Framing Floors and Stairs with Larry Haun

[Music] hi I'm Larry Han my brother Joe and I we just finished framing this house it's a one-story 3-bedroom 1600 square foot house and it's fairly typical of the kind of house that you'll find clear across the country now normally speaking it would take the two of us plus a helper one week to frame it there's some reasons for that it's not a real difficult house to build but more importantly we've broken the building process down to the very basics and we work efficiently and yet we're always careful not to sacrifice quality for speed but the building of this house Ben it's been a lot different we've been here a whole month that's because we've had a video crew here recording what we've been doing step by step we've had a camera looking in over our shoulder at every detail the result of this is a series of videos on how to frame a house and we're real hopeful that these videos plus a companion book that I've written will give you the kind of information that you need so you can build your own home so here's a preview of what you're going to see on this tape [Music] the first thing we do in this tape is check the foundation walls for square and parallel then we put the seals in place Nick's come the posts the girders and then we can set our rim joist mark layout roll and nail off the joists and finally put down the cz two extra sections of this tape deal with joisting over longer spans and how to build a set of stairs [Music] you know it's a good feeling come on a job looks like this it's clean it's gonna be a safe place to work any contractor that leaves a job looking like this has to be proud of their work so we can be pretty sure that this foundation for the crawl space is square and level as carpenters that's our responsibility to check that then we're going to put down our mud sill if this gets done properly the entire framing process is going to go a lot easier so we'll begin by Joe and I checking this building for square you pull out six foot I'll pull out eight foot we're using a standard six eight and ten check to make sure the block layer has left us with a 90-degree corner now if they didn't we'll have to adjust the sill in or out a bit to compensate looks great George right on ten foot let's check the diagonals see four square clear across the building this is your best check for the squareness of an entire building what you're hoping for is that your diagonals are close to the same length right on the money that's building square finally we check the building for parallel we went close to the same width on each end eighth inch off that's good [Music] some of these foundation bolts are bent it's no problem take a hunk of three quarter pipe and straighten them up well it's time to scatter all of our to the sixth sail around the perimeter of the building it's a treated cell so it resists dry rot and it really discourages termites once all the cells are scattered we can cut them to length that's it looking good so time to cut all our sills and good efficient carpenter doesn't always have to use a measuring tape and a square to get the work done let's take a look how that goes first of all we say down this concrete foundation get our board marked for leaks we mark it with a salt cut we pull the board out a bit next step is important how do we cut square without a square well simple line the saw table up with the edge of the board and make the cut solve this piece the seal back out of the way and take a block of the same material and position it place to the outside of the foundation then we can bring up this piece of sail and cut it to length again without using a measuring tape safety is part of being a good carpenter wear gloves when you're handling this treated will and wear safety glasses your put and keep that saw guard down the next thing we do is mark the bolt hole locations on all the seals just to line the board flesh with the blocks okay looking good I'll mark the first one here and then we just top down with our hammer directly over each bolt that leaves a mark that we can use for drilling your holes we use a heavy-duty drill motor and a good sharp auger bit to drill our holes we drill least an eighth inch larger than the diameter of our bulbs to help keep out the cold we put down a fiberglass seal sealer you can also buy one that's made out of foam check your plans in the local code to see what's used in your area now the sills go down Joe puts washers and nuts on the bolts and I like to tighten them down with an impact wrench that's a lot faster than a sock and refreshing yesterday Joe and I finished bolting down all these mud cells and you remember that we checked our corners for square and our walls for parallel well today we've been going around and making sure that our seals all the way around the building are level and you know it's it really is pretty incredible but they're close to perfect about an athiest variation but sometimes that's not true you have to adjust these sills a bit simply loosen the bolt take a couple of treated shims pick that seal up the desired amount and this crack here gets filled with the dry pack it's a dry concrete mixture now take a look at these bolts they're within one foot of the end that's the code not only here at the corner but also down there at the joint and then every six feet you need another bolt now it's important not to take these bolts for granted they're what keep your house where you want it to be on the foundation the next thing I need to do is cut out for the girders that'll go in these pockets left here in the block work now first outline the cut using a scrap of the Guru material and then I plunge cut very carefully with the saw once cuts can be made safely with both hands on the saw one hand controls the switch the other hand momentarily lifts the guard it always helps to have two people working in this case Joe's going around marking all the girder pockets and then I work my way around cutting them out [Music] here we're building over a crawl space so Joe stretching a dryline tightly across the building girder pocket to girder pocket then he uses a scrap of girder material on top of the pier blocks and he measures the length of each post he marks that length on the pier and I write it down on a cutting list if you're supporting larger choice over a full basement you'll find more information later on in the tape and of course in the book with this cutting list I can cut the treated for reports to length one of the most efficient tools we have for cutting posts is a radial arm saw but we don't have one on this job so we'll be showing you several other tools here I mark the length on each post and then I cross it off my cutting list here's another place I don't have to use a square to make a square cut just line that front edge of the saw up with the four before and make your cut there are other saws you can use to cut this for biomaterial here's one it's a circular saw with a chainsaw attachment it's got a guard here in the back but it doesn't have one in the front so when you're using this saw set a square on the material grab it with both hands and use it in a safe manner [Music] [Applause] and here's another saw we use to cut heavier sock we call it a beam saw [Music] and then if you have a power outage there's no electricity left in the world and your electric generator won't work grab the old handsaw and go for and three days later you'll be through this four before well got all our posts scattered and we're ready to nail them on top of our piers now this one here is in good shape the post itself is cut square and the pier setting good and level let me tell you I've been on a lot of jobs where this just wasn't the case a lot of times these piers get poured out of level and what happens is that makes the post out of plumb now to compensate for that you may have to cut this post out of square a little bit so when you're finished the post will set square on that pier and give good solid support to the girder up above now that we've got all these posts cut we have to toenail them to the peers using gory pennies to end from each side you could also use 3/16 s instead we just Center them on the blocks biotic again these posts are treated but check the plans from the code to see if they're required in your area the next thing we do is scatter nail all the girders in place where the girders fit into their pockets we cut a block of treated wood to bring them up place with a sail and then we nail them off notice that here in the crawlspace these girders are six feet on center over a full basement we support larger joists by a girder or a wall in the middle we nail the girders securely to the post with 3/16 penny nails now in some areas the code may require a plywood gusset or even a metal connector at this joint I want to show you something that happens out on the job these piers they're poured in line well let's face it sometimes they're not done as well so what happens is when this post is put in the middle of the pier you don't have full bearing under this girder it looks something like this so what we do is we nail both ends and then later on we can put in these posts and line them up like they oughta be so it has full bearing underneath this girder then we can nail it down another thing is that when these pier posts are 3 foot or longer you have to nail a brace on them that's what the code wants well it's obvious that this post is only about what 20 inches long but this is the way the brace mails on now beams aren't always perfect take a look at this one it's twisted we wanted to set flat down on that girder post let's show you how we do that when a girders as twisted as this one is I just make a cut mid span right over opposed that way the twist is taken up by two pieces rather than one that's the way we want it well we just have a few more middle girders to place and to do that we have to cut off some of the ends of the girders we've run in we wait to cut them to length until after they're all nailed down so we don't have to use a tape measure also when we nailed them down we made sure our nails were off to one side so the blade wouldn't hit a nail you'll note that we're cutting to fit this building you seldom have to use a tape measure here at the joints we nail each girder to the post with two sixteen and then we join the splice with three more now with the girders nailed in place Joe's taking a moment to site across the top and make sure everything's flesh [Music] so I guess all these joists for this building or two but six all right except in this front end where we have four befores for the or a deck that's going to be built out here that'll drop it down to inches so we won't have water problems and then I guess we only take two links 16 footers and then 18 footers on over except here in this area where we've got a a little bay window the cantilever is out two foot right there it'll take 20 footers here so I guess we can get started and right along this side over here we'll run on a rim joist right just use u16s over there for the rim sixteen footers here we'll use four rim joist we'll get that nailed on laid out in fact joist let's do it well moving lumber is one thing a carpenter does a lot of make it as easy on yourself as possible drop the lumber close to the building and learn to carry it on your shoulder this is a rim joist it nails flush with the sill I nail it tighter one end and then toenail it every 16 inches with 16 penny nails it's important to tie that frame choice to the sill when you're framing up higher you may need to work off the plate like I'm doing here now keep your mind on what you're doing and work carefully the next thing is to layout the rammer every 16 inches on center to mark the joist locations I use a crayon we call it a keel to make a clear mark at 16 32 48 and so on the marks on the side of the line these show where the joist will nail here on the garage slab we've set up a model floor in order to illustrate a point this rim joist is laid out just like the one we nailed on we hooked our tape on the outside came over 16 inches made a mark for our first joist within 32 inches 48 inches and so on down the line now what this means is that when we sheet with our plywood sheeting this first sheet is going to break half on this first joist but that's just the way it does down there on our last joist and it has to break like that because we're going to go on with another sheet now traditionally it's been done a little different they'd hook their tape on the outside and they'd come over 15 and a quarter inches make their mark then they drive an eight pin an alien at that point hook their tape on it and go 16 inches 32 inches 48 inches on down the line what that means is that this were sheet of plywood will have full bearing on this outside joist we don't do it that way that means an extra step and structurally it just doesn't make any difference with the rim nailed off time to scatter the joys started on one side and lay down a joist every 16 inches once you get a few joists down then you have a safe walkway to carry the rest now we've got the joist scattered on one side but they're long so we mark them quickly with a framing square cutting off the ends for blocks these go between the joists it's easier to work here in the middle of the building and cut these joists to length before we scatter all the rest the joists on the other side once we get the joists cut the links on the far side then we can scatter those that go here on this side I push them up tight against the rim cut off the excess by I just make sure that your joists lap at least four inches okay it's time to nail him in place we roll them up on the edge then we plumb them by eye on their layout marks and then we nail through the rim right into the joist with two 16 penny nails and that's the code requirement so we're ruling joist that is we're setting them up on edge and nailing them in place now frequently Joyce will have a bow in them the crown is a bowl common practice is to put that bow up then the weight of the building has a tendency to push it down straight but in a building like we have here we have girders every six feet so crowning joist is not all that important they're going to be straight once they're rolled but if you do need to crown them just sight down it and you can see the bow as your nail trying to set up a rhythm you can set a sixteen with one lick or with five but it really doesn't matter what matters is that you establish a pace that works for you going easily from one nail right on to the next joist have to be scared not only to the rim but also to the sill 1/16 pin Otoniel on each side here on the other side we're pulling our joists back so we can nail the Ranma we waited to nail this Ram to show you how we do it when we're working on a second floor up high it's safer to first scatter your joists and then use them as a walkway because we're at ground level we can nail this one off just like the other one our building is 48 feet long and we need several pieces of rim but we just butt pieces together now it's just a matter of nailing the rim to the sill all the way around the building well now I'm laying out the opposite rim it gets laid out on 16 inch centers the same as the other side but there is one difference the joist here fall to the other side of the layout line learn more on this later Joe and I worked together as a team rolling nailing off these joists Joel nails out at the rim and I'm nailing here at the center the joists lap here over a girder I nail the laughs together then I put a block in between each pair holding the block flesh to one edge of the girder it's important that these blocks are cut accurately because we don't lay out the center we depend on the length of the blocks to keep our spacing just right hold on a second yo I want to check our layout see seeing that we're running four foot on centers now looks real good our blocks are the right length here in the middle an alien - 16 s through the joist into the block then lap the joist the code calls for two more 16 penny nails here plus a toenail down into the girder then another block lots of nails here weh-weh nail here we're straightening the joist by before nailing him to the intermediate girders okay okay away from you about a foot and a half they've got the crook of this joist in the city back to you now back to you nail that all right looking good wait here nail it okay - and I've been up on that main floor working but now I wanted to come down on this model floor and show you a little bit more about layout and about how we nailed it all together you'll notice that on each rim joist we have a layout as 16 inches on center the only difference is here the joist goes on this side over here it's nailed to the opposite side of the layout this allows these two joists to lap here in the center then with a 13 inch block nailed in we maintain our 16 inches on center the block gets nailed in with two nails on this end and two nails in through that joist into the end of the block here at the lab we nail this flap together with two 16 penny nails then down ends of the girder you get a toe nail down on this side and another 16 penny toe nail down through this side and that's what happens at every girder we get a toe nail here and a toe nail here and at every cell the same a floor nail together like this one meets the building code requirements and gives you a good solid base on which to build your home now we've got all of our regular floor joists running in 16 inches on center but we need a few more to support the interior walls which run parallel to the joists coming back to six Joe's finding the location of these walls on the plans and marking their center lines on the rim now the actual joists will set two inches to one side of the center line this will leave room for any pipes or conduit coming into the walls from below then Joel feeds me these doubles and I cut him to links by I siting down the block as a guy since we nailed the blocking place with the edge of the girder these doubles have two inches of bearing when the double comes in from the other side cut a notch in the block so the double can bear right on the girder but only cut deep enough to remove the notch we don't want to weaken that girder that's that one this is an access hole for the crawl space and I have to double up the rim here to support any load from above [Music] here we're working on our bay window and that's why these joists cantilever out over the edge of the building because of that we stopped our rim joist and ran in fourteen and a half inch blocks to maintain these joists at 16 inches on center this bay window comes out from the building line 24 inches so we measure up twenty-two and a half inches make a mark here and another one down at the last choice then we'll snap a chalk line and cut it the nail on a rim joist and we'll have a full 24 inches you're right some of these boards are ugly but the discoloration is only on the surface and it doesn't affect the strength of the wood this is Douglas fir framing lumber number two or better it's strong and there's a framing lumber it's hard to beat you can see that I've left this rim run long I'll cut it later now the front of the bay is four feet wide I found the center and now I'm marking the edges of the bay twenty-two and a half inches from that center line next I snap a line at 45 degrees to mark the size of the bay I have to leave the saw over at 45 degrees to cut the joist the rims in nail on with a 45 degree cut on each end a bay like this really makes a simple building more appealing and it only takes a little more effort I know it's hard to see but I'm working right here in the middle of a bathroom now there's going to be some plumbing coming up here through the floor to serve as a toilet because of that we had to cut out a section of this joist we supported that joist by a hitter and we use two different kinds of hangers you type here and then our type here framers prefer this our type hanger because it only takes four nails whereas the you type hanger takes five nails per side but what about if we need a larger hole in the floor joist like for a stairwell where we have to cut not only this choice but maybe this one and several more well if that happens then you have to double up these side joist not only the side joist but also the header choice there's more information about this in the book the floor frame is almost finished we just had to add some more blocks to support the heating vents well the heating contractor is finishing up their ductwork and we're almost ready to sheet this floor let's take a look just for a minute at the under floor ventilation here it's in the block work but frequently we'll cut it in the rim joist this is easy enough to do we just cut out a section of rim between two joists [Music] then we can nail that same piece flush with the top to support the sheeting then a screen vent gets nailed in the opening crawl spaces need vance a full basement may not we've got all our regular blocks cut now we're cutting specials no need to use a measuring tape just shovel block in the hole make the cut especial is any block that's not a normal length like here at the end of the building on this section of rim joist we had to cut out four four befores that will be used as joists here on the porch after these are seated with two by decking the porch will still be lower than the house deck preventing any water from running inside we marked for the cutouts with a piece of scrap and we make the cuts [Applause] [Music] well now we're ready to run our first roll 3/4 tongue and groove plywood sheet this building I came off the corner here four feet and 1/2 inch that leaves room enough for our four-foot sheet of plywood plus the half inch for the tongue that's gonna lay to the outside edge now it's really important you get a straight line all the way down through there for our first row to do that we're going to use a string carpenters call it a dry line we're going to pull it all the way down through there I'll mark a couple times in the middle and then I'll snap a chalk line it isn't necessary to use a dry line on a short building I'm using it here to show you how we do it if the building is longer than your chalk line just run out the dry line mark the middle of the run and then you can snap twice this is 3/4 tongue-and-groove sheeting it's strong but your code may only call for 5/8 or even 1/2 inch here Joe and I are scattering an entire row out in front of us we use construction adhesive for a couple of reasons it bonds the plywood to the joist and it keeps the floor from squeaking we only run on a sheets worth of this stuff at a time this way it won't dry out and on most joists we can run a bead right down the middle but where the sheet of plywood ends I need to run it right on the edge we flop a sheet over and nail it in place we follow our building code and drive eight mini sinkers every four inches along the perimeter of the building every 12 inches in the field and every six inches at the joints now your code may call for ring shanks or even screw nails Paul wood will expand in wet weather so we leave an eighth inch gap in between those joints we just stick in an 8 penny nail then we're ready to nail it off on longer runs leaving an eighth inch gap between the sheets means these will always break on a joist now when that happens just trim a sheet or scab on a 2x2 give the in full support 18 and quarter 24 in the quarter 19 in the quarter 24 in a corner we've got the edge of this sheet of plywood right on the chalk line Joel measures for the heating duct you're right on the line yes 29 in the corner 40 and 40 and I mark it out cut it and then with careful plunge cuts I cut out by eye between the marks that's pretty bloody incredible I'm sorry I ever questioned your ability in amazing we're hand nailing on this floor for a while normally we need at least floors off with a nail gun but a lot of people don't have a nail gun so there's no reason that you can't learn to be a fast nailer take a bunch of penny nails out of your pocket they come out looking like that but you grab all the nail heads that are facedown pull them out put them up then they'll look like that now you can finger those nails out one at a time this is the way it goes in I'm using a drywall square to mark a half sheet which we position the nail down at the end of the building you always want to stagger your plywood seams from course to course so we start every other row with a half sheet tongue and groove plywood need some persuasion right there and it's helpful to have two people here to tap it Joe uses a two by beater block along the groove side of the plywood the eighth inch gap between the sheets can be maintained by using a nail or by beyond that sucker too hard washer okay you got a job looking good listen the other off we also have to cut out for plumbing pipes 45 min a quarter both pipes that's the copper pipes 31 and a half 39 and 3/4 I'm just marking the Centers of the pipe then I cut around him by that's got it that leaves a eight inch gap well it's nice to have help when you're nailing off the floor by hand small hammer works as well as this pneumatic nailer which speeds up the process the plywood ends that overhang the rim are marked with the chalk line and then they're cut all at one time well we're almost done we just have to sheet the bay area here and again we don't cut first we got later we nail down a full sheet 12 and 3/4 mark for the rim and cut it out get the diagonal snapped here over just a bit to your like right that's got it glad to snap together just a couple more pieces of sheeting this is a good place to use up all the scraps well this cut here at the end of the building finishes the main deck only thing we have left to do is the porch [Music] well at least it dried up enough that we compact these cedar boards that Joe had cut at a local sawmill again we lay the first board to align so it'll be absolutely straight I'm ready all right lay it on the line um you got to give me a little bit okay I got about an inch here looks good let's okay then because we're screwing these down we drill pilot holes through the deck here I'm using a drywall square as a guide to keep the holes in a good straight line then I screw the boards down with a 3-inch non-corrosive screw and here at the end Joe snaps and cuts well it looks like we're finally going to get a break in the clouds and get a little sunshine on our backs but in spite of all the rain look we've got the floor all down the deck out here we'll finish up when the after the exterior siding is put on once you now to take a look at this floor it's a pretty typical floor it may be a little bit different from the one that you're going to build but let me tell you the basics they're the same there isn't anything complicated about what we've been doing out here it's just a series of simple steps that if you follow them you can build the same kind of solid floor that we have here solid so that when you roll your grand piano out in the middle of this floor it won't fall through anyway we're ready now to get our lines down put our plates down and start framing walls so let's do it [Music] [Applause] [Music] well as you can see we've jumped way ahead in this building process the floors are all down got the walls built here we are joy sitting on the second floor but this is a one-story building we put these joists up here just for demonstration purposes we wanted to stop for a little bit and show you how to joists with heavier joists in this case tuba twelves here we have a built up beam and we're putting on hangers now will be long before we'll take all of these joists out of here and we'll get on with the building process putting on ceiling joists nailing in rafters out there on the outside edge those joists are going to cut to length and we'll nail on a rim joist just like we did down on the first floor here you'll note in this section we left a large opening so stairs could come from that first floor up here to the second floor these hangers can carry a lot of weight place them right on the layout and drive a hanger nail in every hole now weather over a basement or second floor larger joists are frequently used because they can span a longer distance and carry a heavier load without any support one way to cut the joist Saline is to snap a line on their top edge an inch and a half back from the building line then just side down square and make the cuts finally the rim joist nails on just like the other rims to 16's into every joist [Music] when your house has the second story on it you have to build a flight of stairs so we want to show you how to build a simple set of straight fly stairs just like this one we have here in the small model it's going to go right up here in this hold let's call the stairwell now to begin that process you have to make a measurement hook your tape on the subfloor and measure down to the subfloor it's 109 inches it's really important to note that that measurement has to be from finished floor to finish floor now we've got carpet throughout this building so that measurements going to work but if you happen to have a real thick floor up there and down here you had a thin floor then you have to make some adjustments there's a lot more about that in the book now with that one measurement 109 inches we're able to calculate how many steps we need and how high each one of those steps are risers is going to be let me show you how we do that to calculate the rise and the run of a set of stairs we take the total rise from finish floor to finish floor here it's 109 inches we divide that by 7 that's a standard riser height that gives us 15 point 5 well you can't have a half a riser so we divide 109 by 15 full risers and that equals seven point two six or seven and a quarter now a common rule in order for a flight of stairs to be comfortable is that the rise plus the run should total between 17 and 18 inches with our riser height that's seven and a quarter a run of ten inches that gives us 17 and a quarter that's right in the ballpark well we know our rise and run so we can set up our Sarah gazes on this framing square over here seven and a quarter for the rise and here 10 inches for the run this is the tool we use to lay out this stringer so we could cut out these notches now you'll notice right here that this angle is not 90 degrees we like to give it a one-inch back cut right here so this tread will be just a little bit wider now down here at the bottom there's something really important we call it dropping the stringer what that means is that we have to cut off at the bottom of these stringers the thickness of this thread well the tread is three-quarters of an inch thick so we cut off these stringers 3/4 of an inch now that means that all of these risers will now be the same height one last thing we now search stringers like this that allows us to put it in this too before we call it a kicker once that kicker is nailed down it keeps these stringers from flipping forward I started layout from the bottom marking the first tread and rise with the square then I need to mark for dropping the stringer I make a line representing the floor and then come up the thickness of a tread 3/4 of an inch and Mark the cut line only this bottom riser needs to be shortened since this rests on the floor I continue on up marking out rise and run with the square and I keep track of the number of risers as I go along now up here at the top I mark for the last tread making it one inch wider than the rest and square off the run from that point you'll see why I do this in a few minutes I've got a few more marks to layout down here at the bottom I come in 1 inch from the riser line I mark before loosen my stair gauge pivot the square to a new mark and tighten the gauge now I can mark for the back cuts on each riser but before I move too far I also use a scrap of 2 before to mark the notch for my kicker and finally I can saw everything out I'm careful not only to mark accurately but to cut accurately that way I can use this stringer as a master template [Applause] [Applause] [Music] you can see that on top here I'm over cutting the intersection of my line just enough so that the pieces will fall out that way I don't need to come back with a handsaw to finish up and to be efficient and they call cuts running in one direction first then turn and work my way back you can see how the cuts meet underneath here the next thing I do is nail fences on the edge of the stringer that'll help me to flesh it up with the other tuba 12 and I can use it as a template now you want to pick out good straight stock for your stringers boards free of any large loose knots after marking I cut the other two stringers the same way next time mark with the top of the stringers fall on the hitter for the stairs in this house I marked down one riser seven and a quarter inches from the bottom of the subfloor and I draw a straight line one way to support these stringers is by hanging them with these metal straps other ways to do this are shown in the book then a nele block flash to the backside of the first stringer is just long enough to space the middle stringer dead center holding the top of the string or even with the line Jo nails it in place then positions and nails the middle string 2:16 into the block and ace through the strap now the last stringer tight to the joist on the right then we measure and cut a second block to get paid ly between the two and nail it up down at the bottom the kicker cut to the width of the stairs goes in I flashed it up tight against the wall nail it into the floor Center up the middle carriage and nail all the stringers down let's time now to cut the treads and risers out of 3/4 stop here's one way to get a straight cut by using a board as a cutting guide you could of course use a table saw and here's a riser being cut I started at the bottom by nailing on the first riser with eight-penny nails once these stringers are nailed in you need to check to make sure that none of them are bowed up or down take a look at here this stringer is really high so what we've done so far is nailing a riser board at the bottom to hold these stringers stable but before nailing any other riser boards in we want to catch this one we want to make sure that these stringers are level all the way across so we can nail it here on the outside edge then Joe is going to help well left pull that Center horse down so I can get this outside one nail I always choose straight stock but when I was cutting this middle stringer I could feel the tension release and it bugged you got it right on the money hold on I want to get one more nail on that thing Joe to hold it down there all right that's got it now all I need to do is finish nailing authorizers now the treads to prevent squeaks you want to use construction adhesive on top of the stringers before you set the treads that will also strengthen the entire stair you can either use nails or screws here just make sure to flush everything up first now there are different ways to nail on these treads you'll notice that we cut our splice here with the riser board they're gonna wrap carpet right up around that but there is another way you can let your tread hang over right here and you'll have a nosing the last thing we need to do is nail in a one inch strip here at the top before we nail the last riser in place you'll see why in a moment well we're back here now on this model and I want to show you something you remember that we cut this tread right here at the top one inch longer than the rest of them well we did that for a reason the reason is that we wanted this last riser here at the top to angle back just like this one angles back well it was easy to do we nailed him this triple one by then the riser board now look at the way it angles back so now every riser and every tread in this set of stairs are the same all the way down I've taught a lot of students apprentice carpenters how to build these simple set of stairs and I think almost every one of them thought the stair building was really difficult and then they tried it they found out this isn't so hard all we have left to do to finish these stairs is nail on a few treads and risers [Music]

Channel: finehomebuilding

Views: 1,073,206

Rating: 4.8731565 out of 5

Keywords: framing, carpentry, homebuilding, houses, residential, home, builder, remodel, newhome, construction, DIY, weekendwarrior

Id: yh6cMQnWGwA

Length: 61min 41sec (3701 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 11 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/sysadmin001]

It amazes me how criminally under appreciated blue collar workers are. These people are the literal backbone of their culture.

[u/seasonedcurlies]

Get your tuba-sixes and tuba-fours ready, folks, it's a Larry Haun video!

[u/gurlubi]

I like the part where he's hammering nails.

[u/Retireegeorge]

I love guys like this. Wish I was more like them. I hope the guy sold lots of copies of his book.

[u/PostPostModernism]

I'd also recommend checking out Crazy Framer on youtube. He's a Canadian carpenter who does entire spec house projects almost entirely solo (just the carpentry, not the entire house). Records himself working, explains a lot of what he's doing, and is very entertaining. Watching his videos working outside this last winter made me very thankful to have an office job.

[u/Farmerdrew]

"a standard 6-8-10 check..."

I could have used this two weeks ago.

[u/[deleted]]

This video is obviously old but I hope nobody tries to build off of them now. Very far removed from current structural standards for uplift and lateral forces. No hold downs at all. Just some nails tying everything other than the sill plate to the foundation.

[u/grandmaester]

"Now grab ya tubah fo's, tubah sehxes, tubah ets..."

[u/mazobob66]

Before I even watched the video, I was thinking "this is probably that guy that drives nails in one hit." Yep!