how to measure stairs

Determine the overall height of the stairs. A bullnose stair is often found at the bottom of a staircase. The tread of a stair is the horizontal part of the stair on which you step. Please help us continue to provide you with our trusted how-to guides and videos for free by whitelisting wikiHow on your ad blocker. Subtract 6-7 feet from the total rise to account for headroom, then divide that number by 6 or 7 inches to get the total number of stairs you’ll need to build. As with most aspects of construction, it involves taking direct measurements and manipulating those measurements with math to obtain a goal. You'll also want to determine where the stairs have to be placed, then measure out a depth for each stair such that a person can safely walk up and down the flight without falling. Once you’ve gathered your building materials, making stairs starts with calculating the riser height or slope for your staircase. How many steps would I have on a nine foot staircase? I have a thirteen foot floor, how many steps is that? If you’re building a set of stairs, you’ll need to measure the rise and the number of steps. This helped a lot. You’ll need at least three critical measurements: the width and length of the rough opening, and the ceiling height. If you really can’t stand to see another ad again, then please consider supporting our work with a contribution to wikiHow. 3 Check the width of the stairs with the tape measure. To measure stair stringers, start by dividing the height by the approximate rise to determine the total number of steps, and then take the difference to find the exact rise of each step. Stand with both feet lined up just behind the masking tape. A 57 inch (140 cm) deck divided by a 7 inch (18 cm) rise will give you 8.14, which means you’ll be measuring for 8 steps. Stretch your tape measure from the bottom of the board to the ground. For example, mark off 10, 20, or 30 feet. wikiHow's Content Management Team carefully monitors the work from our editorial staff to ensure that each article is backed by trusted research and meets our high quality standards. References. The ceiling height is a very important measure. This article was co-authored by our trained team of editors and researchers who validated it for accuracy and comprehensiveness. 2. Then, find the square root of 149, which is 12.206, meaning the length of each stringer will be 12.2 inches. Stair stringers are most often cut from a single 2x12 stock board. A layout on stringer would have 16 risers, so don't forget on your bottom step to subtract the tread thickness (if using 2x12, you would subtract 1 1/2" from first riser, making it 5 1/2" instead of 7"). Building stairs for your deck is often considered “the most difficult part of” the construction project. Easy to use free stair calculator by EZ Stairs. https://www.wikihow.com/Measure-Stairs-and-a-Landing-for-Carpet Measure the riser The riser, or fall, of the step refers to … Measure the height, or "rise," of the space you want to make stairs. 18 August 2020. What is the minimum length for stair tread? A total of 8 steps multiplied by 10 (the width of each step in inches) gives you an overall run of 80 inches (200 cm). Measure from the very bottom of the stairs to the top of the space where the stairs will be, which is the rise. This article has been viewed 614,682 times. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/6\/65\/Measure-Stair-Stringers-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Measure-Stair-Stringers-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/6\/65\/Measure-Stair-Stringers-Step-1.jpg\/aid9657256-v4-728px-Measure-Stair-Stringers-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":"728","bigHeight":"546","licensing":"