Not good at figureing stair stringers

[Jay Jolliffe]

I hate doing stairs & thankfully I don't have to do them too often. Last time I did some in my house was about 11 yrs ago. I'm trying to figure how to make some into a cellar that is only 5' deep & can only have a run of 3-4'. Any help on this would be appreciated.

[Robert Parent]

Hi,

Will this help?

http://www.ez-stairs.com/widgets/stair_calculator/index.html

Robert

[Phillip Mitchell]

Jay,

I don't know if I'd want to go any narrower than 10" for the depth of the tread. Assuming you had 5 treads (plus the top step = finished floor on main floor and space to step into the bottom / finished floor in cellar ) that would put your run at 50". A rise of 5' (60") would require risers to be about 14" tall...which is quite a bit taller than is comfortable or safe in my opinion. I consider 7.5" riser height at each step to be "comfortable".

I don't know the details, obviously, but have you considered building an angled ladder or installing a fold-up (down in this case) attic stair system? Depending on what is really necessary, that may be better overall than 14-15" risers!

[Tom Ewell]

Sounds like you need to get into an alternating stair tread configuration.
Basically it's a ladder with wide treads staggered up the 'carriages'.

Apparently their called Lapeyre stairs.

I've never built or used this configuration but they can go fairly steep and still be reasonably useful.

I imagine there'd be a way to do woodform types.
Would be an interesting project.

344994

[Eric Schmid]

I would do what Phillip suggests and make a ladder with deep rungs. I did one into a storage loft recently that flows really well. I think the treads were 6", nose to nose.

Dado the stringers at the stair angle and set the treads into the dados. There are online calculators which will give you the stair angle and stringer length.

At 5' rise and 4' of run, you're going to have a glorified ladder at best. Making it more like a ladder will give you the pause that steep of an incline deserves.

[Walter Plummer]

I think what you want is a ship's ladder. https://www.archtoolbox.com/materials-systems/vertical-circulation/shipladders.html

[Justin Ludwig]

With a 5' rise, 4' run:

Stringer length = 5' 11-1/16"
Angle of Incline = 47.62*
Riser Height = 7 1/2"
Tread Width = 10"
Number of risers = 8
Number of treads = 7