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

[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]

@TheHemlock77 Good luck with that!!

[BlueToad2222]

I never heard anything about width. I mean I am sure its easy otherwise he'd mention it but still he should of mentioned it.

everything else was spot on

[alflud]

Awesome video. Subscribed!

[seocom]

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

[Morbius1963]

Excellent presentation. Clear and with a good tone. Having seen pts 2 and 3, I'm now confident enough to undertake a job I thought was well beyond me. (But I'll take it slowly)

[gubanpg]

Everyone in the world has done it, nothing easier than counting by 1s, lots of older guys still count in cm's I think it's easiest by mm's.

I feel sorry for the young guys starting trades, they have to learn fractions etc which is completely unnecessary.

[gubanpg]

Great video, but seriously you yanks and you imperial system?! Get with the times! You go from imperial to metric to be able to use calculator then extra steps calculating to get back to imperial to use your measuring tapes?!? Seriously that's retarded.

[makenabuilt]

@gubanpg I couldn't agree with you more. Unfortunately, nearly every single thing in the building industry would need to be changed for us to be able to convert to metric.  As ridiculous as our system is, I can't imagine that we could ever get everyone on board to make the change.

[gymjustin1]

@gubanpg haha i agree with you, metric is a lot more easy but they want to use the stupid english system, using metric system we would not need the calculator..

[Naratorator]

Thanks for clarification & making it so easy :) That was the only part of redecorating that I kept thinking -I couldn't do it myself . Now I know I can !

[90torogoz]

what dictates the degrees for bottom and top of stringer? or how did you figure that out?

[makenabuilt]

@90torogoz Watch part 2 of the series

[90torogoz]

how do you find the accurate degrees for the cut on the floor and the cut up against of floor?

[makenabuilt]

@90torogoz Watch part 2 of the series

[samhicks29]

where did you get the number 20?

[duane2072]

@samhicks29 Go back and watch the first part of the video. It is all right there in the math how he comes up with it. He even says 20 rises.

[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

[heather1120951]

i want to thank you for this video i love the idea of knowing how to make stairs and you make it loo easy ive read some books and dam if i could get it thanks looing forward to all your videos

[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

[TheKayceeLove]

Did you "copy trace" your first stinger or did you repeat the same steps for your other three risers?

[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

[donsjuand]

Good work sharing your knowledge, kudos~!

[JessicaOShea]

stairs are always calculated finish floor to finish floor, your forgetting that step.

[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.

[makerzddd]

my god just use metric!!!

[Kauwhaka]

@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).

[makerzddd]

@Kauwhaka yea go for it fella iam allways open to best way

[deezynar]

@makerzddd

I suppose a metric tape measure would be good to use for stairs. We can't use metric for everything tho, our materials are made in feet and inches. Cheers.

[makerzddd]

@deezynar thats the strange thing about uk most of us use inches for thickness of timber and screws etc when ordering materials. But we allways use metric for lengths and mainly use metric for work.... its strange but then we have both on our tapes over here so dosent really matter. its funny if you ask most old school chippies in england for a measurement they say "do you want it in english or in metric" lol

[deezynar]

@makerzddd

Hey, thanks for the information, I thought England had gone totally metric. I'm not a contractor but I'll try using my metric tape more on my around- the-house projects. Take care.

[wisdomtrek]

I LOVE YouTube! Where else could you so readily procure the info your curious about? Thank you for these staircase vid's.

[BrushCountryJamboree]

I think you made a BOO BOO on your drawing for the second set of stairs which are between the 1st landing and the 2nd landing.

According to your drawing there are 4 not 3 which will change the height from 70" to 77" for the height of the 2nd landing.

1st set of steps 5 risers

2nd set of step 4 risers

3rd set of steps 10 risers 5 + 4 + 10 = 19 risers

[davem12758]

VERY GOOD YOUNG MAN,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,you are helping people out along the way

[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

[Aryannagisselle]

I thought that the best method was 7/11

[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

[stigmatic79]

I hate math :( but i want to build a staircase going into my crawl space...

[GeorgeAlpha79]

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

[Jaker1786]

i dont get the 20 number part where did it come from? Like how do you know to divided by 20

[1lsapp]

How did you know to divide 20 into 139.875 ,instead of 7.. I think I know why but curious?

These are Excellent videos! Thanks

[TheKog2010]

excellent video very easy 2 understand, vey nicely done

[fralin1966]

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

[fralin1966]

the other issue i have is figuring the run the landing has a two by four wall you state the stair shouldnt stick out past it,from the edge of that 2 x4 behind the sheetrock i have 30 and 1/2 inches to the face of the upper landing so I am measuring what for a run

[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.

[flippjaro]

@makenabuilt

[flippjaro]

@makenabuilt to complex for people to understand must use simple terms in place of rise run

[fralin1966]

can you help me out here I have a rise of 24.75 inches exactly this is the height of my landing where it turns to go to the top level, this is an old house what is my rise height 6 1/8 going with 4 stairs ?

[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.

[ZZZRSC]

Excellent

[silverfox939]

Excellent video used it for four flights of stairs down to the lake but I have a set that the stringer length is 15 feet 3 1/2 inches and it is wobbly.Can u explain how to remove wobbl, can this be done by adding a 2x6 the full lengh of each stringer rather than inserting posts as it is rocky terrain and difficult to build bases?

[cfgman1]

Very clear and informative videos unlike many others keep up the good work !

[SuperMichaelblake]

also check out speedyvalve on you tube its a great product to save time and money

[SuperMichaelblake]

I have a question. I have a steep staire case to build . The total rise is 85 inches and the total run is 63 inches. I want to knotch out the stringer and put the treads on top staggered because the run is around 7 inches? too short but if I stagger them I could do the 10 inch on the big side. The rise would be around 9 1/2. So if I used a 2 x12 I would only have 2 1/2 inch on the stringer kleft not?? enough for support?? The staircase is only 26 inches wide. How would I strenthen this up?

[ponchoamanda]

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

[anthonydeleeuw]

Do you have a video of how to use your square, with the clamps on the square, to show how to draw our your rise/run out? I have a 12 in triangle square with the hip, the degrees and so on, and I also have the basic 2 foot square with the clamps. How do I get started? I use to know, very long time ago. Where is your part 2 and part 3 videos?

[anthonydeleeuw]

Do you have a video of how to use your square, with the clamps on the square, to show how to draw our your rise/run out? I have a 12 in triangle square with the hip, the degrees and so on, and I also have the basic 2 foot square with the clamps. How do I get started? I use to know, very long time ago

[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.

[tomt714]

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

[bruno2260]

What about the run on the on the other two sets? You can't just figure for one and think it'll work on the others, otherwise they will fall through or be into the other stairs. Or are you going to have a different run on each set? I'm confused.

[makenabuilt]

@bruno2260 The run would be the same for the entire set of stairs. In this case, there are 3 smaller sets that make up the overall set of stairs. To make everything work properly you might need to adjust the sizes of the landing and/ or adjust the point that the stairs meet with the upper floor. This needs to be taken into consideration in the planning stage so that you know how to build your landing and where to have your upper floor end so that it all works out properly.

[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.

[Yourthefishead321]

5:57

LOL

[carpentrymm]

very good explanation

[fellowboyable]

what if you only had 48 inches from the corner of your hall not the 53 inches you do have? how long would your runs be ?

[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.

[PaleoThomist]

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

[bitburgerboy]

Thanks ...nice job!

[jenitrick]

Great instructional video. I think you should build a portfolio of these different framing tips and sell them to the DIY network or something like that. Even though you make it look so easy to do, you still need certain skills that allow you to do a good job, which most DIY ers don't have, so that comment about leaking the secret to building stairs, I think you should shuv it up your pie hole. You can find tons of info on building stairs if you think this vid is giving it away, go back to school

[kekirsch]

This is a great series. Finally something simple with no sales pitch. Thanks.

[decebal106]

U do not use a more simple way Like mm,cm etc everything is aproximate!

[decebal106]

Thanks man!it was very usefull,but I can not understand why

[billythebrainsoftain]

irishslave51, what about the people that can't afford to pay a jackhole like you to rip 'em off but thier old deck was not to code and falling apart and rotting so they try to DIY a 9 foot tall staircase but don't know how and end up killing themselves or someone else like a child because this wonderful information wasn't there to learn from? You, sir, are an idiot! Thanks Makenabuilt!!!

[donrig13]

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

[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.

[irishslave51]

Thanks for giving away trade secrets jackass. It is tough enough to make a living and now asshats like you put our business on the street

[dlove5000]

@irishslave51 I didn't know Grade 9 math was a trade secret. Damn you, Mr. Hook, how did you know I was gonna to need this!

[littletacobandit]

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

[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.

[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

[tiroloco42]

that's very cool man great job thanks.

[kasper773]

why is it that when i divided 139.875 by 7 it gave me 19.98....would'nt i just use that number to be more accurate i mean i would have got a rise of 71/4 cause i divide my 139.875 by 19 which gives me 7.36

[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".

[wolfpaw69]

Great job. You taught this very well.

[elliscraft]

I should have watched this video yesterday, because today was trying to figure it out as I go.

[duupoonss]

thanks for the math part !!