Building basic stairs is easiest if you use stringers. The stringers are the supports that hold up the stair treads. You can buy them pre-cut, or make them out of lumber. Either way they need to be strong enough, and positioned correctly to bear the weight of everyone who will ever use them.
Stairs are a common piece of building equipment. They are necessary to help you get from one floor to another or to gain elevation without having to climb up a ladder. It’s very easy to build stairs in your home if you have the right plans, resources and a few other things. There are different types of stairs that you can choose from, depending on what kind of house you’re building and what kind of design you’d like for it.
The first step in building new stairs is to determine the location of the new steps and risers, which will depend on where you want them to go. If you already have a floor plan or blueprint for the house, you can use it to mark where stairs need to be built onto existing areas and how high each riser should be. For example, if your house has 10-foot ceilings, the distance between adjacent risers must be calculated in order for it to match up with the rest of the house’s measurements. If a sheetrock wall is being cut out so that new steps are going in, 8 inches of extra space must remain between joists where they intersect with each other so that they have enough room to line up correctly after cutting into them.. Molding Between Stair Treads. Apply wood glue at each joint along a solid wood stair tread and then nail an oak quarter round molding over each edge.
Stairs are often the most trafficked areas of a house, so it’s important that they’re structurally sound. Even though they look intimidating, building stairs is actually pretty straightforward and something you can do yourself.
Determining the Rise and Run
The rise and run of a set of stairs is determined by the width of the risers and treads, which are measured from top to bottom. The riser size is always greater than or equal to one-third the tread size, so if you want a stairway with 12-inch deep treads and 6-inch wide risers and you have a landing that’s 30 inches deep, your total rise will be 32 inches (30 plus 2). If your landing measures 36 inches deep, your total rise will be 36 plus 2 (42).
The formula for determining how tall each step should be: Rise = Tread Depth + (1/3) Wall Height + Riser Height + 1 inch
Marking the Steps
- Mark the rise and run. With a tape measure, measure from where you want your steps to start (the bottom of the stairway) all the way up to where it meets the next step. The rise is the distance between these two points, while the run is the total length of each step including both risers and treads.
- Mark the height of your riser(s). A riser is what makes up one side of each step it’s usually about 7 inches tall, but this can vary depending on how steep your stairs are or what type of wood you’re using for risers (more on that later). To determine how high they need to be, measure out an even distance from each side edge at this point in order to mark them accurately if you’re using more than one type of wood (like if both sides are made out of different materials), make sure that all risers are uniform in size so everything matches up nicely once installed!
Cutting the Stringer
The process for cutting the stringer is similar to that used for cutting the treads, but with a few extra considerations.
First, it’s important to measure and mark your cuts accurately. Make sure you’re using a square as you lay out your cut lines so that they are perpendicular (90 degrees) to each other. Then use your saw blade as a guide when making these cuts and be sure not to cut into any of the adjoining pieces, which may cause unwanted chipping or splintering. When you get done cutting all four sides of your stringer, test fit it into place before finishing off any rough edges with sandpaper or wood filler if necessary.
Next up are stair treads! If yours have already been cut down from 2×12 boards into planks measuring 4-5 inches wide by 8 feet long or so (like mine), then great—you won’t need
to do much more than measure carefully before marking off where each riser needs to go on both sides at once (so there won’t be any mistakes). You’ll want those marks spaced evenly between each step but extending beyond where they will meet with another piece of wood (called its “landing”).
Installing the Risers and Treads
The risers and treads should be installed before you begin to frame the stairs. You can use a nail gun to put them in place, but it’s best if you have someone hold them for you while you do this. The nails will be removed later when your project is completed, so don’t worry about nailing through any wood that will be visible later on in the project.
Once the risers and treads are nailed into place, check their level with a leveler or something else handy that acts as an accurate measuring tool. Use these measurements as guides when building your stairs because even small changes in height can make a big difference to how well your staircase will function over time.
With a little know-how, you can easily build basic stairs.
While it’s true that you need to know the basics before starting, don’t be afraid of making mistakes. Everyone has to start somewhere! The key is to learn from those mistakes and keep on truckin’ forward.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help either. If you need assistance or have a question, it’s best to just get it out in the open instead of letting things fester inside your head until they explode like some sort of figurative Mount Vesuvius (or literal one, if we’re being honest).
Final words
Hopefully you feel a bit more confident in your ability to build stairs now. If not, don’t worry it’s only a matter of time before you’re ready to tackle your first staircase! Whether it’s for a deck, basement, or loft space (like ours), the principles are basically the same. In this post we have given you some tips that should help make your job easier, but remember to relax and have fun with it.
