Coming from a long line of (Seattle) firefighters, as I do (many of whom work on the off-shift to stack a little cash on the side), it was no small topic of discussion when the installation of stairs came up at home. Usually during a coffee hour after a hard drill (or a working house fire) someone would say “Hey Cap! Thinking about new stairs, how should I build them?”
Well, then it began. Because Pappy was also called The Encyclopedia by most of Bravo platoon back in the day. Because of his encyclopedic knowledge of so many things. (He would have made a better writer than me on the strength of depth-of-knowledge alone.)
I won’t get all the points, but a typical discourse on stairs would begin like this.
“What kind of stairs are you talking, Joe? (for that was who asked)
Do you want “easy-walking stairs” or do you have to shoehorn the installation into a hallway – like with a pulldown ladder into an attic?”
Then doubtless, Joe – as ran his Italian sense of inquiry – would ask for it, “Tell me what’s the difference?” Coffee hour would invariably run over a bit because stairs are complicated.
“Well, let’s start with the average human step and work in from there, then.”
I will spare you the entire history of walking and how typical stairs tended to reflect the nature of the land where structures were built. In other words, on an Med coastline, where some cities are built literally on cliff faces, the stairs would be more suitable for goats. In wide rolling English countryside, a much longer tread and a smaller rise led to more gentle climbs and descents for, among others, the debutants of long-lost eras.
The average human step is 30-32 inches. Which means the ideal “easy-walking” stair should have about that large a tread for full steps, he’d explain. But, if you don’t like always landing (or pushing off) with one foot, or the other, a half-sized easy walking tread of 15 to 16-inches would be grand.
Rise is how high up you go with each step. Relatively easy stairs go up 2-1/2 to 5-1/2 inches per step. Not much in the way of building leg muscles, but very easy to walk and not change your speed much. Ancient stone masons would be judged for their acumen by how consistent their rises were across a large number of steps.
Modern times brought measurement systems. Along with far too much government, I suppose. Which gets us to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) and they have safety standards for stairs and two of these will apply directly to today’s discussion.
First, let’s tackle the Basics.
What’s a “Stair?”
Well, technically, it’s an structure providing a climbing path according to the following ascent angles:
As is now apparent, whenever you talk about “falling down stairs” a person of high mental acuity will assume the fall angle to have been 30 to 50-degrees (plus whatever the victim’s height was, of course).
We can then divide these “regular stairs” into something more useful to a builder or architect. The green zone here is “easy walking” (though not to Pappy’s critical eyes) while the blue zone is “everyday, not surprising” country. Yellow gets sketchy and you sure don’t want grandad or gramma running up and down them. And if you build at grandpa’s house in the red sone, he’ll class you as “one of the greedy heirs” and out of the Will you come.!
Not to burden you with another Mason’s note, but the stair stringers you buy, at Lowe’s for example, involve about a 10-inch tread…
And with about a 6-1/2 inch rise and 10 inches of tread with 39 total inches will land you at? 33-degrees…so happens.
There are two ways to go – once you have the deck ready and some blocks laid around where you want the stairs to land.
You can go to Stair Calculator – Calculate stair rise and run at mycarpentry.com). Or, you can see how I work it.
Sadist, huh?
The Ure Cut-to-Fit
You buy your stair riser a little long. And then, you move it up and down on the side of your deck to where the tread part is level. Like so:
Now at the bottom (in the shade on the left, there) you measure how far down the sringer has to go in order to be at precisely the right place:
Now, we set the combination square to the depth at the yellow arrow above:
…and we measure the tread of the stringer to the deck side landing.
6-1/2 inches, by golly. So we put the combo square depth on the bottom of the stringer like so…and then cut 1-1/2 inches HIGHER because we will be using 2 by 10 treads.
Thus our “cut line” becomes the yellow line, here:
Thats a little on the “light side” for material, but we can improve on the durability by pre-drilling our tread holes. And my laying a tube of “5-Minute Epoxy” on each of the two stringers for the bottom tread.
Tread Notes
Now step over to the back of the pickup. Take a look at the 2-by 10’s we’ll be using as the treads. Pressure treated and stained before install.
Notice the “end grain” – which is about the most important part of stairs or decking. See the “cup?”
The Fine Homebuilding (dotcom) website (forum) explains: ” Wood cups in the opposite direction of the rings – so if the end of the board is smiling, the board will frown. I would recommend putting the rings’ “smile up” for the threshold so that if any cupping occurs over time, the edges stay down to the floor and the center rises.”
That said, a U-Mass webside claims “However, kiln-dried lumber is usually surfaced (imparting a true rectangular shape) after the lumber has been dried. A dry piece of lumber installed bark-side-up will cup to shed water from its surface as it gains moisture — because if the growth rings straighten out as wood dries they will curve as the wood becomes wet. So, the original moisture content of a piece of lumber when it is installed – and – the conditions to which it will be exposed after installation control a boards final shape.”
Southern pink-neck wisdom says it’s a 50-50 chance and you’re bound to get it wrong. EXCEPT that in my experience, boards I used on the previous deck (center up, e.g. smiling) warped up on the edges like crazy (treated wood) so I’m going with “frowning” treads on this one.
This gets us to the discussion of the railings, I suppose, because they are ready to go in, as well. Prepainted Again, they need to be flipped around for “closest match” and after some flipping and “end-for-ending” one pair looks great, the other not so much…
This gets me to the posts that will support the railing and they’re all stained, dried and ready for work.
These are store bought posts. You can make your own (I have many times) but remember if you think “Gee, rough Cedar would last forever…” Yeah, but you’ll want to run it through your jointer or planer to get a smooth surface if you’re going for a “look” with paint or stain and that means the steel post anchors will get sloppy and have too much play…
Speaking of Things to Take into Account
First thing: When a first step (as it will be here) is very low (less than the 6-1/2 inch rise of the other steps) then the question is “Should the railing go to the bottom stair?”
Of course the knee-jerk is “Sure, why not?” But, on closer consideration, you can mount a low stair from a wider range of approach angles and so mounting the (lower) first step on a narrow staircase (25″ wide in this case) can be easier with the railing at the second step up.
I will have to ponder this after walking the treads only a few times. Oh, and the other problem? (Glad you asked!)
I have read – and lived with – both the “rolled-over” stair tread top edge and the sharp, almost unbroken edge (if you don’t mind the use of the Machining term).
The OSHA view seems to be (though couldn’t find it specifically) is that the
“rounded nose stair is safer” because a shoe is less likely to catch a rounded edge and cause a trip.
On the other hand, out here in HinterWorld the hard reality is that if you’ve been over to a neighbors place and come home with cat/horse/dog/pig/and-or deer poop on your shoes, the unbroken edge stair tread is your pal. (So’s the hose, so’s the pressure washer, and so’s the carpet dealership that still sells carpet scraps…
People have a hard time taking in all the facets of “good deck and stair building.” Depending on how much you have done, it can come all naturally. But, if you grew up in a coop and were magna cum laude instead of making the “A-list in shop” then sometimes you need to leave real work to real people and practice a little of that “checkbook construction” skill.
As airline management taught me “We don’t have any problems more revenue won’t fix.”
Write when you get rich, and we’ll see what we can do about that that check writing skill…
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