Build Simple Strong Steps Without Stringers

hey thanks for stopping by next level carpentry to check out this video building a set of simple strong classy steps like these is simpler than you think because they don't have internal stringers and don't require complicated calculations in this video i'll show you step-by-step baby steps you can take to make a simple set of stairs like these so let's go back in time so you can see the process i used from the start you can see that the steps i made in this video are a definite upgrade from this grubby set that have been in this house since it was built this stair build like every other one starts with three key figures the three figures are total rise total run and tread thickness total rise is nothing more than how far up the stairs go total run is the horizontal distance that the stairs take up and most importantly the location of the front lip of the bottom step tread thickness is a clever term used to define the thickness of the treads and is directly correlated to the thickness of the material you're using for your treads go figure there's entire books devoted to dealing with rise and run of stairs but this video is about building simple stairs so i'm going to take some shortcuts that i think you'll appreciate as you probably know tread thickness can vary widely but i'll show you how to compensate for any tread thickness that you choose and i want you to know that the stairs i i mean the steps that follow are important but not too complicated total rise is the first thing that i need to know so that i can make the height of each step equal to get an accurate total rise measurement i first need to know the total run or the distance out to the front of the bottom step because most garage floors slope and this one's no exception total rise needs to be measured where the steps end their total run and not measured vertically at the wall where the steps start in carpenter speak i'm saying that the total rise increases as the total run increases because the elevation of the floor is dropping down the farther out from the wall that it goes you can see when i hold this four foot level along the floor the farther out the stairs travel the further down they need to go to meet up with the slope of the concrete floor the slope of this floor is about a quarter inch per foot which is fairly typical but that too can vary widely from job to job i'll take the camera back to the shop to show you the analog shortcut that i use to figure the total run for these steps so i know how far out from the wall i need to go to measure the total rise but i'm going to stay here and shoot measuring the total rise before i go then i'll be able to use video voodoo after i return to make it look like i can travel through space and time at will since total run is nothing more than the combined width of all the stair treads in a flight of stairs i'll just measure the actual stair treads as a shortcut to getting the total run and my client's request i custom made these three stair treads out of bamboo to match flooring in the hall behind door number one at the top of the stairs no there's no prizes behind door number one and my client is not monty hall i bought amazing 12 inch wide by 48 inches long by 13 16 inch thick caramelized bamboo planks from chris at northwest bamboo i cut glued and planed them to change them from plain planks into attractive treads that are 1-3 8 inches thick i'll address dealing with tread thickness later with another stupid simple shortcut and if you like the looks of these bamboo treads i'll add a link to chris and his northwest bamboo website in the video description below because the top step of these stairs is actually a mini landing i left it 12 inches wide but ripped the other two treads down to a more typical 11 inch width i need to introduce a new term here nosing and nosing is nothing more than the amount each tread overlaps the one below it dealing with nosing can be confusing but i'll try to walk you through the baby stairs i mean baby steps baby stares are what you get when you make funny faces at chronologically lacking homo sapiens so i'll walk you through baby's steps so nosing makes sense figuring total run for a short set of stairs like this is as easy as laying the treads on top of each other with a one inch overlap to compensate for nosing in simple addition i promised no complicated calculations right here i have the tops 12 inches of run overlapping an 11 inch middle tread by one inch leaving another 10 inches of run and that overlapping an 11 inch bottom tread leaving another 10 inches of run for a combined run of 12 inches plus 10 inches plus 10 inches or 37 and 43 64 inches oops i was using new math there sorry 12 inches plus 10 inches plus 10 inches is actually 32 inches exactly now we can flash back to the job site where i'll use a four foot level and this 32 inch total run dimension to measure our total rise future me from the past already knows the magic total rise number but hasn't told me what it is yet to measure total rise i use a level to plumb the 32 inch total run measurement from the wall down to the floor using a tape measure for this can be frustrating so i just chop the scrap stick at exactly 32 inches and use it instead and that trick might save you as much trouble and aggravation as anything else you learned from this video i marked the floor at 32 inches and then transfer that mark over to the center of the stairs next i switch the level and stick to finally measure our total rise i avoid tape measure frustration here too by marking the stick and measuring to the mark yet another pro tip to minimize aggravation from a lazy carpenter the total rise for these stairs is 24 and a quarter inches which is equivalent to 61.6 inches celsius for all the metric viewers in the audience one more thing while i'm here i check for level side to side across the front of the stairs to make allowances during final installation to compensate for any out of level condition that may exist i'm lucky here because this is nearly perfect requiring only a slight scribe on the bottom riser later now i'll take this information back to the shop and show you more shortcuts i use to further avoid complicated calculations the shortcut i use for avoiding unnecessary math is drawing a full-scale plan of these simple stairs it's similar to the method i used in the recent free range hood plans video that you can watch for reference by clicking the link in the upper left hand corner of your screen drawing a full-scale plan is a fool-proof analog method involving only a scrap of smooth sheet goods and a few simple layout tools [Music] i'm using this sheet of half inch hdf material but plywood or particle board work great too you just need to make sure that the corners are square and that the edges are parallel the two main tools i use for drawing this full scale plan are a tape measure and a papermate sharprider pencil a 12 inch rule a one meter yardstick and a framing square are helpful but not essential a pair of dividers can be used for analog division in lieu of a calculator which is not necessary imagine that a master carpenter showing how to lay out a set of stairs without using a calculator in the year 2021 leaving the most important tool for last i always keep a jumble-sized oops eraser at the ready for unwriting wrongs that inevitably occur i start drawing my full-scale plan for these simple steps with the three figures from earlier 24 and a quarter inch total rise 32 inch total run and 1 3 8 inch tread thickness this video is almost certain to be youtube troll bait so i'm going to make it clear i'm not building these steps this way because i don't know how to cut stringers i'm doing it like this because i don't need or want stringers troll types who never think outside the box will insist on cutting three stubby stringers for a small set of steps like these and then covering them up with layers of trailer house trim all shot on by a little headless pin nailer all the while trying to convince legitimate craftsmen the trolls know best i do offer my apologies to the 99.9 percent of viewers who appreciate learning alternative methods and are intelligent enough to decide for themselves which method is best for a given situation my sheet of hdf scrap here where i'm drawing the plan is oversized to provide margins for the drawing and i'll start by drawing a line two inches in from an end and an edge to represent the bottom of the steps and then the vertical wall that they butt into so this is the bottom back corner of the stairs the side of the sheet will represent the wall and naturally the bottom represents the floor notice i didn't draw the line that represents the floor sloped like the actual conditions of the garage floor but rest assured i'll account for that reality later this whole process is natural to me but i'll explain it here for you so you know where i'm headed i draw the plan on this sheet here and do all the calculating and figuring and make any adjustments that are necessary and then i'll transfer all the measurements to the actual material i'm using to build the box for these steps this happens to be half inch hdf that's just coincidence but the material i'll be building the steps out of is three quarter inch hdf the reason i'm doing that is because this material is essentially waterproof and it's going to be sitting on a concrete garage floor i'll seal it with caulk at the bottom when it's all done but uh dampness and stuff in that slab could get up into regular particle board or regular mdf i'm not drawing on the regular sheet or the actual sheet that i'm going to cut them out of because once i know the dimensions i can nest the two the two sides of this box you might be able to see zigzag marks here that's one side of the box and then the other side is over there so if i draw it on this and i compensate for the slope floor and everything it's just a lot more work much easier to draw on a plan first whatever that material ends up being and then i just transfer dimensions and angles to this material when i cut it later and in reality when i'm just doing this it takes no extra time at all really to do it like this anytime i spend drawing it twice i save by not making mistakes so with that in mind i'll continue with the full scale drawing here the next two lines i draw on the plan represent the total rise and the total run and i run these two lines by sliding the tape measure across the edge of the sheet keeping the tape perpendicular to the edge of the sheet and then following the end of the tape with my sharp writer pencil i first draw a line 24 and a quarter inches up from the bottom margin line and then draw one 32 inches horizontally for the total run i make sure to measure from the margin line and not from the edge of the sheet and that technique takes a little bit of practice so if you're uncomfortable with it or you're not sure that you're getting lines that are true just measure from the lines and then use a straight edge to draw them out but now i've got a rectangle that represents the total run and the total rise for the set of simple steps the next step in drawing steps is to divide up the total rise and i divide it by three so that i get three equal height steps you know it's 24 and a quarter inches so that's eight inches plus a third of a quarter if you want to think of it that way and i'll show you a couple ways to go about that none of which involve a calculator naturally if the total rise happened to be 24 and 3 8 each step is going to be 8 and 8 inches problem solved but instead if it's 23 and 5 8 it's a little trickier to divide up by doing math in my head so that's when i use these other methods the first analog dividing method i'll show you is probably the coolest and it involves picking a whole number greater than 24 inches that's easily divisible by three in this scenario i'll pick 27 inches because it's easily divisible by nine to use this calculator to divide 24 and 1 8 inches by 3 simply line up 0 on the line representing the floor and 27 inches on the line representing the total rise and then mark along a straight edge at 9 inches and 2 times 9 or 18 inches and with that i'm guaranteed three equal spaces distributed across the 24 and a quarter inch total rise no surprise those measure out at just a skosh less than 8 and 8 inches and now i'll run light lines through those divided marks across the sheet to represent the top of the two stair treads just as simple as that now i have the top of the mini landing step here the middle step the bottom step and the concrete floor perfectly spaced i probably better talk about maximum rise at this point too in many areas of the country a building code is going to dictate an 8 inch maximum rise for a single step in a given set of stairs here i'm at a little over eight inches not quite eight and eight inches but to appease an overzealous building inspector i would need to add another step into this set of stairs making each one what six and an eighth inches and then it sticks out another 11 inches so i'm not going to do that there's a number of fine lines like that in building codes when they regard stairs and some building inspector might nitpick that and make a contractor add that extra step and then overlook the fact that the steps aren't level or they're crooked or they wiggle when you go up and down them so i'm making a decision here and now to go just slightly over eight and an eighth inches slightly over eight inches for this set of stairs and bear the wrath of the building department if they want to make a poster boy out of me bottom line is sometimes things that meet building code aren't as safe or as good as something well built that doesn't and i could tell you story after story after story of situations that are just like that i'll show you the other method i use sometimes for analog division and that involves using a pair of dividers because we already did the example of 24 and a quarter inches which is pretty simple let's use something a little more unusual and let's go 25 and 7 8 and divide that by three i use this scrap of material here to demonstrate i start out by drawing a straight line along the edge of this piece of scrap and then i'll put two marks 25 and 7 8 inches apart and i'll use a framing square to accentuate those marks for visibility and then i'll set the dividers to a random width that's a guess of about one third this distance let's try that now i carefully place the divider on the mark on one end and step off three spaces now i take a second guess at roughly one third of the remaining space and adjust the dividers accordingly repeat the process a second time exercising equal care getting pretty close let's go a third of the remainder and that got it once the divider hits the 25 and 7 8 inch mark in three steps i know i've got an accurate measurement and i can use those tick marks in similar fashion to draw out equally spaced parallel lines and the fact that the actual measurement is eight and nineteen thirty seconds of an inch give or take is somewhat irrelevant at this point obviously i made all these calculations using an imperial set of dividers so anybody that's inclined to use metric measurements will need to get a special pair of metric dividers for the measurements to come out accurately now i can proceed with drawing out individual run for the mini landing at the top and the other two steps and you'll see in a minute where the tread thickness that i mentioned earlier comes into play i added a serious ring light into this setup and retrace the lines darker in an effort to make this drawing more clear and therefore more understandable if you remember from earlier i called the top step a mini landing and left it a full 12 inches wide so i'll mark out the nosing for that step at 12 inches mark out the middle step at 22 and of course i've already got the nosing for the bottom step at 32 inches total run with those lines in place the tread thickness comes into play next remember i'm using inch and 3 8 thick treads but at this point mark out whatever tread thickness you're using anywhere from three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half depending on the material you're using i don't like the way i drew that top tread thickness so i'll break out the oops eraser and make it better next i'll mark out the face of each riser by marking one inch back from each tread nosing and then putting another mark three quarters of an inch back from that to represent the thickness of those risers and then i'll use those marks to draw in the riser boards for each of the steps i'll bring the framing square into the picture for a few of these marks just to make it easy on myself and these lines only need to continue down to the bottom of the tread and i'll erase the top of the tread line as it passes through that riser just to keep the drawing clean and if you're able to follow along the drawing process to this point your drawing should be looking an awful lot like the side view of a simple set of stairs and it shouldn't take much imagination at this stage to see how a couple of two by twelves could be notched into set of stringers to support these same steps especially if i use a framing square to mark out eleven and a quarter inches from the underside of the stair step and draw a line connecting those dots which would represent how a two by twelve would be notched for these particular steps and even though i kind of disparaged making stringers for small sets of steps if this were a set of deck stairs this is exactly what the stringer would look like and if using a framing square with stair gauges is confusing this is a great way of laying out stringers for deck stairs too it's just a matter of adopt and adapt but for now i'm going to eliminate that stringer from here and talk a little bit more about where this plan gets us i'm going to flip this drawing around top for bottom so that you guys get to view it upside up while i add a few extra details in and talk about the actual construction of this stair box one of the things i really like about using a full scale plan like this for building a set of steps is that everything that's involved in designing and building the steps is right there for instance i can take one of the treads that i'm using and stand it right up on the drawing and can see clearly how this actual step fits in to the actual stairs even though my treads are glued up from two thinner pieces of material they still take up the inch and three eighths space on the drawing you can see here how the top of this piece of riser will support the thick part of this tread right here and the side of the stair box will support the end of the steps because it's doubled up in thickness here as well i guess i could draw a dotted line in here to show the various parts of this actual stair tread one more thing i want to point out about this particular set of stairs is how the riser boards are going to connect to the sides of the stair box in the drawing i'm showing the riser just butted up to the riser cut on the stair box in reality what i'm doing on this particular set of stairs is i'm going to miter the ends of the stair nosing and also miter the vertical cuts on the sides of the stair box so you get a nice clean joint between the riser and the stair box that's kind of complicated but i think you'll see later what i'm talking about but i bring it up here because another much simpler method and plenty good and strong is to just make this vertical cut and this horizontal cut at 90 degrees to the face of the material and that way the riser will just lay over the front edge of the stair box perfectly acceptable just a little different approach for the final fit and finish another detail that will come up later but is visible here is the way i'm going to treat the back edges of these treads this is how the tread fits up against the riser but the tread is going to stick past the end of the stair box an inch and i don't like the way that fits so i saved these cut off chunks of glued up bamboo i lettered them so that each one has a place although this one doesn't go here i will end up gluing this on the back of the riser so that it has a nice wrap around return on the back edge of the riser but all that stuff is clearly visible here to me anyways by using this plan and i do apologize for complicating an otherwise simple set of stairs in a perfect world i would build an example set with simple joinery and regular treads to make it more clear but because of the job i'm hired to do i've got to kind of take the video of doing this more complicated project even though the underlying principles are all pretty simple so my apologies for that and i hope that you can see where shortcuts in the actual build can be made to simplify the complexity and intricacy of the various cuts beyond that there's a couple other routine things i want to show you quick while i've still got this plan on the work table one of those things is the condition here where the top tread or mini landing meets the wall the door threshold is here overlapping the back edge of that top tread but remember the top tread is only thick at the ends in the middle it's only going to be this 11 16 of an inch thick and that's not strong enough by itself so up here i need a support ledger attached to the face of the wall so i just draw in an extra line here that represents the 11 16 inch thickness of the middle section of this top tread like that and then i could take a small scrap of the legend material that i made slip it here on the drawing and trace around it to represent the support cleat that i'll need to screw to the face of the wall to give strength to the middle of that tread underneath the door's threshold i'll use a similar block here to back up this bottom riser this is just going to be three quarter inch thick hdf material like the sides of the box and a swift kick could break that piece but to prevent it i'll add a block here of the same dimension and this will get anchored to the concrete slab there will be a slight angle to this block and a slight scribe on the bottom of this riser to account for the slope of the floor which as you remember starts at this point right here directly below the nosing of the step and then the garage floor slopes up from there of course i've exaggerated it here but i'm able to observe and incorporate that reality into the build of the steps by working with this full-scale plan last but not least i'll add a similar block to the back bottom corner of the stair box at whatever height it ends up being with the slope of the floor but it'll be something like that and having this on the drawing just reminds me of the function of that block for stabilizing the sides of the stair box and as i look at this and think about it i'll probably end up adding another cleat along the floor on the sides of the box too to give extra support to those sides of the box in case they ever get kicked or impacted i don't want to compromise the integrity of the stair box now that i'm satisfied with the completeness and the accuracy of this full-scale plan it's time to transfer these measurements to the sheet that i'll use for the sides of the stair box and i'll also take measurements off the drawing for the height of these risers and use the width of those stair treads to determine the length of those risers a practical note for actually building the stairs off an idealized drawing is that i'll leave an extra half inch of margin on the back of the stair box and along the bottom and then i'll leave extra width on the bottom riser so that i can scribe this whole thing into place i know that the floor slope i'm not sure if the wall is perfectly plumb but by leaving a margin on as i fabricate this i can scribe it back so that when i actually install this in place with all the irregular conditions the treads will all be level and the risers will all be plum and everything will be square to the world for cutting the risers i first rip two off cuts of three quarter inch hdf at eight and a half inches and then use the freshly cut straight edge as a guide to re-wrap them to the final width of 8 and 3 64 inches the bottom riser will end up being about an inch and 3 8 less but i'm leaving it full width for now with the risers ripped to exact width i bevel one end of each of the pieces at 45 degrees and then mark one of the pieces for a total of 42 inches from the long point of the 45 degree miter at one end to the long point of another 45 at the other end cut the angle on that piece and then use it for a pattern for the other two and that cutting sequence leaves me with three risers of the exact same width and the exact same length from the sharp point of the miters on each end to transfer measurements from my pattern to the actual work piece i first draw a half inch margin line for the bottom and the back of the stair box on the pattern and then measure from that line for the cuts for the risers and the treads on the stair box on a sheet of three quarter inch hdf that will make up the sides of the stair box because i want to nest the two sides of the stair box out of one sheet i'm marking one side of the stair box exactly then i use my small makita circular saw to rough cut the steps in the stair box to separate the work piece into two halves i set the blade depth carefully on my little saw to just barely over cut this three-quarter inch material and i've got it resting on a couple sacrificial sticks so i don't cut into my work surface and then i rough cut it leaving plenty of margin on my pencil marks so that i can true the cuts up accurately in the next step i get out an arrow and pull saw to finish up the cuts but quickly find it's not necessary and now i've got two pieces to work with here that i can trim up more accurately using the table saw and if i nest the parts like so i can begin by trimming one edge off the second one of these stair box sides before proceeding to true up the rest of the cuts the first thing i want to do is true up the cuts that the treads will sit on and because of the way my table saw and fence are set up i should have marked the other side of these pieces but it's no trouble at all to transfer the marks to this other side first i transfer the half inch scribe lines and then relay out the lines for these three cuts i transfer the riser marks too so i know where to stop the cuts as i make them and remember i'm cutting this side on the table saw and i'll use a router to flush trim the other side of the stair box to match it's quick and easy to make these three cuts and end up with a pattern that's accurate and true now again because the way my fence and my saw are set up i flip the piece back over and begin the cuts for the risers because i'll end up mitering these later i'm cutting them an eighth inch long to give myself a little room for trimming for the sharp fine point of that miter now i could use a pull saw to finish up those cuts and i've used this sequence to control the overcut caused by using a circular saw blade for cutting an inside 90 degree corner for reassurance at this stage i'll lay the work piece on top of the pattern just to make sure everything lines up and that i'm not making a sequence of perfectly accurate mistakes and everything there looks quite copacetic with all the cuts within the width of a pencil mark on the pattern to avoid confusion i quickly mark the angle of the miters on the riser cuts for this side and make a note that it'll be the left side of the stair box going up then i'll flip the left side to lay it on top of the right side trace the exact cut marks and then rough cut with the circular saw before routing the two pieces so they're an identical mirror image of each other and once again use the pull saw to clean up those inside corner cuts to save work for the router in the next step i'm going through these gears just so you can see how i'm building this particular set of steps but depending on the material you're using the size of the workpiece etc you'll almost certainly use a different sequence but the goal is to end up with two parts that will work as sides for the stair box and i'll stop for a minute to ask if you like the sort of content you're seeing in this video with real hands-on carpenter shop work i'd ask that you subscribe to next level carpentry if you haven't already it's free you know and you'll be notified every time videos with in-depth content like this are uploaded to the channel to help promote the channel in the eyes of youtube hit the thumbs up button if you think the video is worth a thumbs up because it lets the quants over there at youtube know there's something going on at next level carpentry and i appreciate it rather than go through the complications to cut a left and a right side on the table saw i'm just using a flush trim router to make these two halves identical and it's all because of the overcut on the table saw blade if you know what i'm talking about you understand if you don't know what i'm talking about you probably don't but take my word for it and you can also see here that a flush trim router bit is a great way to make two parts match up perfectly without a lot of extra fuss i'm using an oversized top bearing flush trim bit just because i like the way it operates but there's other ways you could screw these together and use a router table but here goes two matching stair box sides coming up [Music] now let's take a second pass just to make sure everything got routed nice and flush and clean ultimately i've got a little cleanup work to do on the tight 90 degree inside corner but that'll be easy enough to do in subsequent steps i'll take a minute here to explain the next steps i mentioned this earlier but the way i'm going to do the stair box to put the risers across i said already i'm going to miter these so i'm going to miter these vertical cuts that's going to be next and it gets a little tricky but i'll show you how it can be done if that's something you want to do and the reason i bring it up is if you just if you were doing this and decided hey i don't care if those are mitered or not then this is the stage let me use this one this is a stage where you'd basically be done with the stair box because the riser could just be screwed to the face of the stair box here but as i said i'm going to miter the sides of this box so that there's a miter on the on that vertical cut there and then the risers i cut with a bevel earlier will come together like this for a nice clean cut and it doesn't really matter because these are going to get painted i could just use screws and filler and everything else but i've done it this way before on steps that were made out of sheet goods with like oak veneer and i didn't want screw holes and putty showing on that so i kind of came up with this set of steps to do it this way and i'm going to go about that now you'll see the complications that are involved again because there's a left and a right side and the way the miters have to go and the way my fence and saw blade are set up you'll see me go through the steps you'll see the result and i hope this little explanation helps it to make more sense for alternative ways of building steps and to see how i got the ones i'm building to come out the way they're going to come out i'll remind you that i left extra material on these vertical cuts for the stair box so that i could dial in that miter cut later and now is later so because the way my table saw's set up i'll be cutting the piece this way with the blade tilted this way so i'll put a mark from these overcut marks that will guide the saw cut this sharpie mark is my reminder mark from earlier so all i need to do now is draw a crisp line from the actual riser cut mark with a sharp brighter pencil like that so these line up perfectly and then my saw cut will be on this side of the mark i'll do the same thing for the other two cuts i switched the set up on my saw to make these cuts and i'll just let you know that there is a kickback hazard here because the piece i'm going to be cutting is wider than it is long as i'm making this cut it has a danger of kicking sideways i'm comfortable doing that but if you're set up this way make sure you're comfortable or figure out another way to make the cut or just cut the risers square another note is that this is a right tilt table saw so the setup goes this way if i had a left tilt everything would be different the whole setup would be different but i would still need to end up with the same cuts because there's a left and a right side i can only make the bottom riser cut with this saw set up then i'll make special arrangements to cut the other two miters on this piece this is kind of technical and probably advanced woodworking stuff so if you want to skip ahead i'll put a time stamp to when i have these things finished cut out but anybody who wants to stick around i am just going to dial this in here and make the cut one little trick that i use on stuff like this is to take a paraffin block it's going to give a little wipe on this edge so now that will ride nice and smooth along the rip fence and the distance to the fence from a blade tilted at 45 degrees changes ever so slightly so i can't just use the tape measure on the rip fence for this but all good to go just like that and you know that piece was gonna try to hit me in the face because each of these pieces was identical starting off i can take the other side because it's the opposite direction i'll make the same cut but the same caution because of the shape of the piece i don't know if you can tell in the video but i'm pushing firmly positively and confidently down and in to keep the piece from getting away from me and the smurf gloves give me a grip on the piece you think i have a magic app for shutting off the saw but i can just bump the switch with my thigh to get that to shut off i hope you can see where i'm going with all this i've got a left and a right riser i mean a left and a right stair box so that my rider the riser that's mitered on both ends fits neatly in between like so the second cut on the left side is very similar and i'll be watching for the blade's exit point to stop this cut i'm going to do something here and that is i'm just going to put a mark on the saw table where the blade exits right there i'll do the same thing on the other side of the blade but i'll do this with the blade raised all the way up to the point where the stabilizer comes out of the wood there like so and that mark will make sense in a minute with a rip fence set and a firm grip on the piece i'll make the second mitered riser cut stopping at the point just before the blade cuts out onto the finished surface of the side of the stair box and i'll finish up that miter after a bit and here's a bit of a tricky cut while the rip fence is still in the same position i lower the saw blade line up the right side of the stair box on the blade exit point clamp the piece in place start up the saw and then raise up the blade to make this miter cut and this is the type of cut that's only worth it if you can do it safely and if you can make it safely it speeds up the process of getting consistent accurate results safely and the part of the cut that's incomplete with a circular saw blade i'll clean up my hand with a pull saw two down one to go third verse same as the first two i dial in the blade for the cut on the left side make the cut stop the saw lower the blade switch the pieces raise the blade finish the cup and those are the two pieces i'm after i think i made it clear that this isn't the way that everybody's going to want to do it or care to do it or is able to do it but that's what i'm after i'll get these cuts cleaned up and then go on with the steps for initial assembly of this stair box i decided to use the table saw to get the process started but this is another one of those dicey little setups that i'm not going to broadcast as the way to do it it's tricky to get a good camera angle here but i think you'll get the idea of what it takes to clean up these cuts that'll do the trick and now i can get a nearly airtight fit when i attach the risers to the sides of the stair box all right all right i can test i had to break down and use a file to clean up the pole saw cut so that airtight kit i was bragging about and with that bit of filing you can see that i've got perfect mirror image stair box sides left and right that match up that reflect each other in the miters like this and ultimately receive the riser like that and i'll say it again i realize that this is kind of over the top going with all these miters on something that gets painted but now you can see that's possible if you're doing this with stained wood stained veneer it can be done these are the steps but if you're just painting them it makes total sense to just cut these things square screw the risers on and get on with life i've got to put a few biscuits in here to line up the risers and a few screw blocks to assemble it so i'll proceed with the extra work that i've put ahead of myself my biscuit joiner's design makes this part a little bit awkward but i did manage to get a couple of biscuits plunged into each of the miters for each of the risers on both sides of the stair box and now i hope you can see possibly for the first time since i started the video what this whole thing looks like when it comes together the biscuits help align the long points of those miters and this preliminary setup will help me get glue blocks attached to the inside of the risers so that these miters drop nice and tight when i screw and glue everything together the final time the treads just plunk right on here like this one inch nosing on three sides bottom and middle are the same and the top mini landing will go like so now that you have the big picture i'll retrace my steps get those glue blocks put in here and go over a few more details of finalizing the stair box i'll run the camera handheld for a minute to show off the precision that you can accomplish with a little strategic planning accurate layout tools that are set up well and sharp blades these are the glue blocks i made for assembling these corners and they're largely overkill for this i'm mainly making these uh so that i can assemble and disassemble this while i'm scribing it before i glue everything up if i was ready to just glue it up the biscuits in those corners are plenty strong but these are about an inch and a quarter square a little detail about these glue blocks is that i offset the holes up and down by a quarter of an inch so that those screws don't interfere with each other when i drive them home because the screws provide so much of the strength i don't need a lot of glue on this so i can just take the screws out of this block so they're not in the way and then i'll spray starbond accelerator on the back face of the riser next i will add a couple generous beads of starbound thick ca glue to the face of the block that's going to go there and because i want some extra screw pressure on this assembly i'm going to put a piece of thin cardboard on the side of the stair box when i press this block on i'll make sure it's flush top and bottom and tight to that cardboard and i hold that for a few seconds while that ca glue sets up i'll remind viewers that you can get 15 off any and all star bond products by using special offer code nlc at checkout from their website i'll put a link to that in the video description and anybody that's interested i did a video for building this little glue caddy especially for starbond glue use this all the time but that block is all glued in place and i can just slip this cardboard out now and you can see that little bit of clearance in between the blocks and the stair box side that'll tighten up when i drive the screws home i'm using number eight by two inch torque drive construction screws here i'll drive this home first and those screws just black back up that ca glue i'll make sure this is all flush on the top i've got a pipe clamp on the other side that's holding everything snug and then i can drive these screws home and you can see the amazing clamping action i get as those screws are driven home and tighten up that little gap and now i'll just repeat the same process on the other side to finish securing the top riser to the stair box sides ca glue spacer shim screws and that is a done deal since those are the last two of six glue blocks i can take my little set up apart here and i try to put clamps away as i finish using them so they don't clutter things up too bad and it keeps the shop neat helping prevent frustration during a build with the assembly complete and one solid unit i can load this thing up in the truck take it to the job site and do the final scribe and fit this is the moment where new steps meet old steps and i can get these torn out to put this in place for a scribe fit one of the things these folks aren't going to have to put up with anymore is the floor mat sliding underneath the bottom step and bugs and dirt getting under there either because the scribe process will eliminate that completely fortunately the existing stairs are installed with torx drive screws so disassembly and removal is just a matter of backing out those screws so i'm thankful that i don't need sledge hammers and pry bars for this part of the job even though the screws require two different sizes of torque drivers to remove them [Music] [Music] i can't tell you what i was expecting to see here but this certainly wasn't it it appears that i'll be putting the third set of steps in this home uh original steps are down here this was an overlay at some point and although it was effective this is kind of a hubble cobbled way going about it so i'm not quite sure what all it takes to get this apart and i'm going to find out it appears that there's enough screws in this set of steps to restock an entire hardware store but i'll just keep removing them until this thing comes apart oh yeah that got it right there well at least i used treated lumber to get this thing to meet code it's a little optimistic to think i'd get this whole thing torn out using nothing but an impact driver so i break out the long-handled pipe knife a hammer and a pry bar to get the job done but at least i didn't have to fire up a jackhammer to get it out it appears to me that where construction screws are involved someone is clearly of the opinion that more is better good grief [Music] i have a personal peeve about leaving broken off screws in lumber even if it ultimately ends up in a dumpster i've had plenty of occasions where brushing a hand over a broken off screw makes me an involuntary blood donor and i prefer to avoid that when possible hopefully the battery on this drill lasts long enough to remove the last thousand or so screws from the stair assembly so i can get this cleaned up and get on with the work gotta have that for fire code boy this house could have burned down if it wasn't for that piece now i'm down to the point where i got to pull a few nails and it's at this point on some projects when i just shake my head because the set of stairs that i'm removing here had to meet code for a final inspection when the home was new it might have had a rise dimension of eight inches or less but does the rest of this make the stair better and safer i rest my case when pulling nails like this i only got to be lucky once the nails got to be lucky all the time that's why i was wins well i just like when i get to this stage and i'm not disappointed there's a dozen nails in there to hold those blocks on when four screws would have done the job just fine stringers how about that in all fairness these were just construction stairs used while the house was being built i imagine but it kind of goes along with my saying the way you do anything is pretty much how you do everything and that makes me a little skeptical the last remaining piece of the existing stairs is a treated 2x4 that's anchored to the concrete with some drive-in expansive anchors but they're no match for a stout spud bar and for anyone that's interested a tip ground like that gives so much leverage it's unbelievable and can easily tear out things that are held down a lot more securely than that little 2x4 a little sweeping a little vacuuming and i'm ready to describe a stair box compared to the conglomeration that i just tore out of here this stair box is a pretty simple affair and one thing's for sure there's a whole lot fewer fasteners involved i'll pre-check the existing conditions with a four-foot level before sliding the box back over here to shim it up the wall looks dead plum as far as i can tell at this stage so you should just have to do an even scribe off the back there's a little hump at this control joint here looks like it goes from nothing to a quarter inch so i know what to expect there and that's pretty much the same here the slope of the floor will be about an inch and a half over the run of the stairs i want to set it in place there and then use a bundle of custom shims these are happen to be walnut but i can just stack these up to get this in place one at the back for that quarter inch i'll start with a guess and then i'm just tilting it back until it hits the wall which should be a good starting place the stairs are centered up pretty much level across the back tight to the wall this is kind of tough to get a camera angle on it but you get the idea i like that i still like that and this test will show how plumb that wall is i'm tilting it back ever so slightly and if one of these steps is level they're all level because you saw how this was fabricated i'm happy with that all the way around if i had a cameraman i'd have him zoom in on these bubbles just to show you but you'll have to take my word for it but this is setting now exactly where it needs to be except it needs to be lowered so that the top tread can fit under the door threshold and the first step is the correct height once the tread is put on top of the stair box there's any number of ways to figure out how far this stair box has to drop so that the top tread will fit under the threshold and establish that 24 and a quarter inch total rise that we started off with but i'm just gonna go analog here take a stair tread set it on top of the stair box hold the end of the ruler on the bottom of the threshold and measure and i have got an inch and 13 16 on both sides you'll have to take my word for that but that's the magic number 1 and 13 16 inches i cut a hardwood block with the miter saw exactly 1 and 13 16 inches high and i'll use a sharp brighter pencil to scribe a stair box again this will be tricky without a cameraman you don't have to be a rocket surgeon to see how the scribing process works i put little tails on the scribe line so i know which one it is because there happens to be another pencil line left over on this piece of wood but the block will follow the gradual transition in the floor transferring that mark directly to this first riser on the bottom of the stair box and once this is cut i'll have an airtight fit to the floor scribing the sides of the box is a bit trickier because of confined space so you can't see it in the video but the process is identical to mark the side of the stair box in this confined space i switched to a very custom little pencil this is a next level carpentry carpenter's pencil sharpened to a projected point and cut off so that it's a stubby projected point carpenter's pencil if you want to know more about a projected point carpenter's pencil i'll show you how to sharpen a pencil like this for very specialized marking tasks like this and the combination of scribe block and projected point carpenter pencil gives me a perfect mark on the side of the stair box that's exactly 1 13 16 inches above the concrete floor i set up a work light on the other side of the stair box so that you can see a little better how slick this process works there's my scribe block there's the stubby projected point carpenter's pencil and there's the scribe line that'll make the stair box fit to the concrete with an airtight fit i think you'll be able to see here the half inch margin line i had on the pattern for this stair box and that reassures me that i'm on the right path at this stage of the game if you remember at the wall i left an extra half inch of material on the back of the stair box and as it turns out that wall is leaning about an eighth of an inch and that's probably just in the sheetrock but i need to end up with 11 inches to the face of the riser and this is right on showing 11 and a half so i've got to scribe a half inch off the back side of a stair box you should be able to see the variation here in this handheld shot because the stair box is tight at the top and it's open about an eighth inch at the bottom so i'll scribe this in the same manner as i did on the floor only i'll be using a half inch block instead of 13 16. because of super cramped conditions i'm actually going to glue the stubby projected point pencil to the scribe block so that i can get a nice clean pencil mark to cut to for making the stair box fit against the wall i spritz starbond ca glue activator on this scrap that's cut to exactly a half an inch then i add thick adhesive to the projected point pencil and stick them together and now this block will scribe a line exactly a half inch off the face of the sheetrock i'll draw the line on the inside so you can see what i'm talking about just like that well that's what it takes to scribe a stair box this one was complicated obviously by tight shelving on the sides here but process is the same no matter where it is and now that the hard part's over i'm gonna load this back up in the truck and i'll do the scribe cutting and stuff back at the shop later and while i'm there i'll be able to put the final braces and blocking in here so the next time it comes back to the job site i can install it with the scribed stair box back in the shop i'm able to position it so that i can make these scribe cuts comfortably and i'll start with the ones on the inside because they're easy access from this position i can clearly see the line and i could get everything positioned without a lot of extra fuss when i'm cutting the scribe lines i generally get within the width of the line and then clean it up the last little bit with the belt sander and the trusty little makita cordless saw is the perfect tool for this i pay close attention to the line with the tails on it and use that as my guide to determine this edge and the unevenness in this scrap represents the unevenness in the wall a couple of squeeze clamps hold the stair box in position because i want to bring a bit of pressure to bear with a belt sander for smoothing out this cut an 80 grit belt and my three by 21 inch belt sander is just the ticket for fine tuning this cut and a quick lift like that is all it takes the oops razor cleans up my mess and i can proceed to trim the other side of the stair box where it meets the wall on the right side of the steps two cuts down three to go in an effort to make it easy on myself because nobody else is gonna i dropped the stair box down onto the floor so that the scribe cuts along the bottom are at a good working height the slope of the floor is clearly visible at this camera angle but the scribe mark made with my custom little projected point pencil is clear sharp and easy to follow just to make sure things are crystal clear i use the sharp brighter pencil to connect the dots where i was not able to scribe the box because of the shims and then again carefully follow the line with the tails so that this scribe cut comes out right [Applause] and in this handheld shot you can see the contour of the trowelled concrete floor it's subtle but it's clearly there and not a perfectly straight line one more cut and i can call it a nade actually one more cut and i can call it a night would you believe me if i told you that was the slope on the floor in the garage of that house pretty hard to argue with that and i am going to call that done when this goes back to the job site it will plunk right down on the floor with no movement everything will be plumb and level but i'm going to straighten up a few things here in the shop and before i call it a night put the internal supports on this that i showed earlier on the plan with the scribing all done if you remember from back when i was drawing the plan there's three attachment cleats that go into the stair box i've got one at the bottom here one at the top and one in the front if you also remember from the plan this is going to support the thin section of the tread so so i put a couple little notches on the end so that this can raise up and fit flush to the underside of the step and i always leave this sort of a cleat in just a little bit so the screws pull this tight instead of pulling the cleat tight or at the same time that the cleat pulls tight i use a snappy bit and some more of those number eight two inch torx drive screws to hold these cleats in place i drive these torch drive screws just a little beyond flush so that they can be filled and painted over and disappear in the final installation if this were a stained stair box i'd probably use pocket hole screws from the inside but this is faster and stronger and i can get away with it on this project slight pressure from a pipe clamp holds this lower back plate in place just a little bit in from the back and a little bit up from the bottom while i pilot holes with a snappy bit and then drive screws to hold it in place and holding this cleat inset slightly like that will draw the stair box tight to the sheetrock on the final installation i use a couple of quick judo carpentry moves to flip the stair box upside down over and backwards so that i can install the cleat on the bottom of the front riser and i learned these judo moves while i was still a grasshopper in a tennis school from an irish sensei who taught me a lot about carpentry and you don't have to watch many next level carpentry videos to see that i like snappy bits this is one of the carbide tipped ones with a special titanium coated bit that they sell at snappy tools these things drill through this hdf like it was butter it's an amazing tool if you don't have a set of those you need one installing those cleats wraps up the deep in the weeds portion of this stair box build and you can see how to build a simple sturdy set of stairs without stringers from here on it's pretty much low hanging fruit easy carpentry where i need to install the steps and they'll be held to the risers with biscuits screws and ultimately glue to keep them in place and to make the center of the step sturdy as long as i glue that up good that's as strong as having a stringer underneath there all the steps fit like so i mentioned a detail for the back of the stair treads earlier where i'll take and glue a piece of this block on here so that these have a little return so that the stair tread continues back beyond the sharp corner that's just the way i want to do it once those are done i'll put a thumbnail profile on the edge of the steps sand them get them all looking good looking nice they get a coat of waterborne spar urethane on that for the rest of the stair box itself i'll disassemble this glue up the biscuits and the miters get all that fit well i'll use bondo auto body filler to cover the screws sand everything nice smooth and clean and then that will get a coat of primer and diamond vogel's new cling in an espresso color for the stair box to complete that and then once all the pieces parts are done i'll take it back to the job site and show you the final attachment and installation of this on-site for now i got some tedium to do and finishing up these details but i'm excited to have this project at this stage to make return blocks for the back corners of the bottom two treads i glued up a blank of bamboo scraps into a long block the right width and thickness for making the returns i tapes two layers of paper to the outside of the stair box to act as a spacer once the box is painted and then i mark the blanks to length and then cut off a chunk on the miter saw for each return to make this quick easy and strong i'll use starbond ca glue for gluing on these little bamboo return blocks i spritz the accelerator on the back corner of the tread and then put a generous coat of starbond medium ca glue on the return block itself and then press it into place on the back of the tread next to that paper shim i wipe up a little excess and spritz some accelerator on the piece after to cure any excess glue squeeze out once the ca glue is set i just pull the tread away from the stair box so i can remove the paper shim from the side of the stair box and you can see that that process allows me a few thousandths of an inch extra space for a nice fit once the box is painted after adding returns to the back corners of the two bottom treads i take everything apart and use plenty of type on three glue and clamps to do the final glue up of the stair box the stair box gets sanded and painted so i don't have to worry about making a mess while getting these miters glued up adequately once the glue is set i remove all the clamps and use bondo automotive filler for filling the screw heads and slight imperfections at the miters once the bondo's cured i quickly sand it with 80 grit paper until it's flush and smooth next i give the whole stair box a coat of diamond vogel's diamond prime primer using a very fine nap roller for a nice smooth finish diamond prime is amazing primer and this stuff sticks to anything except wax oil dust and grease that is the little short nap roller makes quick work of applying a generous coat of that diamond prime to the entire outside of the stair box while the primer is drying i get set up and spray a coat of verithane exterior spar urethane on each of the stair treads this is a very durable finish and the high transfer rate of my cup feed gun allows me to spray this finish in the shop with only minimal protection on the surfaces in the spray area i'll spray on a full wet coat of that verithane spar urethane and then set the treads out in the sun for the first coat to cure so that i can sand it with 320 grit sandpaper and apply two additional coats i'm not showing that process here but it looks identical to this by the time i get spraying the first coat of varnish on the stair tread the primer on the stair box is dry and ready to sand so i give it a once over with 120 grit sandpaper to remove any nibs and bumps that dried into the surface the primer quickly sands down flat and smooth so i pour the dark brown nuclear paint into my little roller pan and apply a coat of that with the short nap roller as well it goes on easy and smooth and i think that this is going to work great because i'm careful to roll it out evenly and avoid roller lap marks in the finish and everything's looking good at this stage you're about to learn as i did that this wasn't the best choice for applying this paint i did not get the results i'm after by using that small foam roller for a smooth finish on the stair box so i had to back pedal sand the finish down set up the shop for spraying and as a result i'll put a couple coats on with this graco airless cordless sprayer i was trying to save myself the trouble of all this setup but the finish i got was looked like the whole thing had goose bumps that's not acceptable so i'm backpedaling so that the final result is acceptable to the customer i'm not doing a review of this tool here and now but i will say that it is an excellent piece of equipment for this sort of work it's powerful puts out all the paint you'd ever want it's easy to clean up it runs for a long time and last but not least and most important is the quality of the finish it leaves when used properly this is new cling by diamond vogel it's an amazing latex paint extremely durable i've used it before on other projects and been completely satisfied to make sure i'm getting adequate coverage with this paint i'll run the shop fan on it for a while until it flashes off and then spray on a second coat just like i did that first coat when the second coat flashes off i'll be able to set this whole thing outside in the summer sun and get it to dry quickly before taking it back to the job for final installation i think you can agree that that is pretty remarkable performance out of a small handheld gun can you even believe how long this video is already and i've still got to install the stairs well hopefully with experience as a guide getting homework done ahead of time covering the details makes the installation go that much quicker and smoother so fingers crossed for a quick and easy installation you can see i got the wall all passed in and taped so that when the garage gets painted they'll have a nice clean edge to go up to next to the stairs the floor is clean everything's clean and smooth the paint on the stair box is dry so i can just slide it into place and screw it in to attach it i've got centering marks on the sheetrock so i know that this is positioned side to side where it needs to be and you can see it's as solid as can be because of the accuracy of the scribe process there's solid backing in the in the wall there top and bottom and solid concrete to attach to here so i'll just drill countersunk pilot holes and screw it into place here again i use a snappy countersink bit to drill the pilot holes and countersinks in the same operation and three screws in each of the cleats will be more than adequate to secure this in place [Applause] with all the pilot holes drilled i'll slide the box back into place and use six two and three quarters torque drive construction screws to attach the cleats to the framing and you can see the cleats pull the stair box tight to the sheetrock as i drive those screws home for an amazingly solid attachment i do a quick cross tape to make sure that the stair box is square and that the contents haven't settled during shipment 51 and a quarter 51 and a quarter i'll buy that and then use three quarter inch by two and three quarters countersink head tapcon screws to attach the front bottom cleat to the concrete floor and that rock-solid squeak-free and proud installation is what you can expect from a stair box when it's properly built scribed and installed and with those fasteners in this is perfectly level in every respect and ready for some treads and i'll take the camera handheld to show you that airtight fit that i was shooting for from the beginning at long last the stairs are ready for the piece the resistance installing the treads and just for the novelty of it for the youtube video i'm going to slide a little time capsule inside these steps a couple of uh signed dated next level carpentry pencils are going to reside inside the bottom of this step someday someone's going to tear these out find those and look at them think what's this shrug and throw them in the trash but that's why i'm leaving them and i'll start with the bottom tread first you see i've got these biscuits slipped in here and i've decided not to use any glue on these the stairs are going to get a lot of wear and tear at some point somebody's going to want to take these treads off of here and if they can just slide them off refinish them and put them back in place that'll be wonderful and because of my extensive customer service that could end up being me but uh the tread slides easily into place you can see that because i use those little paper shims when i put those returns on the back there and i've got pre-drilled holes from the initial fit up of the stairs so i just got to drive those small torx drive screws in through the riser into the back of the tread and between those screws and those biscuits i'm confident with the amount of strength that will be on the back of these treads [Music] four screws four biscuits and those are as strong as they ever need to be i'll apply a bead of clear latex caulk to the joint between the riser and the back of the step to keep dust from getting down in there at the same time i seal up the floor to keep moisture from getting in there when the garage floor gets washed but the process for the second step is the same as the first i held very tight tolerances for dimensioning and cuts through the entire build process for this stair box so that the top tread is a really snug fit under the door threshold but that's just like i want it to be and there's no shame in giving it a little love tap with a rubber mallet to drive it home to get nice spacing on the screws i put a piece of green masking tape across the nosing of the tread put a mark four inches in from each end and then divide up the remaining space by three which comes out to about 11 and 13 16. and then here's a simple offset gauge block to put marks an inch and 3 8 back from the nosing which will center the screws up on the riser boards below then i use a speed square to connect the two marks and then use snappy's special trim screw pilot hole countersink bit to drill these pilot holes through the bamboo tread and down into the riser those pilot holes allow me to drive the screws quick clean and straight without worry about splitting as i drive them home in case i didn't mention it i'm using grk's eight by two and three quarter inch long torx drive trim screws for making this attachment some may consider this process blast to me and would much rather use polyurethane construction adhesive for stair assembly and more power to them that's their choice but remember i'm putting my guarantee and my reputation on this process and years of experience tells me i don't have to worry about sleeping at night i hope you can see here how the little bit of time i invested in doing a nice layout and making a little offset marking gauge pay off because i can quickly lay out drill and drive eight more screws to hold down the middle and upper tread i bear my weight on the top of the tread as i drive the screws so that screw jacking doesn't hold the tread up off the riser for a nice tight fit notice how i drive the screws slightly below flush of the surface of the tread i'm doing that on purpose and you'll see why in a minute and no i'm not going to bother saving that piece of tape for the next job one of the quickest ways there is to tell if a set of stairs is built properly is to eyeball across the nosing of the treads and if they all plane out at the same time that is a well-constructed set of stairs with those screws driven the last thing i need to do is to fill those holes so they don't collect dirt and i'll use wax so that i could still get in to remove those screws if someday they want these treads refinished to make these screw heads disappear i'll use the soft wax kit by fast cap i'll use the number five wax stick along with the included spreader and polishing pad i've found that a small propane torch is the quickest fastest and best way to heat the wax until it's pliable for filling holes like this and careful to only warm the wax with this flame because if it gets too hot it can discolor and then the fill doesn't match the wood as well and you can see that those holes virtually disappear after i add just a dab of wax scrape it smooth and buff it with the pad and making these screws disappear is just as quick and simple as that and with the last of the wax filling those holes i'm going to call this a wrap i really appreciate everyone who's watched this whole video through i tried to put a lot of tips and tricks into there and even though it took what an hour and a half i still think that the basic design and construction of these stairs is simple and yield an end result that not only looks great but it's sturdy durable and simple nope that format is not going to slip under that bottom riser anymore so for everybody who's made it all the way through this video i want to say as always until next time thanks for watching as a generous reward to every viewer that's stuck around to the end of the end to the end i have a deal for you one complete set of entry stairs from a garage to a house three treads included all the hardware and necessary fasteners it's a complete kit with stubby stringers glue nails riser boards and all the structural support that you can ever need some assembly required but it's free shipping for the entire stair package but there's an additional 45.95 shipping if you want me to send all the fasteners that you'll need to put this back together so please just contact chip care of next level carpentry so that we can make payment and shipping arrangements thanks for watching

Channel: Next Level Carpentry

Views: 222,613

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Id: -ZgDRLM8DqM

Length: 81min 43sec (4903 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 27 2021