How to Figure Stair Stringers
Figuring stair stingers seems like a difficult task, but it's not that difficult if you know the formula. Once you understand this formula, you'll be able to figure any stairway. You should begin by determining the distance between the two finished floors, not framing-to-framing or framing-to-concrete, unless the floor covering for both floors is the same thickness. Figuring stair stringers on a construction calculator makes the calculations easier to compute. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Measure the distance between the floors. This is the total "rise" of the stairs and must be from finish floor to finish floor. If you're installing 3/4-inch wood flooring on one floor and carpeting on the other, incorporate that into your measurements. If you don't, the first step will be 3/4 of an inch too high or too low compared to the others. The easiest way to accomplish this is to place a sample of the flooring on the subfloor and measure to it.
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Divide the total rise of the stairs by 7 and round the number down to the nearest whole number.
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Divide the distance between the finished floors by the total number of risers computed above. This is your riser height.
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Compute the total run of your stair stringers (horizontal distance) by multiplying the number of risers minus 1 by at least 10 inches to meet code requirements. Treads may be wider than 10 inches but cannot be less than 10 inches.
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Tips & Warnings
When cutting the stringers, cut off the thickness of one tread from the bottom or the first step will be higher than the others.
