How to calculate, layout and build stairs- Part 1 of 3

Part 1 of a 3 part series- How to calculate the rise and run for stair stringers. www.makenabuilt.com

[@mattharris4401]

I have looked at a lot of material on framing, this guy knows what he is doing and explains it very clearly. Nice Job.

[@hphma]

I followed your instruction and completed a set of stairs in my shop. The set I constructed went up one wall to a landing then up to the attic, a total of 12 1/2 feet. With your excellent video tutorial, and a little trial and error, my first set of stairs turned out just fine. Thank you very much. John

[@jaybessette07]

Thank you for showing the stair frame build; was very informative, had been around builders for years, you made it straight forward for a beginner.

[@fatbuddycat]

I did this today and used the 2 framing square method. Thanks for your video, my employer was very impressed with my finished product.

[@peterohmart5954]

That is a detailed explanation on how to figure out the first steps of building a stair stringer!!!!

[@makenabuilt]

Glad it helpdd@

[@malpica013]

Thank you so much, I've just started working as a carpenter and your video helped me impress my employer thanks again and please keep up the great work

[@edwardpadilla7543]

I've used this video multiple times to layout stairs. It's one of the best institutional out there.

[@juliejones1526]

You've given me the details and correct steps for calculating my rise and taken the mystery out of building my stairs. YES! Do more videos!! Thank you!!

[@HomeImProveMentHow]

KZbin is recommending your video so I got it I’m staring Stoller never learned how to calculate them thanks for sharing look forward to hearing from you keep up the good work God bless Ken

[@aaronbryson6881]

This is very clear & straight-forward. Thank you for taking time to make this.

[@ChristIsRisen777]

Brother didn't miss a beat; he rocked it! Good job Tory!

[@annafowler2474]

Thank you so much. I watched parts 2 and 3 first and came back to part 1. Invaluable.

[@tacotory]

Glad the videos helped! Good luck with your project.

[@stevesnnc]

Thanks so much for these videos! I just cut 3 stringers and need another 2x12 to do a 4th. Your video was a big help. Hope to have the stairs finished the day after Christmas. Thanks again for making it easy to understand. Steve

[@oldcrow.4460]

Thank you!! I have a test on this tomorrow morning and no one online explained this better than you

[@robertsawyers6535]

Thanks alot, been having a hard time getting our landings right. Now I know. Great

[@wolfpaw69]

This is still my favorite stair construction.

[@makenabuilt]

Thank you very much! Glad it helps!

[@dermotmcerlain4629]

Great job Tory !! My math skills are very basic and you made it very easy to understand .Thanks a lot for video.

[@880life.7]

I think this video is amazing! 1. You took the time to explain everything thoroughly. 2. You actually had a new trick for me to learn. 3. On the job lesson was intense. I felt as thought I was on the job site with you. 4. I would love to see you do more videos like these. You also inspire me to make one of my own. 5. I do however think you hold your thumb dangerously close to the saw. I always keep my finger on the guard handle told start my cuts. I could never see myself doing what you did there. 7. Please on your next video tell us what part of the country you build in. 8. Again I loved, and enjoyed the video.

[@Bob-ie2rt]

Just the information and video I was looking for. It made this portion of my basement remodel very easy to understand and execute. Thanks for providing your knowledge and instruction with such clarity in both the verbal and video aspect. Take care.

[@01287msncom]

thank you for these videos you explained it wonderfully!

[@1toymaniac]

I have always been baffled by how to calculate stairs. You made it so easy to learn. Thanks so much!

[@makenabuilt]

@fellowboyable The run measurement is a code standard that cannot be changed at will. If you only had 48", the end of the stairs would probably protrude out past the wall a bit. You can build a return back to the wall in these cases so that it looks nice. It may also be possible to change you landing heights/ layout to move one of the rises to a different area of the staircase if you don't want to have it stick out past the corner.

[@waydesabina7840]

1st time viewing and I found the instructions easy to follow.

[@danlynclark]

Great job on explaining the math in this video! I am definitly subscribing to this and coming back to it when I begin building my stairs.

[@tomt714]

I watched 4 times very well put i am doing a stair job tomorrow and this really help me a lot! thanks again!

[@hphma]

I need a set of stairs in my new shop [ that I had built ] that go up to my attic. I'm a mechanic not a carpenter so i know nothing about stair building. After studying your video and making some notes, I'm ready to try. This weekend I'll either end up with a set of stairs or more firewood. :) Thanks for the well done help. John

[@rokaskuznecovas6611]

Great tutorial! Greatings from Lithuania

[@DevilsPleasure1]

Great job I dont build many stairs in my trade qhen I do it always takes me awhile to figure out u just simplified it for me thankx keep up the good work

[@donaldburton6869]

Very nice video! Finally somebody that can explain stair calculations for the average guy to understand.

[@drogel0056]

👍

[@gerson031]

Great information, well splained and easy to understand. Thank you for shering your knowlege. Take care and happy 2013!

[@mauriceescargot4948]

Great presentation. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

[@littletacobandit]

Thanks Tory, you are a cool instructor and communicate very well. Hope to see more vids from you and your framing friends

[@minstrale]

Thanks for posting. Extremely well put-together video.

[@tilrock]

Man, great set of videos! Thanks!

[@rockiemountin7535]

Thank you this is just what I needed.

[@pfsmith007]

You're a good teacher. Thanks!

[@josechavez5950]

Awesome tutorial! Thanks for simplifying this process.

[@richiieriich]

you are a gem, one in a million thanks

[@donrig13]

Very informative, i'm learning this now in school, helps to keep it fresh,,,thanks, Don.

[@Alzuhaiery]

Thank you very much, your are very clear explanation the step of stairs calculation.

[@gwizard3346]

Did a good job explaining

[@JungleHyjinx]

Thanks for posting this. . I will be going to college this September for Carpentry and it is very helpful. I subscribed.

[@worker11000]

good work my fella, thanks 4 da onfo

[@saltzmann1]

Thank you very informative.

[@wolfpaw69]

Great job. You taught this very well.

[@PaleoThomist]

Great information. Thanks for the video. Very clear and easy to understand.

[@alanbernal7066]

Great video thanks for sharing great job.

[@claragary]

Hey man, you're great. Thanks for the video. Always wanted to know how to make stairs.

[@juantheamazingcarrillo518]

good video,thank you for your time, how do I calculate for finishes from floor to my first riser

[@GlassAnvil]

Killer video, saves me alot of money making my own.

[@makenabuilt]

(Continuation) Add this amount to your overall rise measured at the beam location and use this number to do your stringer calculation. Good luck!

[@TheHemlock77]

Thank you, this helps quite a bit. Now the fun part is where I apply this to half log stringers for the cabin.

[@makenabuilt]

On a landing, the stairs can either be an extension of the landing (same level) or can be down one step, like you described at the header above. If you are concerned about the flooring length at the stairs if you make your top stair the same height as the landing, you could always build one side of the landing back relative to the other side so they matched. Bottom line is that there is a good deal of planning that goes into how you want your stairs to look before you ever start cutting.

[@fralin1966]

You have been a great help thank you I wanted to make sure before I cut this microlamb

[@alfredschober3rd205]

Very easy to understand and retain the information. Great visual made it easy to see just how it's applied in the field ... Suggest doing roof rafters on an average A frame home

[@makenabuilt]

Glad it was helpful. I will try to get a video going of hand cut rafters. Also thinking of doing a video to cover a truss over-build where two roof bodies intersect.

[@GumbootZone]

@makerzddd lol. I agree. I've put in many sets of stairs and adding /dividing all those fractions, converting them back and forth from decimals is the easiest place to make mistakes. Compare that to saying 2790mm height (109 3/4 inches) by 16 = 173.5mm . Final measurement with no cross converting necessary. You just gave me a great idea: From now on when I do site-built stairs, I'm going to do both methods to compare and see if there's any time/quality difference. (I'm always open).

[@danielmontoya652]

Calidad compa- sos bueno explicando me sirvió de gran ayuda tu explicación

[@GeorgeAlpha79]

Thank you very much!!! very easy to understand and very helpful.

[@ericgoetzmasterbuild]

thanks for this great video dude!

[@makenabuilt]

Partially correct. You just need to add the slope amount to your overall rise, not as an adjustment to your stringer like the tread thickness. You can figure this out by measuring out from the beam the amount of run that your stringer will have so that you know where it will land. Then take a level, place it on the ground directly below the beam, adjust it to level, and then measure the amount that the slope has dropped away at your stringer landing point. (Continued.)

[@makenabuilt]

@JessicaOShea You are correct, but in this case, the finish material was the same in the lower hallway, on the stairs and the upper hallway. No adjustments for flooring material needed as they are the same on all surfaces.

[@user-kw4rn1ov9x]

Thank you for the videos keep up the great work

[@Chicklife4life]

Excellent video my friend..Thank you

[@patalvarez9525]

Very useful and clear and simple explanation. 👍

[@luisleite8889]

Good job buddy u explained verry well

[@donsjuand]

Good work sharing your knowledge, kudos~!

[@ufokitchens]

Simple.After you have set out the risers & treads you mark another line inside those lines the same thickness as the risers & treads.Then you mark out the nosing on the treads which is added to the fronts x 1 inch or 25 mm.

[@makenabuilt]

This is a challenging scenario. It is always best to have the top step of the upper stringer be an extension of floor so you have good attachment. If this is not possible, you will need to frame down your header so that you have sufficient material to connect your stringer to.

[@makenabuilt]

I go over this in part two.

[@makenabuilt]

I cover that in part 2 of the series

[@101taxdeductions]

great video man!

[@smithydandy731]

Here in 2021. Thank you for this easy to follow explanation.

[@ponchoamanda]

this video was very well explained thank you so much God bless

[@SeattleFineWoodwork]

Nice video, A few things which you may wish to consider- Finish floor thickness at top and bottom needs to be addressed Tread material is 1 1/8", landings are 3/4"- adjustments need to be made. cumulative error in layout technique

[@makenabuilt]

@fralin1966 You are nearly correct. You would have 4 rises with each one having a 6 3/16" rise. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[@ufokitchens]

When you have inches, you times inches by 25.4 = metric

[@joem6045]

Thanks for the help

[@makenabuilt]

@fralin1966 If the physical scenario you are dealing with is similar to the situation in Part 3 of the series, then you would only have 3 stairs, since the 4th rise would be stepping up onto the landing. This would give you an overall run for the 3 stairs of 30 inches, which should just fit in the space you describe.

[@TheDritch]

great video!

[@Seodotcom]

This is fascinating.. I have always wondered how stairs were calculated.

[@nocryers1173]

nice video --your the best

[@cam12361]

what about head room ,i saw no calculations for that

[@mahudvillalaz9948]

Very helpful thank you

[@luvkountry]

I'm seeing four stairs on your sketch where you say three...at 6:21 of this video... Other than that your concept is very easy to understand. Thank you for this post...

[@jason3000tt]

Thanx man very informative. Learnt alot here

[@mahudvillalaz9948]

Nice

[@philreames1960]

enjoying, thanks

[@makenabuilt]

20 rises gives a rise of 6.99375" per step. Most people would struggle to cut accurately to the 1/16th of an inch, which is .0625", which is 10 times more than the difference between the 7" rise we used and the calculated rise. Much more accurate than using a 7 1/4" rise for the calculated 7.36" - a difference of .112- nearly an 1/8th of an inch. If you wanted to use 19 rises, you should cut to 7 3/8".

[@tiroloco42]

that's very cool man great job thanks.

[@fatbuddycat]

Can you do a rafter video? I look forward to learning that method as well.

[@makenabuilt]

Material difference between landing and stringer is allowed for in placement of landing and adjustment of bottom of stringer during layout on stringer. There is no error.

[@johnrocker6000]

Thanks Man for doing that on paper for us not that bad

[@LScustomfloors]

Ok, that's kind of what I thought, but I guess I was hoping for a solution that I hadn't figured. So basically If planning a stair hole opening that's 48" x 96", then rough it out at about 58" x 96". Again, thanks for the vid and your quick responses..

[@littletacobandit]

Super vid Tory. You are an excellent instructor. Drawing needed correction as there are 21 rises not 20. No biggie, thanks for this great video! tacobandit

[@bigbrandonzimmerman]

Good job.

[@anthonydeleeuw]

I like your technique of showing a few examples how to do the calculation. I remember that part in high school when I took arcitectural drafting in grade 10,11 and 12. I thought that you would round the 6.86 to a 6 or a 6.5 and then just use your first bottom step as a small rise to make the difference. I guess not. I have another problem. When you have a floor above your head, as you walk down the stairs, the clearance from the upper floor down to the step has to reach a mimimum heigth.

[@octapalos]

I need help with my stairs ... I have a total run of 100" from the second floor to the exterior wall how can I calculate with a landing ???

[@SheilaWillis71]

Good job!

[@satyenderkumar9332]

Thank you very much.

[@SeattleFineWoodwork]

Sorry to see that comment by irishslave51, I'm sure many find your videos very useful. There is a recent article on "This is carpentry" along with one I made at SeattleFineWoodwork ,relating to laying out stringers with a tape instead of sliding the framing square for cumulative error.

[@tonyp9929]

you rock!!!!