Twenty stairs, no drawings
A twenty-step run cut into a hillside at Mount Eliza, set out from scratch — no plans, no heights, and a change of direction partway up.
The brief
Starting from nothing but the slope
There were no working drawings and no established heights. Everything — the excavation, the set-out, the riser heights, the landings — had to be measured and resolved on site before any work began.
Partway up the hill the direction changed. On a stair run, a change like that resets the geometry for everything above it: every riser has to stay equal, or the whole flight reads as wrong underfoot and by eye.
The making
Formwork, steel, pour, finish
Excavation, footings and set-out carried the risk on this one. Riser heights were split across the full rise so that every step matched, rather than absorbing the error in a final step.
The detail
Every riser the same, or none of it works
A stair with uneven risers is not a cosmetic problem — people feel it before they see it. It is also the most common failure in this work, and it comes from setting out from an assumed height instead of a measured one.
Outcome
What it delivered
Twenty steps, equal risers
Set out from measured heights across the full rise.
Full excavation
Dug and set out as part of the same scope.
Absorbed a direction change
Geometry reset mid-run without losing the line.
Got something like this coming up?
Send through the drawings or the concept and we will tell you what it takes.