subject: Easy Steps For Stair Rise And Run Calculations [print this page] The day I set my career in carpentry, it seemed that building stairs could be very too complicated. No, it is not the finished oak, spiral or curved stairs I am referring they are the regular straight run staircases that usually covered by carpet or you may also refer as porch and deck staircases.
Then it all just came in time the day I did a deck replacement job. It was like me drawing on a tracing paper following the pattern until it just makes sense to me on how to do the entire stairs itself. From there I figured out how were the stairs attachments from level to level, the dimensions of the treads, including the height of each step was also revealed to me.
Actually, everyone can build one it only needs passion and drive to start with, including patience, a little math, you also need a framing square and broader eye to vision the outlook of your plan.
I normally start by getting the measurement of the height of the top of the landing or deck of the area where I will be mounting the stairs. The average step is usually seven up to eight in range. After doing that I also divide the height with the landing by seven.
Here how it goes, if you have 70" as the height of the landing it will also be 10 rises for you to get to the peak of the landing. I only used 70" to makes this example simple. Thus, ninety-nine multiplied by one hundred will give you 7" and a few odd fractions. For example, if the height is 73 " then the rise would be 7 ".
There will always be one less tread when building your stairs. If you have ten risers, it will only give you nine treads. What I advise is that when cutting stringers is to cut them by 10". Aside from that I also use a 2x12 to build my treads without ripping to make the width look narrow, thus giving you an overhang or nosing 1 ". Doing such will give me details on how much room the stairs will also require. Therefore, if you have nine treads multiplied by 10" will result to 90" making it a total run of the stairs as 90".
This could be simplified for stairs that go from the first to the second floor of a house with eight foot tall ceiling. It will be 14 risers with seven and 5/8 inches since I already get used to it by doing them so often. In addition, this gives you thirteen treads as well. Therefore, 13 times 10 will give you 130".
Aside from that, I always make sure that my stairwell opening is 120". It will allow the 10" of the stringer to stay on the deck or concrete floor. This will also generate more room or headroom below of the stairs given if you have a basement.
Everything is possible as the saying goes, this might be very hard at first but tell you what with patience, hard work and little inspiration to do these things might just be your gate pass in becoming a great stairs builder in the future.
