Installing the Steel Stairs in the Root Cellar

The kitchen house is the only section of the property that has a cellar. It's an old root cellar. the wooden stairs going into the cellar were a lawsuit waiting to happen. The bottom of the stairs have been rotted out and jack-legged like nothing I have seen.

A couple of angle irons and a half dozen bricks and it's ready to go. But wait, the final touch is that the stairs are not even anchored to the wall. If you shake too much on your way down the angle iron legs start to slide and your in for a wild ride down.
I stumbled onto a set of steel factory steps at the scrap iron yard. They looked practically new and all strapped to a pallet ready to be assembled. I had to adjust the height by two steps and weld on support legs in the back. I couldn't believe how much the stairs weighed. I used a chain hoist in the pre-installation assembly to test height, angle and leveling. My "mail box from hell" project is to the right, freshly painted.

I re-assembled the stairs in place and even without anchoring them to the wall they are rock solid from the shear weight alone. Have I mentioned I love overkill? There is a hole in the wall just under the stairs that is the opening of a tunnel to the main house. Water, electrical, data, and TV run through the tunnel. This was a sticky point when adjusting the height of the stairs.