Yes it fairly steep. It goes to the boiler room in a chalet so it was made just for the look thing really. The problem was the builder had cut the hole for the stairs but hadnt actually thought about how to put them in.
The treads are slotted so the handrail pushes into the tread and is bolted with the braces underneth. As for finishing i brushed it up with conditioning pads on a polishing machine. Took a while.
Dont really understand the joist stuts bit Paul. They are 18mm stainless bar with tags welded on the end that slot into the stair treads.
Basically in france if the place isnt for commercial use then you can have stairs like this. If it was a hotel then no. No voids, handrails at 1100mm etc.
The design was just awesome , I mean everyone would definitely gonna love it but have only one issue the steps are too small so that the difficulty level of climbing the stairs get increases(specially for senior citizen or for injured person.
The French have a very relaxed approach to certain types of regulations, home building regs being one of them.
I have a relations in the Dordoigne area of France, they have a Gite that has yet to be signed off building work wise, its been an approved holiday let for about 10 years now, but the swimming pool which was there before the Gite had to comply to the swimming pool safety codes for holidays before the Gite could be let when the reg come in and has been inspected .
Its the way the French work at times, a bit like when they sign up to some of th EU laws/regulations, if they like it they obey/use it or just simply ignore it which ever suits them best.