How to Build Steps

Building steps may sound like a major project, but as long as you have basic carpentry skills such as sawing and measuring, you can do all of the necessary steps. It's still a difficult project, but the satisfaction of making your own steps more than repays the effort you'll have to put into the job.

Things You'll Need

• Stringers
• Risers
• Treads
• Measuring tape
• Wood planks
• Pencil
• Framing square
• Saw
• Glue
• Screws

Instructions

1. Research the local laws regarding the construction of steps by asking for the building codes in your local building codes office. Your steps must abide by these codes to be legal, and they give you a guideline for safety and comfort.

2. Familiarize yourself with the anatomy of stairs. The "stringers" are the sloped boards that run along each side of the steps. The stringers support both of the "treads," which are the boards you walk on, and the "risers," which are the boards your toes kick against if you step too far forward.

3. Calculate the rise by first measuring in inches how high the stairs will be from the bottom to the top. If the ground slopes, lay a board horizontally from where the top of the stairs will attach to where the bottom-most step will end and measure from the end of that board. Divide the total height by 7 inches, the typical height of a riser. Round that number to the nearest whole number to get the number of steps you'll need, and then divide your total height by the number of steps to get the rise of each step.

4. Measure the run (how long the stairway needs to extend). Multiply the number of steps you'll have by the horizontal depth of each tread, which should be at least 10 inches.

5. Mark the tread notches in the stringers with a framing square that has stair gauges or make a template by measuring the rise and run on a piece of cardboard and cutting it out. Remember to include the thickness of your wood, not just the space between the treads, in your measurement of each notch.

6. Cut the notches in the stringers, and cut your risers and treads to size if necessary.

7. Attach the stringers at the top and the bottom of the stairway. From the bottom step up, fasten the risers to the stringers with glue and screws, then fasten the treads onto the stringers and screw through the back of the risers to tighten the connection between the treads and the risers.