1st time building finshed stairs questions

[Larry Edgerton]

+6 on housed and wedged stairs. No fasteners involved except for a couple of screws in the back of the riser.

Big mistake #2: Do not check your total rise from the top to the floor directly below it, floors are not always level, especially basement floors. Instead check from the top to where the floor will land. You can use a simple water level to make a reference mark at the lower landing. Many stairs have failed inspection because of this.

With housed and wedged there is no fitting, slam the treads and risers and drive in some wedges. Next!

[Tom M King]

I always built them in place. The router template was shop made and used quite a number of times. It's adjustable for rise and run just by how you clamp the guide board to it that rides on the stringer. Make it plenty big enough to be able to clamp it to the stringer in different ways.

Route the stringers. Prefinish and install the stringers. Prefinish all the parts and assemble one piece at the time with wedges. It might seem like more work but it can be quite aggravating trying to fit all the parts between skirtboards without housed stringers. Cut one the least bit too long and it opens up the one below. With housed stringers nothing needs to fit perfectly and in fact is better if there is plenty of extra space to get all the parts in place. You don't want to have to drive anything in place except for the wedges.

For most unfinished basement stairs it doesn't matter much, but for anything you want to be well done this is the easy way. It's also a lot easier to finish all the parts laying on benches than in place even if you're going to spray them.

[Jim Dwight]

My risers are just nailed to the stringers, not sure I even used glue. My risers are painted (white) and the treads are clear finish oak. Both were finished before installation. I put on a riser, then a tread, then another riser. I think I caulked under the riser against the tread. I used construction adhesive on the treads to attach to the stringers. If the treads would move with my weight on them I drove in a trim head screw at that location to lock it down. If they were solidly in place which was true for most of them, I just let the glue setup. I did not do anything from below. Access was difficult, the bottom of the stairs is inside a closet. The top of the risers had a 1/4 x 1/4 tenon to go into a groove on the back bottom of the tread. I put construction adhesive into the groove.

[Frank Di Sessa]

How would you close the gap between drywall and the enclosed stringers? The walls don't seem to have an even distance from top to bottom of the stairs. Some of the gaps from the rough stair case are zero at the bottom up to 3/8" on the long stair run and all stair treads were cut identically to 36".

[Frank Di Sessa]

The construction adhesive will minimize squeaks. If you don't mind a few face nails in the treads you can pin them in place with an 18 ga nailer, then drive screws through the risers into the back of the treads and pocket screws into the underside. You can use pocket screws through the stringers as well. I would use PL on all those joints, but sparingly where it can ooze visibly. You will want some kind of adjustable template to get the length and angles of the treads and risers correct. This is where housed stringers have an advantage as the tread and riser lengths can be looser. You can also install the housed stringers and wedge the treads and risers in place one by one. I know you have rejected that approach but it is easier to achieve good fits. Here's a thread showing a housed winder staircase. https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....ancing-winders

I was thinking of beveling 3degrees on top of risers and the sides and the back of the treads so that glue has a place to go? I would of course not cut any bevel on the nosing portion.

[Kevin Jenness]

I was thinking of beveling 3degrees on top of risers and the sides and the back of the treads so that glue has a place to go? I would of course not cut any bevel on the nosing portion.

I guess you could do that with construction adhesive. I wouldn't bother.

As far as the walls not being straight, with housed stringers I pull them tight to the studs with screws and caulk any gaps, or use a scribe strip as I would with frameless cabinets. The treads and risers are cut to fit the housings (loosely) in whatever position the stringers land.

[Jim Dwight]

I had to cut each tread to length to minimize gaps to the skirt board because the walls where not straight. They still did not meet perfectly but a little caulk solved it.

[Frank Di Sessa]

20240125_221538.jpgProbably should have done this at the beginning of this thread. Please find some pictures of the rough stairs already in place. My winders will be wedge shaped ~9" (left side) x 24" (Right side) x36"(Long) - there are two as you can see from the photo. I checked with the Canadian Building code and they pass.

20240125_221517.jpg
20240125_221341.jpg
In the rough stairs they have some later support under the treads that run across the stair width. Not sure if I would need to do that if I am doing a closed stairs with 3/4" Baltic Birch risers and 1-1/4 cherry treads? I figure the risers and the thickness of the treads would be solid enough to hold a good sized person with no squeaks.

[Kevin Jenness]

[QUOTE=Frank Di Sessa;32I figure the risers and the thickness of the treads would be solid enough to hold a good sized person with no squeaks.[/QUOTE]

That will be fine with the treads and risers solidly connected.

[Frank Di Sessa]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Now its time to execute on this plan. Really appreciate the feedback!

[Tom M King]

I found a version of the Dancing Stairs drawing method that I have used and it worked great. It was to solve a similar problem in an old house. I have another older book with a longer version in it but can't find it right off. I have quite a library of building books but can't find what I'm looking for a lot of times. This works fine though and the stairs are surprisingly normal feeling to walk. This book was published in 1972, so hopefully there is not a copyright problem.

The old book called what this calls the "walking line" the "line of going" but the methods were the same.

Click on the pictures and you should be able to blow them up good enough to read easily.