on the terrace and adjust the system and heights to their needs.
There are no contraindications for using the leveling brackets also in partially or completely closed rooms, e.g. in winter gardens connected with terraces, SPA zones in hotels, beer gardens in restaurants, etc.
Regardless of whether we install several steps leading to the terrace or large-format seats - each of these structures must be stable. This guarantees our safety during use.
1. Stairs usually generate the need to purchase lower adjustable pedestals than for the rest of the terrace. But not necessarily ...
If you already have existing steps on your investment, e.g. a concrete screed was immediately prepared with steps, remember to buy adjustable pedestals of different heights. You will need them to properly adjust the steps.
The same will be true if you have to create the steps yourself. You need to calculate the heights well to get the correct adjustable pedestals. You don't have to do it very carefully because the adjustable pedestals are adjustable in height. Also, it is enough to get to the right range.
It may happen that the stairs are so irregular and uneven in height that you will need the taller ones.
2. Whether it is a wooden or slab terrace, its sides should be masked. Cover the structure of the adjustable pedestals.
For slab terraces, we have designed a special system of steel clips, thanks to which you can install the terrace slab vertically and mask everything that is under the terrace surface.
The masking plate is the same plate used for the terrace floor. This allows for a uniform and consistent finish of the work.
You can also use previously cut boards as long as their height is sufficient. This makes the system even more economical.
When installing wooden terraces, the situation is easier because you do not need any other additional elements. The joists should be routed so that it allows the fascia boards to be tightened.
3. When calculating the material requirement, remember about additional amounts for masking the substructure - vertical elements. Without it, the terrace will look endless.
Regardless of whether the terrace will be made of wooden boards, composite boards or boards, you will need additional materials.
Of course, you can recover some of the remnants cut off earlier from the boards or boards from the basic cladding of the terrace, i.e. the horizontal one. However, this may not be enough. Of course, it depends on how high your vertical buildings are.
Some examples below.
4. You can build stairs, but you can also hide them.
You don't need them anymore? Or maybe you want to have them elsewhere? No problem.
Thanks to the adjustable pedestals, you will get rid of unevenness on the terrace that you do not want to have.
The most common are the thresholds. They must be insulated with an additional layer of styrodur to prevent freezing. Thermal bridges, through which we would lose heat from heating a house or apartment, are located, among others, at the door and window joinery. Therefore, to protect these places, it is necessary to additionally insulate these places.
Unfortunately, this generates thresholds that will bother us in the future.
You can also align other places on the terrace that require it.
In roof terraces, it is often steel planks around the outer edge of the terrace.
It also happens that not only the threshold has to be additionally insulated. Under a part of our balcony, the downstairs neighbor may still have a flat and this surface should be covered with an additional layer of thermal insulation. And that generates another height difference.
5. Elevated steps, which serve as seats, are an excellent solution. And not necessarily non-standard, increased dimensions.
Built-in seats are perfect for a short rest, but also for long moments with friends on the terrace. Built in the same material as the main floor / terrace cladding.
Perfect solution - materials consistent with the others. We carry out our care or cleaning together for the whole, using the same means.
Thanks to the many types of adjustable pedestal systems, DD Pedestals can be adjusted to fit your site. It is not necessary to use just one. There are no contraindications for combining several systems on one investment. If there is such a need and an opportunity, go ahead! any combinations.
But they don't have to be that high. It is enough that there are more of them and you can also sit down comfortably.
We have prepared for you drawings / sections for stairs on ventilated terraces in several different variants:
Check out our complete guidebook page to ventilated terrace technology. Everything about the design, montage and application of terraces on adjustable pedestals and support pads in one place.
It is the only such complete page about raised terrace on the Internet.
