Cut a stair stringer wrong on a job in Boise last month

I was rushing and my math was off by a quarter inch, so the top step would have been too short. I had to stop, re-cut the whole thing from a fresh 2x12, and lost about an hour. Anyone have a good trick for double-checking stringer layout before you make the cut?

3 comments

3 Comments

pat_rivera17d ago

My boss in Tacoma taught me to always cut the top step first and check it on the landing. That quarter inch hides until it's too late.

the_anthony17d ago

Honestly I used to just trust my math and go for it. Had a bad one in Spokane where the rise was off by three eighths on the bottom step, threw the whole deck off. Now I snap a chalk line from the top corner to the bottom after I mark it, just to see the line of the treads. If it looks straight and even, you're probably good. That extra thirty seconds saves a lot of wood.

riverh4917d ago

My uncle built a set of stairs for a shed where he forgot to account for the decking thickness on the top landing. He ended up with a two inch rise on the last step, a real ankle breaker. That chalk line trick would have caught it.