How wide do the stringers have to be, when building a staircase?

Question

We are going to make our staircase and want to know if we can use 9 inch stringers. Can anyone help please?

Answer 1

the best thing u can do is contact city hall.they will be able to tell u what the minimum and the maximum depth of ur treads should be.
where i live it is no less than 9 1/4 inches in depth,and no taller than 8 1/4 inches from top of tread to top of tread.
it is hard to tell u on here how to make the cuts in order to make ur stringers.
e-mail me and i will help u out as much as possible.

Answer 2

I'm considering taking our spiraling staircase out. Why? 1. The steps are not equal and you can miss one very easy. 2. There is no handhold on one side except for the post. Trip and fall outward just a little bit and you have nothing to grab hold of. 3. It causes the rooms below it to be cold winter and summer. 10 or more degrees difference. Heat rises so you can't heat those rooms without the upstairs becoming too hot. Cold air drops so it becomes a meat locker in the summer. Adjust the thermostat for the basement and you roast upstairs. 4. Ever walk into a corner of a step while walking near it and you will take it out. 5. Carrying things up or down is very hard because you are always turning. Make sure you have another door that large furniture can go in/out or what you have down there will stay there. Hope that helps......

Answer 3

Stair stringers are ALWAYS cut from 2" X 12" stock. 2" X 10" (1 1/2" X 9 1/4") is NOT adequate for stair stringers, you will remove to much material. Stairs are between 7" and 7 1/2" rise, and 9 1/4" to 11 1/4 tread. An average Carpenter has trouble building stairs, for a DIY'er it is almost impossible.

Answer 4

Building stairs is a job that experienced carpenters know requires accurate measurements and diligent work habits. I'll attempt to guide you through the steps, pun intended, of staircase construction in a 'dwelling unit'.
Knowledge of how to build stairs is very important not only in their being useful and looking good, but also in preventing accidents. Besides needing to be sturdy and wide enough, stairs need to be consistent. Each step must be exactly the same size as every other step.
Getting Oriented
The first thing to do is to measure the height where your stairs will go. This is your most important measurement. It is called the total rise. Every other measurement depends on it. The total rise is the vertical distance between the surface of the higher floor and the surface of
the ground, or the lower
floor that the last step will be on.
The total run is the horizontal distance between the edge of the upper floor and the end of the bottom step.
Each step has two basic measurements. The horizontal or flat part of the step is called the run or tread. The verticle height difference between two steps is called the rise or riser. The part of the step that sticks out past the riser is called the nosing. The dimension of each step depends on a number of factors. Your stairs can be steep or gradual. The rise of each step can vary as well as its run.
Relationship Between Rise and Run
To prevent the steps from being too steep or too gradual, there is a relationship or proportion between the rise and the run . The rise must have a maximum of 200 mm (7 7/8") and a minimum of 125 mm (5"); the run has a maximum of 355 mm (14") and minimum of 210 mm (8 5/16"); the tread depth has a maximum of 355 mm (14") and minimum of 235 mm (9 1/4"). The tread depth is the run including the nosing. The nosing cannot be more than 25 mm (1"). You should check the building code of your own region before building or renovating anything structural for your home.
An old adage says that for older people the ideal rise is 6" with a run of 12". An intermediate rise is 7" and the run
is 11". The steepest should be no more than a rise of 7 7/8" and a run of 10" . Notice that, in each case, the run plus the rise equals 18". This is the simplest way of determining rise and run but the size of each step is totally up to you as long as they are within Building Code ranges. The ideal run and rise for a dwelling based on a 92 1/4" stud, 3-1 1/2" plates, 2x10 floor joists and 5/8" subfloor is 14 risers of 7 5/8" and 13 treads of 10 1/2" with a 1" nosing.
The preferred angle of stairs is around 30 – 35 degrees. There are three generally accepted rules for calculating the ideal rise to run ratio:
1. The sum of two risers and one tread is 24" to 25"
2. The sum of one riser and one tread should be 17" to 18"
3. The height of the riser times the width of the tread should be between 70" and 75".
An important thing to remember when building stairs is that there is one less tread than there are rises.
Calculating the Exact Rise
To keep each rise the same size, you'll need to make some calculations. Follow these steps:
1. Measure the total rise (distance from the surface of the upper floor to the surface of the lower floor). If your measurement is in feet and inches then convert it into inches only. Example: 8'-10 3/4" is 8 x 12 + 10 3/4 = 106 3/4 or 106.75
2. Decide on the size of the riser you want for your stairs, say 7 1/2 inches.
3. Divide the total rise (measurement from 1 above) by the size of the riser you decided on: 106.75 / 7.5 = 14.23.
4. The result of the calculation will probably not be a whole number (one without a fraction). There will most likely be a remainder or fraction. Choose the nearest whole number to the answer of your calculation, i.e. 14. This is the number of rises in your set of stairs. To calculate the exact rise, divide your total rise by the number of risers, i.e. 106.75 / 14 = 7.625 or 7 5/8".
5. As previously mentioned, there is one less tread than riser, so in our example of 14 rises there would be 13 treads.

Enough Room?
It's a good idea before you start building the staircase to make sure the planned staircase can fit within the space that you have. Calculate the total run of the staircase by multiplying the length of the run of each stair by one less than the number of rises you calculated in step #4. I like a run of 10" to 10 1/2" for a rise of 7 5/8". At a run of 10.5" for 13 treads, the arithmetic is: 10.5" x 13 = 136.5" for the total run. Then measure the physical space to make sure there is enough room. Hang a plumb bob from the edge of the upper floor, where the stairs are going to be attached. Measure from the plumb bob to where the bottom of the stairs will be. Make sure there's plenty of room so the stairs don't run into a wall or other obstruction.
Allow at least 36" between the end of the bottom step and a wall, if inside a house. If your measurement is too tight,
try a run of less than 10.5" down to 10". Our total run in this case would be 10" x 13 = 130". We just saved 6.5". These calculations show the versatility in choosing different runs and rises. If a room is still limited try taking off a riser, thus eliminating a step. Remember, though that you must stay within the maximum and minimum parameters for rise and run. Maybe move the obstruction or move the stair opening back in the upper floor if you have reached your maximum rise and minimum run. Installing a landing will change directions of your stairs, which can give you more room in many cases.
Watch the headroom also. If the stairs are in an opening cut out of a floor area, headroom is a factor. The stair opening must be long enough to allow adequate headroom when coming down the stairs. The minimum headroom under a beam or joist is 1.95 m.(76 7/8"). Now that we have determined our rise and run and checked for adequate headroom, we can cut the stringers.
Width of the Stairs
Nail the stringers in place, securely to the top floor trim joist and to the bottom floor, or to the side walls. Next is installing the steps or treads. In our example we chose 1"
plywood for the treads. Since our stairs are inside a house and will be carpeted, we will choose a nosing of 1" giving us a tread width of 11 1/2". Rip the 1" plywood 11 1/2" wide and the length to match the width between the walls less 3/4" on each side for the drywall to slip down. The width of the stair case is important as well. The minimum width is 860 mm.(33 7/8"). I prefer a width of 36" if appliances or furniture have to be moved up or down them. If your stairway is wider than 36" put in extra stringers to support the longer treads.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

I got lost after reading the second Answer. Sorry. I did have an answer....

Answer 7

Six ( 6 ) inches is the required by law.

Answer 8

nope, use 2x12's

Answer 9

YOU PROBABLY CAN, BUT UN PLEASANT CLIMBIMNG FOR LIFE!