building stairs
Building Stairs
Building stairs is not diffcult if you are good with some carpentry skills.A good plan ahead of time,some carpenters math and lay-out is needed to be successful.
This article is for a basic set of stairs that would be for a deck,or a basement stair,ect.If you are looking for finished stairs cases go to---
1st and formost before building your stairs
Consult the national building-code requirements(BOCA) and the local building-code requirements.Somethime theres differant codes for differant locations.If it is an indoor or outdoor stairs ,does make a differance too.You can usally call your local building inspector for the current code.Building Codes are not against you but help protect you and others from hazards.
2nd is design
The most widely held code for stair is 7 5/8" rise max. and no less than 10" for tread width.I personally like a 6 1/2 rise,as is mostly required for extior stairs and it is easy for someone who has a physcial problem,to climbing the stairs.You would be suprised how much differance 1" makes!I also like using 2x12 for my treads.If it is over a 30" wide stairway,use 3 stringers.That way if anything heavy is moved up or down the steps it will be able to bear it,easily.I always use 2x12 for my stringer too.
Check the headroom (if appalicable) you need apx 6'- 8" from the nose of the stair that will be directly under the head object for clearance..
Heres a free stair caculator (much thanks to the blocklayer.com)http://www.blocklayer.com/Stairs/StairsEng.aspx
The math part
if the distance between the upper floor(the deck) down to the lower floor (ground) is say 8" or 96 "
You would, using a calutor 96" divided by 6.625 (6 5/8")= 14.4905" or 14 and about 1/2 risers which really will not work,we want a very close even number of risers. so ... We play around a bit with the fractional part of the desired rise .to find the decimal equi. of 3/4 divide 3 by 4=.75 7/8=.875
96" divided by 6.875" (6 7/8")=13.963 risers which is close enough to the full desired 14 stair risers.
More later
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