A Back Deck Story: Chapter 4 | Building Stairs
So remember, way back, in the “before times”, I promised I’d share how I made my custom stringers “next week”? Well, yeah, about that. I really wasn’t one of those people who continued to function normally when the pandemic became real. I’ve had the conscious attitude of “it is what it is and this is just life”, but my subconscious appeared to have had other plans. I don’t think anyone functioned normally, but it some appeared to stride normally forward regardless of their inward chaos. Moving forward… It’s only taken 6 months... I mean 10 months… NBD… Onto the stringers and stairs.
In the last post (here), I finished building the frame of the deck. My first “deck” ever, so hopefully no major blunders. Now, If this was a “standard” height deck, then I could just get off-the-shelf stringers (support pieces under the part of the stairs you walk on). Unfortunately, like everything in an old house, nothing is standard. So, *le sigh*, I had to build custom stairs.
Step 1: Calculate the number of steps you’ll need. The rise (height of each step) needs to be within 4 inches and 7 inches.
Step 2: Determine the step depth you’d like given the space you have for the stairs. You should have a 9 inch tread depth at the very minimum.
Step 3: Watch the video below for a detailed explanation.
It’ll be much easier to understand this process visually. The video has three parts:
Designing the stairs on paper so you can plan out the dimensions of the rise and the run.
Marking and cutting the stringers where I’ll share some useful tools to make the process go more smoothly.
Stringer installation.
I know I really over did it with the number of stringers, but I’d rather err on the side of more sturdy. The money saved in doing the work myself means I have some spending room for extra lumber.
As always, if there are any questions, feel free to ask via Instagram @onerestlessmother, the comments section of this post, or in the the YouTube video comments. Ever project is different and result in difference and have their unique challenges.
