How do stairs work

Rochester Straight Stair. University Stairs. Advantages of Straight Stairs:. Disadvantages of Straight Stairs:. L Shaped Stair. What are L shaped stairs? Quarter Turn Stair. Long L Stair. Advantages of L Shaped Stairs:. Disadvantages of L Shaped Stairs:. U Shaped Stair. What are U shaped stairs? Half Turn Stairs. U Shaped Staircase 1. U Shaped Staircase 3.

Advantages of U Shaped Stairs :. Disadvantages of U Shaped Stairs:. Winder Stair. What are winder stairs? Mammoth Lakes Winder Stairs. Delevan Winder Stairs. Advantages of Winder Stairs:. Disadvantages of Winder Stairs:. Spiral Stair.

What are spiral stairs? Spiral Stair Example 1. Spiral Stair Example 2. Spiral Stair Example 3. Spiral Stair Example 4. Spiral Stair Example 5. Advantages of Spiral Stairs:. Disadvantages of Spiral Stairs:. Curved Stair. What are curved stairs? Curved Stairs Rendering 1. These two stringers are now finished and can be nailed on top of the drywall.

If no drywall is in place, fill out the stringers to the thickness of the drywall. Always, always, nail or screw to the studs. The center stringer is now ready to be mounted to the top header and attached to the blocking at the floor. Now that your stringers are in place, it is time to double-check all of your cuts. Check the tread cuts for level and plumb. Check your measurements in every direction, left to right and front to back.

Check the top and bottom riser—does it allow for the finish tread height? Nail the treads and risers to the stringers. Install by nailing through the back of the risers and into the treads, always using cement-coated fasteners.

Your stair is now complete except for the wall or handrail. Because our example stair is located between two walls, we will need to put a wall-mounted handrail in place to meet code compliance. Mount the handrail at 34 inches above the leading edge of the tread.

It should be inches in length and contain a wall rail bracket screwed into a stud or backing, every 4 feet. In the case of an open rail section to one side of the stair, it is easiest to mount the balusters on an angle cap. Stair building is an art. Do not expect to be able to learn it all in just one article. Many experienced carpenters have difficulties building stairs.

If your material is spiltting, predrill your holes. This can also help prevent squeaking in the future. Glue blocks can be placed at the underside between the tread and riser intersection. Another very important but sometimes overlooked item is to seal the underside of your stair.

This will prevent the stair from squeaking and warping. Riser: Vertical surface between two treads. Carriage stringer: Support for the treads and risers ; usually cut to have the treads sit on the horizontal plane and the risers nailed to a vertical cut.

The Oak XTRA is an adjustable premier series spiral staircase that features solid Oak wooden stair treads and landing to complement and add style to any interior living space. The horizontal balusters and railing design, surrounding the full length of the staircase, is visually unique when compared to the traditional vertical baluster design of most stairs.

The staircase can be […]. Above: Laying out skirt board. Stair building is an art form with its own terminology. Here are some terms you may encounter when researching stair design:. Treads: Horizontal walking surface of the stair. Wall rail: The grab bar along the pitch of the stair; usually mounted 34 inches off the leading edge of the tread. Handrail bracket : Metal piece of hardware that is used to mount the wall rail to the wall.

Handrail: Shaped wood member used in conjunction with posts and balusters to provide a safety barrier on an open balcony or open pitch section of the stair.

This railing can also be wall mounted. Post newel : Vertical wood or support member at the landing or start of a stair. We can design a laser cut steel stringer and fix it to the wall with no major works outside. If the wall is load-bearing two or three fixings using chemical anchor bolts are sufficient and no additional fastening points are normally needed. If we have a stud wall instead, we will need to design proper fixing systems.

Steel posts to floor maybe needed in this case too. The steel stringer can be a fascia or have a zig-zag shape for a lighter design. The railing is possible with any design and material you like. Open or closed risers as different options. Wooden or steel treads are possible. The installation is here very simple and it normally takes place in one stage only. We do not need in fact to wait masons to finish the wall before fitting cantilever steps.

When the wall is finished, plastered and even painted if you want we can fasten the steel stringer to floor, wall and ceiling.

We fix then treads and railing and everything is done. Fast and easy! In some cases we can design the steps without any supporting steel stringer but fixed directly to a solid wall. This is possible when there are no major structural issues and when the staircase is not too wide The treads width can be for example mm. We fix each single step to wall using chemical anchor bolts and stainless steel spacers between wall and tread.

This option is especially good for solid wood treads. In case of open risers we could suggest to add stainless steel spacers among treads to reduce the flexibility on the staircase. Closed risers and glass railing fixed to floor could in this case help even more to achieve for each tread a more rigid stairway. In addition to this, there could be a different system we can suggest, as alternative to stainless steel bolts.

We can use for each tread stainless steel frames recessed in the wall. The wall has to be solid and cannot be a stud wall or partition wall. The steel or stainless steel frames are designed as rectangular boxes to be recessed into the wall. They act as support for each single tread.

The steel frame is normally visible and can be painted with the same colour of the wall. We have designed and installed wonderful stairways with this system where the wall connected to the staircase was a featured curved wall. The staircase is here the leading element of the whole interior design. There are projects where no walls are supposed to exist beside the staircase. The stairway for example is the main feature in the center of the room, atrium or lobby.

In this case our stairs designers can come out with customized interesting solutions, as for example structural glass walls to support the entire staircase design. The glass walls are generally placed on both sides of the staircase and are designed to support the load of each single tread.

Treads are often in wood to match flooring or other furniture in the room. They can also be manufactured in toughened laminated glass. This option gives an exclusive touch of lightness and elegance to the whole interior design. We use apposite stainless steel bolts to sturdily fasten the treads to glass walls. We use than stainless steel rails or bolts to have a sound fastening to floor and ceiling as well.

Each bolt and fixing is specially design for the load it has to support and this is a guarantee for an authentic structurally sound staircase. We carefully study all details on a project working with data provided by clients, structural engineers and architects on site.

We closely work with them to find out the best customized solution. When needed, we also provide a detailed structural engineering report. We carefully test and design each staircase part according to the specific requirements for the project. This is especially relevant for commercial staircases, as for examples stairways for shops, restaurants, meeting centers, schools, sport centers and public offices or buildings. When the structural parts of the building do not allow for installation of a floating or cantilever staircase we have a number of different quasi-floating stairs to suggest.

With the quasi-floating stairs system you do not need any floating stair tread brackets.