How To Build Stairs - BEGINNERS Step-By-Step GUIDE

in this video I'm going to show you how to build stairs so I'm going to show you how to lay out the stringers I'm going to show you how to build the landing I'm going to show you how to install the Treads and the whole nine yards so if you're new to this channel my name is Josh this hill is all about DIY to save a ton of money so be sure to subscribe ring that Bell so you get notification airtime release new video and Hammer that like button for me that's all I asked for making this video so we've got a lot to go over today so let's get started the stairs I'm going to be building in this building are going to be coming up to a landing and then shooting up to the upstairs for an L shape and you definitely want to check your local building codes before starting your stairs because they can vary from region to region so the building codes I'm following here are for my local jurisdiction but they are very general to most areas but definitely check your local building codes first important information you need to know before you start building your stairs is what you're going to be using for flooring and specifically the thickness of the flooring so if you're going to be using three-quarter hardwood floor or if you're going to be using a tile or if you're going to be doing something that's half inch you need to know that information because whenever we take a measurement for our height from the very bottom of the floor up to the top of the floor of the upper part of the stairs that's going to be critical information because that's going to manipulate the height in which we got to build our stairs so for instance here we're going to be placing our tape measure directly on the concrete because that's going to be the finished floor in this structure and I'm going to measure up to the very top of the opening and then compensate for the flooring thickness all right if we take a look here we got 123 inches to the top of the subfloor now in this case the top of the subfloor is the finished floor because we're building this in a garage so if I was putting three quarter inch hardwood floor I would actually say the top of the opening was 123 and three quarters inch but in this case 123 even is the actual measurement and again I always compensate for your flooring thickness once you get up to the top of your stairs now that I know my height I need to figure out the distance in which my stringers need to run so this is very important to think about now in this case I got this stairwell coming down and then L shaping over where this camera is setting so I already figured to where the max distance I can place this header here in order to intersect my steps into this opening to go up and this actually will count as a rise of the stairs and the reason why I had to stop it there is because I need Headroom here in the bathroom in order to access the toilet and sink so my stairs are going to come down through here so I need to know the distance from The Edge where this Landing is over to this header and I already know that it's 123 inches to the edge of that header as well so you need to know the max distance sense in which you can run your stairs now that we know we're shooting for a Max height of 123 inches we now need to know some codes and exactly what we're dealing with here so whenever you have a rise on your steps that's considered a riser so we're thinking about rise over run here and then our Max rise that we can do per code here is seven and three quarters inch that's the max we can step up on each step and then if we look at our run which that's going to be our tread of our step we can only go down to as low as 10 inches as a minimum for each tread that we step on so if we keep those measurements in mind we can start calculating up exactly what we need to do for each rise of our step so we know that we have 123 inches so I'm going to get my calculator here that we're shooting for so if we take a look here we take 123 and we divided that by 4 14 let's say so if we put 14 steps for 14 runs to get up to 123 inches that puts us at 8.7 inches so that's over the seven and three quarter inch Max so we can't do that with just that many steps so let's take 123 we're going to divide that by 15. 8.2 we're still over the code we can't do it because our seven and three quarter inch Max so let's go to 123 divided by 16 7.68 so now we're within code but I always recommend trying to stay below that because it's definitely a more comfortable step if you can go below that anything around seven is ideal in my opinion for a comfort so if we do 123 we're going to divide that by 17 that gives us 7.235 so that's seven and one quarter inch so that puts us with encode and we're in a comfort level to where each step Isn't So taxing while we're walking on it now that I showed you how I came up with the seven and one quarter inch rise how do I figure out the run and the run is where the tread or the steps going to be well that's very simple I'm going to be using this 2 by 12 material and this measures about 11 inches typically it's 11 and a quarter for 2 by 12 material but in this case it's a little bit smaller so if I want a three-quarter inch overhang right here at the very end where the nose is going to be I simply got to make this 10 and one quarter inch in order to give me an overhang right here of three quarters if I'm going to be using 11 inch material and if you're wondering hey what about once we install our Riser boards is that going to mess up our overhang well it's not because if we have a three quarter inch board here it's going to push this out another three quarters inch as well so that's going to still give us 10 and a quarter from The riser's Edge to the risers Edge so ten and one quarter inch if I'm using 11 inch material is what I need to cut my stringers out another thing I wanted to add here if you are constrained to a certain measurement in which you got to keep your stairs in you can manipulate your run length or your tread or your step whatever you want to call it in order to fit into a certain space so that may also determine your run length on your Stringer if I was working in a tighter space and I had to shrink it down to 10 inches I could but I couldn't really go any shorter than 10 inches per coat here so all you got to do is measure your total length from let's say the landing to where your header is going to intercept up into the next story and then take that and divide it however many steps are going to fit into that in order to manipulate that number for your tread so that's something you may need to consider for your stairs we now need to talk about the head clearance of our stairs if we take a look here we're going to be coming up to our Landing that's going to be sitting here and we got our ceiling that's going to transition into the stairwell in order in which we got to enter first so the code here is we need to make sure we're within six foot eight of head clearance if we take a slope of our step to the top of the ceiling and we're going to be actually six foot eight and a half inch because we got to install a drywall yet so we got to figure our finished ceiling as well here to better illustrate the head clearance if you take a straight edge from tip to tip of the stair stringers if you take a look it's going to give us a straight line like so to go off of and if our Max or minimum head clearance is six foot eight inches again this is minimum not maximum so it could be over six foot eight all day long it just can't be below that if you were to draw a straight line it's from the bottom of the finish ceiling to the top of the stair stringer just like so so that distance has to be at least six foot eight for head clearance I'm now going to calculate the height of the landing so the first thing I need to do is measure down six foot eight and a half inch because I gotta allow a half inch for drywall as my finished ceiling height as the tallest I can build this Landing so if I measure down six foot eight and a half it puts me right down here right here is the Mark I just made measuring down six foot eight and a half inch off the unfinished ceiling so that is going to be the max of my height of the landing so now we need to figure out how many steps is it going to take to get below this but as close as I can get to this since I'm kind of limited for run length so now I'm going to measure up off the floor and I got 34 inches roughly off the floor to that measurement so now I need to know what can I do and we're order to get a even amount of seven and one quarter inch Rises within that space so the measurement is actually going to be 29 inches off the floor and if you take seven and a quarter and times that by four that gives us 29 so seven quarter will evenly go into 29 inches so that is why we're going with that is the max height of our Landing I'm now going to square a line right off the top of that Mark we made and this is going to be the top of our Landing but what we need to do is come down three quarters inch before we start framing this to allow four hour three quarter subfloor so three quarter inches right here so that's the line we're going to level off of for our framing it's going to place my level right on that Mark then draw a level line now I'm going to level over across this wall too since the landing sitting here in this corner and now I'm going to level off this Mark and go over to this wall too where we're going to attach it to the stairwells wall the opening for this Landing is 42 inches by the time it's finished so in order to build this per code I need to make sure that I have at least 36 inches from where the steps stop to the distance of the landing so I'm well beyond that I'm at 42 inches like I just said so that's another code in my area that I got to follow so be sure to check your local codes to see what you got to follow but here has to be going 36 inches in the direction of the steps for the landing now as far as how far back I got to bring my Landing since my steps are going to end flush with this wall I need to make sure I come back at least 13 inches to catch the whole bottom of the step so if I'm just going to stop my Landing back here at this next stud because it's definitely within that range it's actually 16 inches back so I'm just going to have a little bit more than I need which is fine but as long as it ain't too short you need to make sure you catch the whole bottom of your step I got all the framing pre-cut for my Landing I'm now going to nail it all together [Music] before I put the subfloor on I just want to explain to you a little bit about how I frame this I placed this up to the stud and nailed into the side and then to secure it so I don't have to bolt it is I put boards underneath of it going down to the foundation to support it and I did that on all these and then this last one I had to put a half inch bolt to secure it because it didn't have a way to put a board down to the floor and this one again the same way as these I'm going to show you the other side where I intersected this header on this side I secured them to the header using joist hangers and because this is a two by twelve I didn't have to double it up to support these two by six joists and over here I did put a lag bolt to secure it secure it to the stud and then over here I set the header down on this 6x6 post because we're in a two by six wall so this is really stable and ain't going anywhere now I'm going to install the subfloor and I'm first going to glue it down since this is part of the steps I like to glue down my Treads and my subfloor on the steps for the landing so I'm going to start by gluing it then I'm going to nail it down [Music] before I cut my stringers I got to install what's called a ledger board underneath of this landing and this ledger board is going to act as a place to secure my stringers too so we're just going to install it right underneath of the landing like so now that we've got our ledger board on I'm going to measure up and double check make sure at 29 as you can see we're right at 29 inches like we calculated for so if you remember correctly it took four steps counting this last step to get to 29 inches with the seven and a quarter Riser so that being said we know we need to get one two three steps to get up to our fourth step here and that's going to be what we need to cut is a three-step Stringer I'm going to be using a 2 by 12 in order to cut my Stringer and the reason why I'm going to be using a 2 by 12 is because I need to have the correct throat distance and that's going to be the wood that's left in between between the step and the back of the Stringer but I like to have like said about five inch throat on my stringers and a 10 inch board if I'm using a two by ten for instance gives me about three and a half inches for this Stringer and to me I would like a little more beefiness than that so with that being said I'm going to be using this 2 by 12. so the first thing I'm going to do is Crown my two by twelve and see where the hump's at if there is one and I want the crown up so let me eyeball this it looks like I need to flip this board around and my crown is now up so this is going to be the top of my Stringer and now I'm going to go ahead and get my framing square a sharp pencil and then I like to use what are called stair gauges and these are going to clip on to my framing square in order to keep my layout as I slide it up the board I'm going to first show you with the framing square what I'm shooting for here I like to use this part of the framing square for my Treads or the run and then I like to use this part of the framing square for my Riser or for the rise so I'm going to take it and I'm going to put it to where the pointy side is facing towards the wood like so and I'm going to be using these measurements across the outside of the framing square and to give you a quick look at what I'm doing I want a 10 and a quarter inch tread and I want to set seven and a quarter inch Rise Like We explained earlier so right there is going to be my first Mark but before we get started I'm going to use the stair gauges and then place them on the Square so I don't have to keep holding it where I need it and this will keep the layout on the Square in order to make everything consistent and accurate so I'm first going to line up with the 10 and a quarter inch On The Run side and then I'm going to tighten down the gauge I'm going to come over here to seven and a quarter on the right side make sure these are tight and so they don't move and now all I got to do is place that directly against the edge of the 2 by 12 and then I can mark it and then slide it as I go in order to keep the same layout I'm now going to start right here at the very end of the 2 by 12 like so hold it really tight and then take my sharp pencil and begin with my layout at the very edge of this 2 by 12. and now this is going to be the rise all right and now I'm going to take my other framing square and I'm going to actually extend this line and I know this is going to have to get cut off but something I'd like to show this piece of the framing square is an inch and a half and as you know we're going to be using an inch and a half tread for these steps so I need to take this off the very bottom of our starter Stringer because we need to compensate for the tread that we're going to not have off this first bottom so you understand more once we lay this up here so this first rise is going to be inch and a half less than seven and a quarter so all this is going to get cut off and I'm now going to get my other framing square that had my stair gauges on it and just continue that layout slotting it across the board and now all we got to do is make sure that we line up our measurement right to the point of the pre-existing layout we just put on this 2x12 and that looks good now I'm just going to mark that now I'm just going to continue this layout until we got three Treads and I put an X here because we know that's going to get cut out now I'm going to slide this 10 and a quarter inch mark up with that line right where the point hits right on the edge of the two by twelve make sure our stair gauges are tight against the board's Edge hold it tight and then Trace and then one more now right here we're going to do something a little special we're going to have to come down three quarters of an inch to compensate for a one by that I will not be placing on this top because I'm going to be using the side of the landing that we have that finished 2 by 12 instead of putting a piece of one by Lumber here so that's a special case you may or may not have to do depending on what you're shooting for but in this case I'm going to subtract three quarters of an inch right here and then take my Square so this is all going to get cut off and this will be our first Stringer before I cut this bottom out I do got to put a kicker board at the bottom of these stringers per coat in my area so I'm just going to use a two by six because that's how I had pressure treated here a two by four would work fine too so I'm just going to hold that right up to where I'm going to put the kicker board and then Mark it and then cut that out as well and when you cut this out take your time do a really good job because we're going to use this as the template if it looks good after we set it into place and you don't cut past your mark because that needs cut out with the jigsaw here in a moment I'm now going to use the jigsaw to cut this section off now we continue cutting the rest of the Stringer off foreign here's our first Stringer let's set it up there and see how it looks before I cut out any more stringers using this template I'm going to set it up into place and double check to make sure it's right it's very important to do that now than it is to do it later after they're all cut wrong so you don't want to do that so we know we still got a tread going on top of this yet so if you add the seven and a quarter plus the inch and a half tread that we're going to install here that gives us eight and three quarters inch down from the top so we're going to mark that here before we start testing so let me move this back a little bit eight and three quarter will push right here I'm now going to take my Stringer and place it right up to that Mark we just made so right there and I'm going to take a level and double check to see to make sure it's pretty level setting there as you can see we're within the marks so nothing wrong with that and let me check each one real quick that looks good and that looks good so that looks like it's cut out well now you may have to scrub and cut some off the bottom where it meets your concrete slab if you're going to a concrete slab because concrete does have variation in it sometimes unlike this platform we just made the landing it's probably going to be pretty flat and level because we just built it but with concrete it can have some variation so now that we know that's good to go again we're gonna have a pressure treated kick plate and also I'm going to put a little flashing tape on the bottom of this so it doesn't come in direct contact with that concrete so now that's good let's continue moving all right now I got a 16 footer here this is what we need to do the next set of stringers going from the platform up to the Second Story and already Crown this the crown is up right here so we're going to go along this Edge and put our layout on it so we're going to start from the end here now just like our last layout we're going to start at our 10 and a quarter and seven and a quarter so we're going to continue that pattern and now we're just going want to continue laying it out similar to how we did the last one which is going to be a little difference here but it ain't going to be till we get to the end of the layout so there's that and that's going to be cut out and then we're going to extend now again take an inch and a half off that's the thickness of this blade okay that gets cut out now we're going to continue our steps and again this bomb needs a kicker board on it so we're just going to lay this up on the layout and then we're going to trace this and then that's going to need cut out [Music] and right here at the last step before we go to the upstairs this we do not subtract the three quarter inch like our last finger because we do got to put the inch Lumber as a riser so now with that being said we're simply going to cut this off straight with our layout so this is just a simple cut off and now we're just going to cut this Stringer out like we did the last one [Music] all right now that we got this one cut out we're going to dry fit it as well just like we did the bottom just to make sure everything's cut out correctly the Stringer is sitting in the place where it should go now I'm going to double check with my level just to make sure where the Treads are sitting that's nice and level I'm going to jump down off this Landing because the camera's sitting on the landing at the moment and I'm just going to double check here and as you can see I don't even see the camera but the bubble is perfect right there it looks good and something else I wanted to add we did add a ledger board at the bottom of that header as well so that's going to be the ledger board for up above and now that we know that we're cut out correctly we're going to take this down and cut out the rest of the stringers now here's the cool part all we got to do now since we got a template is simply lay this up on another 2 by 12 and trace it and then cut it out and do that with the rest of the stringers for this stairwell and we're going to be good to go so the hard part's over all the calculating and everything and also because we have this template we don't have to waste material at the end of the two by six or sorry at the end of the two by twelve because we didn't have to slot our Square to get the measurements so we're actually having enough off this 16 footer to get a tread so that's cool all right let's cut these out in order to use this as a template I've got two clamps here I'm going clamp one here at this end the one here at this end so it doesn't shift while marking it off and also make sure you have a really sharp pencil so that way you can get as close to that template as you can while you're marking it so in order to mark this template as you can see we're flush on the end here and we're flush right on the straight side and we already crowned this board they're getting ready to cut up just like we did the original Stringer so now that we got it in the place we're just going to clamp it down right there so that side's clamped tight now we're going to come over here this end and I'm going to clamp this tight make sure we're lined up perfectly flush and that looks good clamp it down right there now I'm going to take my sharp pencil and just Trace each one of the steps hold your pencil tight in that crease and just mark it like so [Music] all right now that's all traced we're going to remove the clamps and then cut it out [Music] I've now got all the stringers cut out I got four for after the landing going up and then I got four down here before the landing and what I like to do is place them all together like you see here just take a straight edge on a few just to double check make sure everything looks good as you can see everything lines up really well here so we're good to go and what I like to do is add a skirt board to each side that butts up against the wall so that way you don't have to trim around each step or cut around it with paint and then especially when you're drywalling you don't have to cut the drywall around each set of stringers so a skirt board is something I highly recommend you don't have to per coat in my area but it's something that does make a nice easy job when it comes to finishing and also I like to make sure my steps are or my stair stringers are at least 16 on Center and no further apart sometimes with decks you can get away two foot on Center but still 16 on Center gives you a nice solid step so I actually cut four of these so we're closer than that we're about 10 inch on Center or so so it's going to be a very strong set of stairs by time we're said and done I'm going to begin by placing two two by twelves up here on the saw horses and now I know these aren't long enough to go clear up the side of each Stringer that's going to be against the wall but they only had 12 foot stuff here local and it's no big deal because it doesn't have to be a solid piece for what we're doing here and now I'm going to set a Stringer up on each one of these that's going to go up against the wall I'm using the inch and a half lumber for the skirt board a lot of people just use three-quarter board for the skirt board it's about time to drywall butts up again so you have just a quarter inch to caulk so with this board we can either put molding against it but since we're building this in a garage probably just caulk right up against it or paint up against it so that way it's going to be a nice finish no matter how you look at it when it comes to lining up the Stringer with the skirt board we got to remember that this is going to actually keep extending up on the skirt board in order to cover once it's up against the wall so right here is our tread at the top of the step and then this where it butts right up against that ledger board at the top so with that being said we need to also compensate for our tread so I'm going to place this right where the tread is going to be because we're going to be using this lumber for our tread and as you can see we got about a half inch exposed here so that's about where we want that placed I would like to add that I should have added three quarters of an inch for the thickness of the Riser and that would have pushed the tread out a little further for this skirt but it worked out just fine and now we're going to extend this line up just as if we're going to cut it to make sure we're slid down enough on the skirt board so I know I want to keep this here so I'm just going to place a screw into this and then into the skirt board to hold this in place and I'm going to place just a two and a half inch screw so that way it doesn't penetrate through the skirt board and now that that screw is in place I'm going to measure what it is from the skirt board to the bottom of the Stringer and we've got two and a half inches so you make sure the same reveal is at the bottom of the Stringer I'm here at the bottom of the Stringer again I gotta extend the skirt board to finish up this run but let's first get this in place as you can see we're right at two and a half there so I'm going to place the screw to hold it into place all right then I'll place a few up the skirt board to hold it from shifting and now when we place the neck Stringer up here for the skirt board we need to make sure it's the opposing way this one's laying so clearly this would be on the left side and then this is going to be on the right side then we just repeat the process that we did here except we're on this side [Music] now to extend the rest of this we're just going to take another piece of the two by Twelve Place it right up flat in this butt joint nice and square which that looks really good here and now we got to think about the tread ending here we're going to be using the two by twelve to go right back against this for the tread so these are actually a little thinner than normal they're about 11 and an eighth these two by twelves we have so it's going to stop right here and then we got to extend this bottom where it's sitting on the floor to be cut off so that's how we figure to finish this up so I'm just going to place this flat as if this was the floor and to extend this line down to be cut out we're just going to take our square that we used for cutting the stringers outlining it right up at that Mark finish that up right there we just got to cut that out in order to finish that up and do the same for the other side [Music] and now we're just going to cut each end to finish up each side we're now just going to line this up all right we're flush with the floor that's where the floor is again it looks good we're flush up here and now we're just going to put a couple screws to hold that into place I'm now going to finish cutting off the upper part of the skirt first thing I'm going to do is flip this over so then we're going to flip this one over as well now all we got to do is extend the cut from here up and then this one from here up so now I just got a mark right here where they intercept the bottom of the skirt I'm now just going to take the framing square keep that same angle on the right side of the Stringer and if you remember right we should be angling towards each corner here then on this side now we're going to cut each end off here I also need to cut the tip of this off where it butts into the three-quarter subfloor up above so I'm just going to take my speed square and square right off that right here and cut that off then do the same to this one now we're going to set these up into place [Music] I now got temporarily setting here while he's holding it I want to check with my level to make sure it's setting right and if you check it here it looks good we're sitting nice and levels are going to place the screw here to hold it into place and the best thing to do is hold down here where the tread is going to cover up onto the skirt board place the screw to hold it all right now I'm going to place screws up along the wall here to hold this into place [Music] now we're going to set the next one up for the side against the wall here [Music] now I'm going to install these brackets that are designed to hold stringers to the header and now with these I'm going to place these in the middle here and then on the sides I'm going to place these in order to tie it into the header like so so I got these straps for the corners and then these brackets here for the middle stringers and again always check your local building code see what you need to use secure them and then also I got to put the layout in order to space my stringers evenly if we take a measurement here I got 36 inches in between these two stringers so in order to space out the ones in the middle evenly I just got to go 11 inches to Edge the edge in order to space them out so I'm going to put the layout here first before installing the straps in order to secure everything I'm now going to put on my eye protection and place these brackets here in order to conceal it behind the Stringer foreign and if you're interested in purchasing any of these brackets or any of the tools in this video be sure to check the links in the description below so you can check them out for yourself I'm now going to install the kick board at the bottom and we're just going to slide that in in the slots that we cut out while we cut out our stringers and we just need to make sure we put a screw down into each joist on the landing to secure this into place also going to put my layout for my Stringer to place evenly across here as well now we're ready to set our stringers into place [Music] now that I got the Stringer sitting up here to where the knee secured I'm going to take a straight edge from the original stringers we put on each side so that's going to give us our elevation so now I'm going to place my Stringer that I just placed here on the wall just to make sure we're sitting correctly with the elevation as you can see they're setting exactly where we need them it's nice and straight and nothing's rocking and that is what you want so now that they're setting where we want them all I got to do is nail them off to the brackets that we have installed here and just so you know what I'm using using here is a metal strap nailer to nail these brackets on you can also use Tico nails to do this as well From Below on this side I'm just going to flex those brackets up flat against the Stringer and nail them off to the Stringer all we got to do down here at the bottom is place them on the layout and then secure them with screws so they don't move I'm now going to work on the bottom set of steps that meet the concrete and a couple things I want to go over the first thing is I'm going to use flashing tape and place it on the bottom of this Stringer to where it comes contact with the concrete and I could have used pressure treated boards here instead of doing this but this is what I had on hand and it's going to be fun for this application and also wherever I have the kicker board on the concrete this is going to be a pressure treated board like I explained earlier so there's nothing wrong there and then the next thing I need to explain is I'm going to use a ram set in order to attach the kicker board to the concrete and just anchor it with the galvanized nails since we're going to concrete that's what we got to do or I could use tapcons here so either one's fine so I'm just going to do a time lapse putting this little section together [Music] [Music] I now have all the stringers installed and secured for this staircase so now I need to cut the Treads that go on top of each Stringer and in order to cut these I just got to get a measurement in between the skirt and that's going to get let me know how long I need to cut my Treads now these Treads are going to be made out two by twelves so I simply just got to cut them the length and install them on the stringers the tread length is 39 and a quarter here so I'm going to cut three of them in order to make these Treads when I cut Treads I like to use a miter saw because I got to cut a lot of them and they have to be pretty accurate so miter saw and especially one that slides like so so I can make long cuts that's going to speed up the process tremendously so I'm going to go ahead and do that I now got to install the boards for my risers first before the Treads so in order to build those I just gotta cut these to length these are one by eights and they actually measure seven and a quarter from the store so I don't have to rip them down so I'm going to measure 39 and a quarter in order to start my backs for my risers foreign in order to install the risers I just got my finished nailer I'm going to nail them on with and if you remember right when I built these stringers this back is going to act as the Riser so I don't have to place a board there so for the next one I just got to take my trim board that's going to act as the Riser and place it right against the back like so and if anything when you install these you want to make sure they're just right at the Top If not slightly above the edge of the Stringer so that way it covers up the actual Treads Gap so that looks good there so now I'm going to tack that on with the nail then we're going to place the next one on and now this bottom one I gotta rip down because if you remember right the tread counts as the riser in this case in order to install the Treads I'm just going to use these two and a half inch deck screws and also I'm going to secure them down to the stringers using subfloor adhesives so I'm just going to run the subfloor adhesive on the top of each Stringer and then put three screws in each tread to secure it to the stringers thank you now I'm just going to screw down my treads then just continue that pattern with the whole set of steps [Music] I'm here on the last step and just a refresher unlike the landing we do got to put a board against this to finish it off because I didn't want to see this header with all the nails in it so I'm just going to place my trim board in here first and pull it up tight through the subfloor now I'm going to nail it to the back of that header I'm not going to place subfloor adhesive here on the treads now I'm going to place the tread right on top of that Stringer I'm now going to place a screw in this back corner to hold it into place I'm now going to take my speed square Mark so the screws are placed evenly I'm going to mark three six and a quarter and about inch and a half off the back and now when I cut this subfloor off I left it a little heavy so that way I could trim this off exactly to what I need so I'm going to do that now [Applause] and now if we take a measurement we got seven and a quarter to our finish height just like we wanted something I'd like to mention here from the transition from the step to the second story or even from the bottom set of steps up to The Landing if we take a measurement hour ever hangs about three quarters inch so right here we cut it flush so I'm going to be adding a three-quarter inch nose here and something that's going to be more durable than this subfloor but I'm going to add this after the construction is done in this building so that's going to keep our step nose consistent and it's going to give it a nice finished look I now would like to go over a recap of the codes I went over while I was building these stairs along with some additional ones that I have not mentioned yet so a quick recap on some of the ones we already talked about our Max rise or Riser can't be any more than seven and three quarters inch so that's something that's very important that you definitely can can't go above that and while you're building your steps or stairs you also want to keep in mind your runs or your Treads we can't have it any shorter than a 10 inch tread or in other words a place to where you step and here's another thing you gotta remember if you do have a step or a tread that is anywhere from 10 inches to 11 inches you must have a nose that's anywhere from three quarters to an inch and a quarter in which that being said that overhang which is also known as the nose is something that is required if it's anywhere from 10 inches to 11 inches in length of the tread or width of the tread I should say and with that being said if it is 11 inches or greater you don't have to have a nose but I do always recommend having a nose of at least three quarters inch in my opinion it's definitely a comfortable and a aesthetically pleasing look and next minimal head clearance is six foot eight so I cannot go below six foot eight while I'm going up my stairs to the ceiling so the finished ceiling and the finished stairs cannot be any closer than six foot eight while you're going up your flight of stairs very important and sometimes it's hard to get that in in certain situations but with the right calculations it is doable next 3 8 inch variation on your rise so while you're going up your steps if you have a seven and a quarter inch step and then your last one is seven and a half in my area that little bit of variation is no big deal again always check your local building codes but that's a good general rule of thumb is you can have a little bit of variation just not a lot any more than 3 8 is against code here 36 inch minimum width of your staircase you can't have any more narrow than three feet so it's just like a hallway a hallway can't be any more narrower than three feet as well and again that's finished with drywall on the wall something very important to note but in this case the skirt was already more narrowed than what drywall is going to be so we already know we're well within code here and next 36 inch minimal Landing so I've always been taught A good rule of thumb is if you have a 40 inch wide step it's nice to have a 40 inch long landing at least because you know you're already going to be as wide as 38 inch but it's nice to have that distance as well so it has a more aesthetically pleasing and a comfortable feel while you're walking up down the steps but if you have a 40 inch wide set of stairs you can have a landing that's a minimum of 36 inches long but obviously it's going to be as wide as that anyways but with that being said you just want to make sure you're within that code so that's a pretty simple one to follow Max flight height is typically no more than 12 foot 7 inches and it adds up to be no more than 16 Rises so that is something that clearly here we easily got in that because our Max ceiling height is only about nine foot six so if you're going into a really tall basement or something that's something you definitely want to keep in mind you almost always have to have a landing going into a basement anyways but you need to break it up the landing if you're any taller than that you don't want a straight set of stairs going straight up and uh that's something to keep in mind um next you can always reference online calculators there's a lot of online calculators out there there's several websites where you can just punch in your height and your uh distance stuff like that and whatever you're going to be using is Treads and it'll automatically calculate your stairs so I highly recommend somebody that doesn't do stairs all the time to use those online calculators and it's not anything to be ashamed of because they can be complicated and you don't want to mess up a nice 2x12 board when they cost 30 40 bucks a piece so I highly recommend referencing online calculators while you're building your set of stairs so that's a general rule of thumb with the codes and if you want to see how I built this whole garage check out this video it'll help you out

Channel: The Excellent Laborer

Views: 173,713

Keywords: how to build stairs, how to build deck stairs, how to build stairs for a deck, stairs, building stairs, stair stringer, deck stairs, stair stringers, how to build steps, making stairs, how to cut stair stringers, how to build exterior stairs, build stairs, build stairs easy, diy stairs, how to build deck stairs youtube, how to build stair stringers, stair, first tim building stairs, building stairs for a deck, how to build deck stairs with a landing

Id: UNm4CxEU4aM

Length: 46min 28sec (2788 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 28 2023