- Cooper built drums.
- Ply laminated drums.
- Fake stringer drums.
- Stringer Drum Gallery.
Cooper built drums.
In most historic staircases the corners would have been created by creating “drums” these stringer and landing drums would have been made by glueing timber staves together as would have been used in making wooden casks, buckets, barrels and other similar containers.
The drums are styled on how a Cooper would have normally built these stave constructed drums. Hence, cooper built drum.
The main difference is that the visible or concave side of these generally quadrant or semi circular sections would be face finished with a thin ply layer.
This would provide a face finish that helped hold the staves together with the added bonus of a smooth surface that could be decorated.
Fake stringer drums.
How to make two separate flights, look continuous.
- Before flights and landings are set in place.
- Retrofit after flights and landings are set in place.
When the staircases have not been designed as one single staircase but a number of separate flights, it is possible to fit fake stringer drums and landing nosings to give the impression of the flights having been installed as one.
This is not always possible and will depend on whether the flights have been fitted or not when fitted if you have access to the underside of the flights above the plaster line.
Many times when the flights have been incorrectly designed the bottom tread sits on the landing and not in front of it.
This creates a few anomalies, the drum is one of these anomalies that goes wrong. the nosing that sits above the drum will end up missing or in the wrong position and create problems for the handrail flow.
Therefore whenever possible even if the drums have been missed by the staircase manufacturer, then fake drums can be fitted to the landings to allow the handrail to flow correctly.
1. Before flights and landings are set in place.
When and why?
When the staircase has not been designed as one and the flights are just straight flights with no connecting drums.
When this is the case, it is possible to set the flights in a position, that will allow for fake drums to be fitted between the stringers, giving the illusion of a correctly set out staircase.
When setting the spacing between the stringers or the stringer and landing fascias the handrail flow required will assist in getting the distance between the spindle or handrail support centre lines.
Read more about the spacing between spindles Here.
Read more about the handrail flow around corners
Quick tip.
Handrail comes to level mid turn.
Distance between handrail centre lines = 1 going
The handrail stays at the same pitch as flights through the turn.
Distance between handrail centre lines = 1/2 going.
The parts needed.
To be able to fake the 180º stringer drum, the two main parts required will be the drum; which will need to be long enough to reach from the bottom of the lower string to the top of the first riser on the upper stringer and the landing nosing that will need to incorporate the shape of the new drum.
Trimmer make up.
There are two ways for the trimmers to allow for the drums at the top or bottom of the flights to be set into the landing area.
- Is to use carriages as described above to support the flights and to allow the end risers to be positioned away from the trimmers, allowing room outside of them for the drums.
- Is to cantilever an extension in front of the trimmers that the flights are fitted to. To allow space for the drum outside of the flight area. This will let the straight flights lean against or be set upon the projected section of the landing trimmer.
Riser positions.
The risers will need to be set away from the main trimmer with enough space to allow for the drum.
The drum will be between 1/2 a going and a full going in diameter plus the thickness of the drum. This will normally equate to the face of the risers being a minimum of 220mm apart or the minimum amount of going permitted by the local authority unless the spindle faces are set further into the staircase and not over the string face.
When this happens the diameter may reduce considerably.
Drum springing line.
The drum springing point or the point from which the drum starts turning will be in line with the riser faces.
Stringer Drum Gallery.
Quarter turn drum.
This is a quarter turn drum going from the straight flight into a landing.
The quarter turn springs or starts to turn at the top riser line.
Here you can see the tread brackets on the side of each tread and repeat for the landing area.
half turn drum.
A 180º drum set mid flight for a half space landing.
The plaster bead on the bottom of the stringer allows the plaster to finish under the edge of the stringer.
The pitch is constant around the bottom of the drum as up through the flights.
A historic drum.
This is a drum that was removed from an old staircase that was taken out.
You can see on the back or the underside of the staircase, the plaster bead, tacks for holding the original laths and the individual staves that the drum is made up from.
On the face side, you can also see the ply veneer that has been applied to strengthen the laminations, this would also give a face finish to give a good finish for decoration.
Making drums
These are some parts ready to be glued up to make some fake drums that are to be retro fitted along with their nosings to flights that had not been designed properly and required geometric handrail.
This will allow the spindles to sit in the correct place around the nosings. These staves have been joined using a domino machine but biscuits or loose tongues will also work.
The face curves may be molded on a spindle molder before cutting side angles.
A historic drum.
On this staircase, we refurbished the original handrail and spindles.
The original spindles being square 7/8″ or 22mm finish.
The original flight was left in situ, the drum had a diminishing flier tread leading into the winders going around the drum, you can also see the curved return nosings returning beyond the riser line of the tread above and returning into the drum.
The drum allows for the underside of the staircase to flow, the soffit would traditionally be closed in using lath and plaster.
180º drum leveling mid turn.
This is a historic drum that comes to level, mid turn, the drum is set in a half pace landing. The nosing will be a full 180º turn,
The original scotia is missing on this flight but was replaced during the repair work.
The spindles are side mounted onto the stringers, cutting down through the return nosings, requiring a larger well size than with those mounted onto the treads.
A modern drum.
This is a section of the stringer with a 180º drum built in, this section is to be used on a metal staircase that is to be clad in timber to look like a standard timber built flight. The staves are held together using Zip bolts and dowels.
The second image shows the same stringer fitted in place on the metal subframe.
The bottom image is the same section once it had been fitted with the treads and risers set over.
180º drum leveling mid turn.
This is a historic drum that comes to level, mid turn, the drum is set in a half pace landing. The nosing will be a full 180º turn,
The original scotia is missing on this flight but was replaced during the repair work.
The spindles are side mounted onto the stringers, cutting down through the return nosings, requiring a larger well size than with those mounted onto the treads.