This is the first series of stair building books written by Greg Vanden Berge, but they are not the first books he has written about stairs. We are currently working on the books listed below. Popular Books. The Becoming by Nora Roberts. Fear No Evil by James Patterson. Mercy by David Baldacci. Toggle navigation. Building Stairs. Get Books. Detailed diagrams and full-color photographs take readers step by step through the complete process of constructing stairs, from essential tools and materials, through the planning and design steps, through the entire building process, to installing railings and other finishing touches.
Plans, specs, building. It will certainly not disturb you making heavy of you bag. You need just computer system device or device. So this way, be an excellent visitor currently! Binding: Paperback Most helpful customer reviews. Posting Komentar.
I tacked a piece of 2x6 to the upper floor a couple of feet into the stairwell and leaned the stringers against it. The notches at the bottom of the stringers hooked onto the landing and kept them from skidding. You might think this arrangement is a little esoteric, but I've used this trick at other times to prop up a set of shop-built stairs during installation. It's not at all uncommon to have to maneuver stairs or their components in increments. Having a means to secure them temporarily allows you to move around.
The key is to plan out the moves before moving anything. What's holding up the stringers? A scrap of 2x6 temporarily nailed to the upper floor holds the stringers away from the head of the stairwell, providing space to nail the hangerboard to the stringers from above. A cleat across the face of the hangerboard aids in keeping them properly positioned. Remember that spacer? The outside stringer is nailed to the 2x4 spacer, further strengthening the assembly.
No access after installation. The view of the installed stringers shows the need for fastening the hangerboard to the stringers before dropping the assembly into place, when very deep joists are used. With the stringers propped up, I was able to clamber up to the second floor and fasten the hanger board to the stringers.
Because I knew I wouldn't be able to see exactly where the stringers were on the hangerboard and because that location determined the proper installation of the stringers, I screwed a cleat to the hangerboard at the line where the tops of the stringers had to go see the middle photo at right.
I knew I'd be able to feel them butt against that. Side alignment was simple, as the stringers had to be kept flush with the edge of the hangerboard. That, I could see. That left Strong stringers. Even before the hangerboard was nailed into place, the stringers easily supported the author because they were captured at the top by the floor framing and at the bottom by the notches that go onto the landing.
I used 16d commons again, although screws would also work. If you're questioning my use of nails here, just consider that in Douglas fir lumber, a properly driven 16d common is good for nearly lb. I used four in each stringer. Plus, one stringer was nailed to a wall and another supported by a wall.
The notches at the bottoms of the stringers hooked to the landing. This stair isn't moving. With all the stringers attached to the hangerboard, all I had to do was pull the nails holding the 2x6 to the second-floor framing and slow Block between the stringers.
Cleats nailed to the back of the landing between the stringers provide nailing. One is in place, and the second cleat comes after the stringer is fully nailed to the first. The hangerboard was nailed to the head of the stairwell with, you guessed it, 16d commons.
The notches in the bottom of the stringers do a great job locating the stringers, but I like to use a belt-and-suspenders approach, particularly with the center stringer that enjoys no help from walls. A 2x6 cleat nailed to the landOverkill isn't enough. Although the hangerboard is more than adequate to support the stringers, cleats are a belt-and-suspenders approach that will also serve to support the upper subtread.
A cleat to the other side for good measure helps to keep the stringer from twisting under load. Similar cleats were installed at the top, with the added benefit of providing support for the topmost subtread.
Even though LVL material is straighter than sawn lumber, it's not perfect. These stringers were about 13 ft. Some 2x4 cleats nailed to the stringers lined them up nicely. The bottom set of stringers also depend on Engineered lumber isn't perfect. Blocking between the stringers keeps the spacing between them the same as at their tops and bottoms. Since they had only three risers, they were a little easier to place.
Installing Treads and Risers Much of what gives stairs their strength is that the components work together as a unit. One stringer alone, if your balance is good, will get you from floor to floor. Two would be better, but they'd still flex as your weight shifted from foot to foot. Add treads, and you have the most basic of stairs. They'll flex much less underfoot, as the treads help to distribute point loads between the stringers.
Depending on their Hangerboard, the easy way. The bottom flight is wider than the upper, so additional stringers were used. Add risers or subrisers into the mix, and they act like beams to spread the load between the stringers. Affix them so as to support the front and back of the treads, and the additional as somebody carrying something heavy up the stairs would doubtlessly break through.
Neither stiffness is nearly magical. It's amazing the you nor your insurance carrier would want stiffness that 3f4-in. The point here is that I would never leave 3f4-in.
If you want to skip the subrisers, fine. But use 2x-something treads if you do. To do so would be dangerous, Making treads and risers The first move here is to figure out how many treads and risers you need and to rip sufficient The techniques shown here are exactly as I'd use to make a set of utility stairs.
Utility stairs would have no subtreads or subrisers. What I use here as subrisers would be the end product on a utility stair. In place of subtreads, I'd use the real McCoy, most likely 2X12 stock with its leading edge rounded over and overhanging the lower risers per code. So far as calculations go, the only difference is that when figuring the height of the bottom riser, there's no subtread thickness in the equation, only the thickness of the actual tread.
Now, for most framing uses, I hold OSB and plywood to be equal. Not for subtreads and subrisers, though. OSB is probably plenty strong enough, but it won't take a screw from the side without splitting.
Plywood will. I'll occasionally use up OSB scrap for subrisers, if that saves ripping into a fresh sheet of plywood, but that's all the use I have for it on stairs. I rip all of the subtread stock parallel to the face grain of the plywood-that's the strongest axis. If it allows less wasteful use of the material and it often does , I'll cut the subrisers perpendicular to the grain.
Often, I end up with some subrisers cut either way. Squeak-Free Stairs Because these sub treads and subrisers will serve as substrates for the finish treads and risers, being mindful to rip straight edges a table- The most common complaint people have about stairs is squeaks.
If anything, make the subrisers and subtreads thing that happens from this point on. The subrisers can be pulled up adhesive, not because I think it's the best brand but because it's well, too. For screws,l use 2-in. They don't to be flush with the tread cuts, but if they're cut too wide, they sit proud and prevent the subtread from properly seating on the stringer.
Square-drive heads the subriser and interfere with installing the finish risers. To speed things along, cut all the Squeaks happen when two pieces of wood rub together. It's hard readily available and it does the job. Other brands probably work are as superior to Phillips heads as LVL is to sawn lumber.
Even better, they don't cost more. Try them out. Use a miter saw to ensure good, square cuts. The final touch: subtreads and subrisers Install two risers first. Bed them in construction adhe- 1 sive and be sure they're flush with the tread cut above. Construction adhesive prevents squeaks. Everywhere that a subtread contacts other parts of the stair needs to be liberally coated with it. Screw the subtread to the subriser below about every 3 I 6 in. To avoid splitting the subriser, predrill for each screw.
Use at least two screws through each subtread into each stringer. Predrilling is important here, as a split tread has no strength. Glue and screw treads and risers to stringers Set the saw to bevel the tops of the studs. Those stringer cutouts are good for more than firewood.
They've got the angles needed to set up saws to fit cuts to the stair. Working from the bottom up, start by installing two risers. Squeeze a generous quantity of construction adhesive onto the riser cuts of the stringers, and run in two screws per stringer. Keep the top screw at least 1 in. Bed the treads generously in construction adhesive. A bead run along the bottom face Start the wall below the stair. Nail a 2x4 to the bottom of the stringer to provide full nailing for the studs to come.
It's possible to skip this 2X4, but five minutes spent on this step eases the rest of the wall construction.
Don't be shy with the screws, either. Take the time to drill pilot holes for screws going into the edge of the plywood. Although this will seem inefficient, I climb down from the stair and walk behind it to drill and screw through the back of the subriser and into the subtread before it.
It's important to do this before the adhesive starts to set up. If the weather's cool, you've got more time, so you might be able to run around and screw two or three at a time.
Or, if your back is more limber than mine, you can do this operation by reaching over the top. Building the Support Wall Because of all the running around I do, I wait until after all of the subtreads and subrisers are Hold the studs plumb, and mark them in place. A couple of toenails secure each stud.
Work from the bottom of the stair toward the top to leave yourself working room. And don't drive the tops of the studs forward while setting the nails or you'll wedge up the stairs. This is straightforward framing. Snap a line between the plumb point on the floor remember that point from the start of this chapter?
Cut and nail down a 2x4 plate and lay it out on in. Then, setting the bevel on your circular saw using one of the cutouts from the stringer, affix another 2x4 to the stringer as a top plate, mark the studs in place, and build a wall. Now it's time to add the finish skirt boards, risers, and treads. This is pretty fussy finish work. It's likely that the rough stairs aren't perfect, even if you built them yourself.
All bets are off if they were built by the framing contractor. This is the interface between rough and finish work. Not only do you need to fit treads and risers nearly perfectly between and around skirtboards, but also the riser cut on the inner skirtboard is a compound angle that forms a miter joint with the riser. And, you're doing all of this with good and expensive materials. It's also nice material to work with, relatively stable, straight, and flat.
Another common choice for work that's to be painted is poplar. Where I live, the cost of the two is comparable, so I give the painter a break. The treads are oak, with returns on one end. I can buy returned treads, but they're pricey enough that I find it profitable to make my own see "Making Returned Treads," pp. If the stairs are to be carpeted, and the owner requests it, I can make the treads of a less expensive material like poplar.
I've even seen medium-density I Start with Cleanup You've come back to the house where you built the rough stairs months ago. The hardwood floors are probably down, and the drywall is up. Odds are, there is drywall dust in all the nooks and crannies of the stair and maybe even some scraps jammed in here and there. So,job one is cleanup.
So much for the romantic job of master stairbuilder. Drywall dust is insidious stuff-it gets in your tools, your hair, the back of your throat where it wreaks who knows what sort of medical havoc. It interferes with glue joints, and big chunks prevent you from properly seating finish stair parts. Get rid of it. I Finish treads and risers transform a rough stair.
The plywood subtreads and subrisers got the house through construction; now it's time to dress the stair with finish-grade material. Make a similar set of lines at the top of the stair. I just don't like how dusty and heavy MDF is to work with. Fitting the Skirtboards Get started by figuring out how high the wallside skirtboard will go. It's important to do this so that you can draw out the end cuts of the skirtboard in place.
Lay a level along the steps and in contact with the wall, and trace a pencil line along its top. That's a benchmark you can easily re-create anywhere along the stairs. You have to make sure to keep the bottom of the From these lines, you can use a protractor and a level to find the angle of the skirtboard's plumb and level cuts.
Moving the plumb cut at the bottom of the skirt board forward makes it shorter. I usually make it the same height as the base molding that will be used on the landing.
Penciling the top and bottom plumb cuts on the wall also provides two points to measure from to determine the overall length of the skirtboard. I usually cut the skirtboard with a circular saw, but a big miter saw will skirtboard no higher than the intersection of the risers with the backs of the treads. Measure do it, too. Attaching the skirtboard Measuring the distance between this point and the benchmark line gives you a dimension Once you're happy with the skirtboard's fit top and bottom, it's time to nail it home.
It's tempting to simply nail the skirtboard directly you can mark up from the benchmark farther over the drywall and call it good, but this may down. Connecting these dots with a pencil line complicate installing the treads and risers.
Mark the skirtboard's approximate width 2 I on the wall, measured from a point that's sure to be covered by the finish treads and risers. The top of the skirtboard is marked out in a similar manner. Shimming the skirtboard plumb will make it easier to install the treads and risers.
Shims back up the skirtboard as well, taking out any flex that would allow the joints to open up. Use a utility knife to score the shims along the skirtboard, and break them off flush. Before the skirt, install the newel.
Because the inside skirt board gets shimmed out, screwing the landing newel directly to the framing and fitting the skirtboard to it instead makes for a stouter connection.
This makes for a plumb will pay dividends later. In the hope of keeping the skirtboard from moving later on, stronger attachment, and fitting the skirtboard to the newel isn't difficult. You might have to I shim and nail it to every stud using 2Yz-in. Fitting the inside skirtboard Laying a straightedge such as a level along the stair provides a base for measuring the The inside skirtboard has to work with a landing newel. Rather than install the newel on top of the skirtboard that will have been shimmed to be plumb, it's better to install the newel angle at the top of the skirt board.
Marking the ceiling where the line of the stair intersects it provides a starting point for measuring the skirtboard. I don't try to measure it perfectlythat rarely works as well as hoped. Instead, I'm When fitting the newel on a stair like this, cut it just short enough so that the finish tread below slides under with a firm push. This step saves the time-consuming work of notching a tread.
I screw a couple of cleats to the wall to hold the skirtboard in place temporarily. I then mark the lower end for cutting, leaving a little extra stock for fine-tuning the fit. Fitting the inner skirtboard 1 I Using a level as a platform, measure the angle of the top 3I Screw a temporary cleat to the wall to hold the skirtboard for 5I After the initial cut, eyeball the gap at its largest and hold the cut where the skirtboard intersects the fitting.
The skirtboard actually rests pencil point at about the same distance ceiling. The trim board makes a better joint with the skirt than would the on a block of scrap hidden behind the big triangle, which pivots out of from the newel to scribe for a perfect fit.
Lap the newel, then 2 I 4I angle to the skirt board stock. Flipped scribe the skirtboard to the newel from end for end, it easily does the entire board's width. It may take several fittings to get a good mate proving the value of the pivoting cleat. Plane with the grain. A sharp 6 I block plane quickly takes the end of the skirtboard down to the scribe line and leaves a nice, straight mating surface.
Notching the Inner Skirtboard With the skirtboard fit to the newel and the ceiling, now comes the part that's most likely to scare the uninitiated-laying out and notching the inner skirtboard with its compoundangle miter cut. Good news: This is easy. Using a flat piece of scrap that's the same thickness as the riser scrap skirtboard works well and at least a couple of inches taller than the riser height, J make a version of what's known to siding carpenters as a "preacher".
A preacher is essentially a board with a notch cut from it so that it fits around the material you're installing. With the stock held in place, the preacher straddles it, bearing against the surface you're fitting to and providing a guide for striking a line.
A short level keeps the preacher plumb. Because the preacher is the same thickness as the riser stock, its face represents the point of the miter on the skirtboard. To make accurate marks, the preacher must be pushed tight to the sub riser. Marking for risers and treads With the preacher's notch straddling the skirtboard and its back held to the subriser, hold the preacher plumb. Then mark the face of the skirtboard using the face of the preacher as a gUide.
Because the preacher is the same Making a Preacher A "preacher" is a site-built marking jig. I make a preacher from scrap lX12 using a miter saw to create good, straight, and square cuts for the sides of the notch, which should be a little wider than the stock it's to straddle. After cutting the sides straight and square with the most precise tool in my arsenal, I chop the scrap from the notch with a chisel and hammer. Because the drywall runs over the rough stringer, and the skirt board runs atop the drywall, there's a drywall-wide gap between the rough stair and the inner skirtboard.
The preacher bridges that handily when marking the risers, but marking the tread cuts is a little tougher. You could make a larger preacher for that purpose, but that would be an awkward tool. And, the longer the notch in the preacher, the more likely it is that the material to the sides of the notch won't stay in place.
That wouldn't make for accurate layout. Instead, I just lay the preacher flat on the subtread and mark its top on the skirtboard as a reference line. When J take the skirtboard down for cutting, I align the preacher on these reference lines and mark along its bottom for Mark a reference line for the treads along the top of the preacher.
There's a gap between the stringer and the skirt board because the drywall runs between them below. This gap prevents directly tracing the subtread to the skirtboard.
Mark the cut lines for the treads. After taking down the skirtboard, place the preacher along the tread reference line and mark its other side, which is level with the subtread, for the tread cut line. Scribble out the initial mark to avoid mistakenly cutting to it. The riser cuts are compound angles. Cut the treads from the stair side ofthe skirtboard. Ease the blade in, starting from the back of the tread, and watch so it doesn't overcut. Note that the reference lines are scribbled out to avoid confusion.
The tread cut is not as critical as the riser cut. The angle of these cuts should be consistent, so it's a matter of matching the Cutting the skirtboard saw's miter angle to the riser layouts, locking it in place, and making the cuts.
By the way, cuts My favorite tool for cutting skirtboards is a sliding compound-miter saw, but it's got to be with a sliding miter saw should never be made by pulling the saw toward you. Clamp the stock to the table for the miter is moving. In that circumstance, the blade can cuts.
Any movement of the stock up off the saw's table will alter the cut. Always pull the saw head out, align the cut, lower the blade into it, and push. Before I invested in a large compound miter saw, I mitered a lot of skirtboards using a circular saw and a shooting board see pp. If you go that route, you'll need both left- and right-blade circular saws. Right-blade saws will miter right-hand skirtboards but not left-hand ones.
The opposite is true of left-blade saws. It's a bit of a mind bender, and at the time I bought my second circular saw, I had a job convincing my wife that it was need and not my burgeoning tool addiction that led me to buy a second saw.
The need had been made clear to me, however, as I'd just had to miter Cedar shims and a level keep the skirtboard plumb. It's not uncommon for the notches to curl a bit after they're cut.
Straighten them out and nail each corner fast through the shims into the stringer. Don't worry about completing the cuts on the skirtboard with the miter saw. I finish with Because the skirtboard is the transition to a handsaw and use a chisel to clean up. That's even the case when I built the wall below, as it's not immune to the ravages of lumber shrinkage and I'm not immune to doing imperfect work.
Throw a drywall crew into the mix, and pretty much anything is possible. Place the skirtboard back on its temporary supports, double-check its fit top and bottom, and nail its bottom in place. Then nail the With a sharp paring chisel, cleaning up the cuts on the skirtboard takes only a few minutes. Nailing up the skirtboard beforehand provides a solid foundation for the chisel work. Shim behind here as needed for support using cedar shingle shims. The closer to plumb you can keep these cuts, the easier it will be to fit the risers.
You can make your own version of the Tread Template with two overlapping pieces of plywood. Hold the plywood pieces in place much like the store-bought tool, and clamp or screw them together. It's more awkward to use, but it is cheap. Let me know if you pull that off. I find that there's usually A special tool aids in fitting. The Tread Template's length is adjustable, and its ends are set to fit the skirtboards on either side. Mark one side of the 1X4 that joins the metal ends to avoid inadvertently marking the stock backwards.
Often though, something is out just a tiny bit. Finding length and cut angles with a template guarantees a good fit. Now, there are levels of imperfect. What I'm talking about here are imperfections on the order of being half a degree, or even a degree, out of plumb and level. It's not important on a practical level, but to a trim carpenter, a miter that's open by a degree is like staring into the maw of a Florida gator. It's just not something you want to see most days. It consists of a pair of in.
These fit a piece of lx4 look for one that's straight and flat that's cut an inch or two shorter than the distance between the skirtboards. Mark one end of the lx4, and always keep it on the right or the left. This avoids accidentally flipping the template over and cutting the stock backwards.
To use the Tread Template, make sure the ends of the straightedges sit on the subtread or the subtread and the tread cut on the skirtboard. Adjust and clamp the side against the outer skirtboard first, so that it can be seated firmly against that skirtboard as you're adjusting the straightedge along the inner skirt board's riser miter. The Tread Template also shines at establishing the shape of risers or treads that fit entirely between closed skirtboards or to a newel post. With the template set, carry it over to the riser stock, and mark the stock for cutting.
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