Hi:
I am building a set of stairs from yellow cedar 12 by 3 inch full dimension material. The run is 150 inches and ends at a wall. In the plan there is a 37.5 inch landing against the wall and then 12 more treads to second level, 13 treads in total. The height from finished floor to finished floor is 109.5 inches. Overhead there is a finished ceiling which ends 44.5 inches from the wall, which complicates the headroom. In our building code the the maximum rise is 7.78 inches and minimum tread is 9.25 inches, headroom mimimum is 6’5″. The stair opening is 37.5 and the landing by code must be as wide and as long as the width of stairs.
I was planning on using mortise and tenon to attach treads to stringers and leaving the risers open. . Can you help me with the layout? And any other tips. thanks chewey
Edited 7/23/2007 12:20 pm ET by chewey
Replies
Hi Chewey.
I'm affraid you might have stumped us with this one. Ususally, we look to the guys over at Fine Homebuilding to answer questions about building stairs. They've published a few dozen articles and tips on stairmaking. In fact, after reading this article "Building Finish Stairs" I hired former FHB editor Andy Engel (the author) to do all the math and planning when I replaced a set of stairs in my house.
Regarding the M&T joinery, you might be interested in the router jig Andy developed for that article. I suspect it would help you cut all the mortises on your stringers.
If you don't feel like paying more money to access FHB.com (since you already subscribed to our site), you might first try seeking advice in Fine Homebuilding's free Breaktime forum.
Good luck with your project,
Matt Berger
Fine Woodworking
Thanks I will check in with fine homebuilding and Andy. chewey
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