Another Way To Layout Stair Stringers With Only A Level, Pencil And Tape Measure

in this video i am going to provide you with another method that might work better for you than trying to use a framing square when laying out a notched stair stringer like we have here and i get it because i've seen plenty of people doing something like this with a lot of guesswork and what i'm going to try and do in this video is take some of the guess work out by providing you with something that might work a little better than just simply grabbing a two by twelve and trying to figure out the exact angle you're going to need for your stairway and if i remove the other stair stringer you can see right here that it's going to be practically impossible to figure out where you're going to position the bottom or the top without creating problems for your treads and risers so the first thing we're going to do is figure out how many treads and risers we actually need for our project and to do that we're going to measure the total overall rise and that will be the measurement between the top of the upper landing or floor and the top of the lower floor or landing and i'm not going to walk you through the process for that because i have other videos on that so feel free to go to the website and check that out if you need a little more information but it's usually not going to be that difficult because you can divide a few numbers into the total overall rise until you come to a number that is going to work and in our example we are going to have seven seven and a half inch risers and six 10 inch threads now i went ahead and i laid out seven treads because we're going to use this corner here in this corner here to provide us with the perfect starting and stopping points for our stringer and since we're going to be using a ledger in our example we will need to fasten it securely to the wood framing and to locate the height of it all you need to do is take the total overall riser height the individual riser height for one riser and in order to do this we are going to need to add the thickness of our stair tread to the riser height so we have seven and a half inches and a three quarter inch thick tread providing us with an eight and a quarter inch measurement so it will be eight and a quarter inches from the top of the floor to the top of the ledger and if you're not going to use a ledger then you won't worry about that and like i said it's going to be difficult but not impossible to line the top of the board up and even bring it back a little bit to where we would have the exact position we need and in our case we're not really going to worry about this because we're going to be using this point here and at the top we're going to be using this point here but pay attention here we're not going to start from the front of the riser we're going to start from the back of the riser and if we don't do this then we're going to be off just a little bit but you can see here where this board is parallel to this board and if you're off just a little bit it's not going to be a big deal and this is where the real magic starts to appear here because by positioning the corner of our 2x12 here we can let the rest of the board sit on top of the landing and run wild so we don't need to create the exact angle or the exact length of the stringer yet like we would if we were just trying to cut this board here by lining it up in a different way so you can see here this one's sitting on the ground and extending up so in order to figure out the bottom angle of the stringer we're simply going to grab a board and this board can represent any thickness that's going to work for you and in our example we're going to use a 2 by 12 lay the 2 by 12 on the floor like we have here and then draw a line onto the stringer using the guide board and then we're going to cut the bottom of the stringer and then we're going to reposition our board to where the bottom angle here the bottom corner of the stringer lines up with the front line that we have drawn on the ground and then we're going to grab a level and draw a plum line or a vertically level line so the bottom of the stringer will line up with this point here and the top of the stringer will simply sit on top of the floor or landing and then we will grab a level and then level up from this point here and that should look something like this after we remove our level and then we are going to measure from this point here to this point here and then transfer that measurement from this point here to this point here so if we have seven foot three and a half we are going to create a distance from this point here seven foot three and a half inches and then grab our level and then draw a plum line here in the exact same way that we did up here and after we cut it it should look something like this and then we can simply slide it into place and if you remember we are lining it up with this point here and the point at the top so we're going to be off just a little bit let's go ahead and install our stringer to see how far off we are by taking a look at the bottom here so here we can see where if we could have figured out this point here where it would have died in exactly here and at the top then we wouldn't have ended up with this situation here however in order for me to make this as easy as i possibly could that's why we're using these other points and since we are using a ledger we will go ahead and cut an inch and a half off of our stringer and again this board here is an inch and a half thick if it was two inches thick then we would need to deduct two inches off of the stringer from this distance here to this distance here and believe it or not that should be the easiest thing to figure out in this video next to what we are about to do and that will be to grab your level and line it up with the first line here and then draw a line here and then you're going to do the same thing here you're going to line the level up with the next 10 inch measurement remember our treads are going to be 10 inches wide and if your treads are going to be wider then you will have to adjust for those measurements one of the biggest problems with these videos is that a lot of people figure out that they got to make the measurements exactly the same as mine in the video and that probably isn't going to work for your stairway and then we will simply move the level over and repeat the process until we have drawn all of the riser lines on the stringer now let's go ahead and put the original stringer back in place so that you can get an idea of what we're doing here and that's what's nice about this software instead of doing it out on a job somewhere or it might be a little more difficult to see something now if you remember we needed to reposition the ledger we needed to adjust for the thickness of the stair tread and we're going to need to do the same here so we're not going to measure seven and a half inches off of the floor we're going to deduct three quarters of an inch since our threads are three quarters of an inch thick so we're not just going to measure off of the floor seven and a half inches 15 inches and work our way up because the overall riser height represents the measurement between the top of the lower tread and the top of the upper tread and hopefully that makes sense by looking at these examples so seven and a half inches from the top of the floor to the top of the tread now let's go ahead and remove our other stringer and of course remove our treads so that we can draw the line that we need six and three quarter inches off of the floor and you can always measure six and three quarter inches to the front off of the floor and then grab your level and level across however if your floor is perfectly level then you could just simply measure off of the floor and then make a mark here at six and three quarter inches and then a mark here at six and three quarter inches and if you're wondering why i'm spending so much time on this trying to make sure that this is hammered into your head it's because this is probably the biggest mistake most stair builders make amateur and professional then from this point here you can measure up seven and a half inches and not six and three quarter inches and then like i said grab a level and level across and then repeat that process for the rest of the steps and then cut your stair stringer and of course this will be the stair stringer you will use to trace the other stair stringers this will be a pattern that you will use for the other stringers you do not need to repeat the process for each individual stringer and if all of this makes sense and i've eliminated just a little bit of the confusion then i've done my job however if it does not feel free to leave any questions you have in the comment area and i will try to answer them as soon as possible you

Channel: stairbuilding

Views: 124,003

Keywords: do it yourself, ideas, examples, lumber, steps, building

Id: a9ihrh-h5cU

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Mon May 09 2022