How to Build a Staircase

Building a staircase with functionality in mind will be important. When constructing these steps, you will need to focus on safety and plan ahead for anything that could have an impact on the building experience.

This includes the amount of headroom that will be available and how much you will need to adjust the surrounding structure to make these steps work. Your staircase will be broken down into three parts, the stringer, the tread and the rise.

It will be important that you understand what these parts are.

The stringer is the portion of the stairs that will act as reinforcement. Most stairs have two stringers on each side of the steps, although you can use one.

The rise is then the height of each stair, while the tread is the overall width that each step has.

Have You Got the Right Tools?

staircaseOnce you have determined the space you are going to build in, you need to ensure that you have your tools in place. It will be important that you add in additional screws, nails and pieces of wood to allow you the chance to compensate for mistakes that you may make.

A good way to do this is to calculate the steps you are going to be building in advance. You need to look as how much vertical height the stairs will need to cover to reach from the base of the area to the top. In addition to this, you need to figure out how many steps and rises will be needed to reach the top of the staircase safely.

This can be done by taking the rise and dividing the total by 7.25 for a standard height of steps. Then you can round to the nearest whole number. That will let you plan for the total number of steps needed.

As you are doing this, you need to keep in mind that the top tread will be the space that you are stepping on. This means you are calculating your risers, you need to have one less tread than riser for your project. That way, you don’t overshoot your results.

Now you can begin to build your stairs. Begin by laying out the stairs with masking tape to mark the spaces you will be building in. Here, you will use the framing square to help you mark off the area and to ensure that you stairs are an even size.

When you have the measurements you need, begin to cut your wood with a circular saw to fit the area you are working in. It will be important to work out the corners of the stair with a handsaw to ensure that you maintain precision on these pieces.

With each piece you are cutting, especially with the stringer, accuracy is essential, so ensure that you get each piece cut as closely as perfect as possible.

Once you have cut all your stringers, you can begin to attach them as needed.

You can then use joist hangers to affix these items to the frame of the rise and hammer nails into the treads starting from the base of your stairs and then slowly work up to the peak of your staircase. It will be at this time that you may want to go back and install a handrail to ensure safety.

Building a staircase doesn’t have to be difficult. It will take some planning and some calculations to ensure that you build a solid staircase, so be sure you check your work and ensure that you are building these steps in the safest manner possible.

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