Cellar basement "Bilco" door and stairs

[SurferJim 0]

Hi, I'm a new user and recreating the plan of an existing house in order to experiment with some remodeling ideas. I need to add a cellar/basement door to a daylight basement. The basement door opens to the staircase landing. The landing should be directly in front of the basement door and the stairs should end at the level of the terrain. Then the Bilco door sits on the ground and covers the staircase which would otherwise be exposed to the elements. I think this is pretty standard stuff, and I've tried everything I can think of with terrain and foundation walls to create this but nothing seems to work. I've attached a view of the location in a rendering from my plan. Thanks in advance for any tips you might have.

[solver 467]

Answers often depend on which title (Suite, Pro etc) and version (2018, 2019 etc) you are using.

 

You can help everyone by adding this info to your signature (see below for how to turn them on, then see mine for an example) by clicking on your user name at the top right of the page, click Account Settings, then Signature on the left.

 

Doing so makes it always available, and keeps others from having to hunt for it.

 

And, turn on signature display too.

 

 

----

 

Resources for self help:

 

The built in Help System (always a good place to start)

 

Getting Started

 

Knowledge Base

 

YouTube

[solver 467]

Think of the stairwell as a room off the basement.

[Jo_Ann 144]

On level 0, use 3 half-walls to draw your 'room'  (half-walls allow you to manipulate their height).  Set them to 8" thick (like foundation walls) and set concrete as their material. Set the room structure as having  'no roof'.

 

On level 1, (terrain perimeter level) draw a 'terrain hole' inside the room.

On level 1 or level 0, draw a straight deck edge wall, at the end wall of the stair room, and set it's top floor (C) to be at ground level  (this forces the stairs to rise to meet that level). You might want to add a floor thickness to floor (K) and set it's material as concrete (this also creates a landing 'pad').

Draw in the stairs.

On level 1, place the cellar door.  If you downloaded the bonus catalog for exterior attachments, you will find cellar doors listed under 'bulkheads'.

 

 

[SurferJim 0]

4 hours ago, Jo_Ann said:

Thank you Jo Ann! That did the trick. I had a hard time making the walls behave but at I got the Bilco door inserted. I really appreciate your help on this, all the best, Jim.

 

On level 0, use 3 half-walls to draw your 'room'  (half-walls allow you to manipulate their height).  Set them to 8" thick (like foundation walls) and set concrete as their material. Set the room structure as having  'no roof'.

 

On level 1, (terrain perimeter level) draw a 'terrain hole' inside the room.

On level 1 or level 0, draw a straight deck edge wall, at the end wall of the stair room, and set it's top floor (C) to be at ground level  (this forces the stairs to rise to meet that level). You might want to add a floor thickness to floor (K) and set it's material as concrete (this also creates a landing 'pad').

Draw in the stairs.

On level 1, place the cellar door.  If you downloaded the bonus catalog for exterior attachments, you will find cellar doors listed under 'bulkheads'.

 

 

4

 

[LawB10 4]

Another way to do this, is to take 3 each Region elevations and Retaining walls.

 

Create a room with the Retaining walls, then take 2 region elevations and put one on each side of the house,

move them until the retaining walls are correct.

Take the remaining region elevation and put inside the Retaining wall room, drop it's elevation to minus 70 or so.

Draw the stairs and add a terrain feature to create a landing pad.

Place the cellar door over the room and resize, open the specification box for the cellar door and change reference

to terrain and terrain to bottom to 60".

 

bilco.plan

Edited February 19, 2019 by LawB10

[SurferJim 0]

7 hours ago, LawB10 said:

Another way to do this, is to take 3 each Region elevations and Retaining walls.

 

Create a room with the Retaining walls, then take 2 region elevations and put one on each side of the house,

move them until the retaining walls are correct.

Take the remaining wall and put inside the Retaining wall room, drop it's elevation to minus 70 or so.

Draw the stairs and add a terrain feature to create a landing pad.

Place the cellar door over the room and resize, open the specification box for the cellar door and change reference

to terrain and terrain to bottom to 60".

 

bilco.plan

thanks so much! this looks great. Really appreciate you taking the time!!