Stair layout

[Tommy Curtiss]

In our new house that I am building,I had a buddy layout and build the stairs up to the second floor,,the turned out to have a 6.75'' tread,,,I have almost fallen down the things twice,,and my dog has taken two falles that I know of,,,my wife hates them so they have to go!!!!(yes,she wins again!!)

I didn't want to tell my friend that he would have to tear them out and do them over(he was working for free after all,and I don't want to hurt his feelings) so now I have the task.

I understand that if the stairs aren't comfortable(rise and run) to the step,then the second floor is dangerous to get to,,and the whole house suffers.

so now the questions,
#1 is there a EASY way to layout stairs
#2 what is the comfortable rise and run
#3 what should I use for the tread,,(they will be carpeted)
I did save 3-2 x 12s for the reconstruction

They start out with 2 steps up to a 3 x 3 landing then turn up to the right,I dont have the measurments of the rise but I am not for sure what to measure,,not to sound dumb or anything,,but I just wanted the right way to do this because in my opinon the stairs make the house

Thank You for your time and your advise,,,,Tommy

[Quinn McCarthy]

Tommy

Check this out. http://www.blocklayer.com/stairs/StairsEng.aspx

Your staircase does not pass the building code in most areas. The rise+run of one stair should be close to 17" for a comfortable staircase.

[Kenneth Hertzog]

Tommy

I had a carpenter explain stairs to me. He said for every 8 inches of rise it should go back at least 11 inches. this has always worked for me I have followed the 8 inches of rise and gone back further than 11 inches and to make the distance and it still works fine.

ken
slippery rock, pa

[Lee Schierer]

As mentioned above, the rise + run should equal 17; however, wider treads are better than narrow ones. Riser height should be between 6.5 and 7.5. Any more height is uncomfortable and any less will be fustrating to those using them. Carpeting will make a narrow tread even worse as it take away from the safe footing area. I've been in a house wehre they cheated on the staircase and know that several people have fallen going down the stairs. Going up is easy as most peole will use the ball of their foot and the heel doesn't need to touch. Going down, most people will make contact with the ball of their foot, but the heel has to clear the step above so a narrow tread will put their weight right on the edge of the step, which with carpeting is an accident waiting to happen.

Measure your foot. If you can't put the whole foot on the tread it is too narrow. I would suggest a 10" tread with a 7" rise. If you have bigger feet then make a larger tread.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Use a framing square.

[Jesse Messick]

I have built stairs with that rise that I thought were very comfortable. It sounds like you and your wife have been used to higher riser heights, and this new stair just feels "different."

Most stairbuilders go for 7" rise, 11" tread, which really comes to a 10" tread when you discount the overhangs, which the code does anyway.

If the stair is built well I would live with it for awhile until you get the rythm down.
But, if you can't stand it, tear it all out and redo it. Most carpeted stairs are built with 3/4 ply (unless you are on the west coast and can get 1" ply easy) with no overhang.
Stair building is simple in theory-somewhat hard in reality. Essentially, you are taking a vertical space and dividing it into equal parts, which are your riser heights. You are also moving horizontally at the same time, which are your tread lengths.

You mentioned you have a landing. The landing must meet code minimums, which is 36" finished (obviously it has to be bigger to allow for drywall, etc).This means you will be left with a finite distance from the face of your landing to the top of the stair. Divide this number (which hopefully your buddy did correctly)and this will establish your tread length.

Unless you can move the landing, you will be bound by that limitation.
By the same token, if you want to make the riser height taller, you will have to see if you can remove a tread somewhere, and then reconfigure your riser heights. As long as you're not taller than 8" riser, then this will work for you.
My advice-get some stair books. Without a good understanding of how all the parts relate, you will be going at it the hard way.

[Peter Mc Mahon]

Jesse, I think his tread is 6 3/4".

[Roger Everett]

Tommy:
Check out the site Quinn gave you also you might chech out www.stairways.org for some code issues. Also if you go to www.coffman.com (http://www.coffman.com) and find a local dealer you can buy Coffmans book on stairs for about $10, an excellent book. The IRC calls for a max. rise at 7 3/4" ea. plus min. tread of 10". Now local codes can vary some, for instance, in Fl. 2 rise and 1 run must equal betweem 24-25", and call for min. tread of 9".
Aside from me, there are 2-3 other stair builders on this forum, that I know of, and any of us would be glad, I'm sure, to help walk you through it, if you can give the right measurement info. Getting your stairs rightous is a major code and liability issue. and I would recommend you might get a book and make sure they are right. I find all the time , that even expierenced framers screw up the layout on the rough-in a lot, as I must fix the screw-ups before putting on the treads and stuff on.
Roger

[Richard Wolf]

In the Northeast, we build stairs off site and bring them to the house finished. I realize this is different than most places but the math is the same.
With high prices per sq. ft., even in high prices custom homes, most stairs are built to the absolute max, which in NY is, 8" rise and 9" run. This means a total tread depth of 10 1/4" with a 1 1/4" overhang. If you want comfort, go to the next size tread width which is 11 1/4" giving you a 10 run per tread. These are standard size treads and most stair manufactures use thes two sizes and unless something is really custom they do not rip them down to any other size.
For the rise, measure the total rise from finished floor to finished floor. Divided this number by total number of risers, which may be a guess. About 13 to 14 per story. Example; 112" divided by 14 equals 8" rise. Do not exceed the 8", add another riser.
Do not assume your landing platforms are the right height, you may have to raise or lower them.
If you are looking to save money on the stair treads, they sell syp treads, I even think the Blogs sell them.
If you would like help with your staircase measurements, pm me an I will run it thru my layout program and fax or send you the layout drawings to you.

Richard

[Dave Falkenstein]

Here's another resource:

http://www.woodcraft.com/articles.aspx?articleid=311

[Jim O'Dell]

Tommy, if nothing else, find some stairs you know are already comfortable for both of you and measure them. You'll still need to account for the hidden part to figure the rough dimensions, but you'll know the finished size that you want. Jim.

[Jim Andrew]

Why don't you post the total rise, and the total run of your stair and let
the members of the creek figure out if it will work. Jim