Stringers and Siding for the stairwell to the sleeping porch

The sleeping porch is our biggest waterproofing challenges, and no part of it is more challenging than the stairway leading up to it, which will be exposed to weather. The bottom of the stairwell has already been covered by a roofing membrane by a crew we hired, but they can't finish their work until the sides are finished.

Trinity makes a crease in a piece of peel & stick underlayment to make it easier to apply it in a corner

The first step is to put up a layer of underlayment on the wall. This is the last line of defense in case water gets beneath the siding. The peel & stick variety we're using will seal around the staples that hold it in place, and also seal the nails that attach the siding.

This is the stairwell, finished... except for the stairs.

In addition to siding, the stairwell needed stringers which will support the stair treads. They had to go on first so that the siding could be fit in above them. Only four bolts were used per stringer to minimize the number of punctures in the underlayment.

Detail of the bottom of a stair stringer. Metal flashing was installed on the top of the stringer, and surrounding it are weathered cedar fence boards cut from discarded fence panels and layered to make siding.

 Now that the stringers and siding are in place, the crew we hired can come back and install flashing to shed water from the porch level (where jesse is crouching in the above photo) down onto the top of the siding we installed. Then it can flow to the bottom of the stairs where it drains through a floor drain. The drain is visible above- look for the ridiculously oversized leaf strainer thing at the bottom of the picture. I'm planning to replace the strainer with something a lot shorter.

Here's looking at you!

If you want to see a few photos of what this area of the house looked like just a few weeks ago, this post has a few.