Advanced Stair Building Tips For Builders And Architects

By Greg Vanden Berge


If you're a licensed architect or a professional homebuilder, I would recommend that you send this article to all your friends or anyone who is interested in advancing their education towards becoming a better homebuilder. Advanced stair building tips and safety advice from a seasoned professional can save you big money in the future.

I have personally installed thousands of stairs and I would like to pass on, a little bit of the lessons, I have learned over the years, to give you the advantage over anyone else who doesn't read this article.

Always follow the 17 1/2 inch building rule for stair tread and stair riser design. To put this in simple layman's terms, if you're stair tread is 10 inches wide, you're stair riser should be around 7 1/2 inches tall. If we add these two numbers together, 10 inch stair tread plus a 7 1/2 inch stair riser equals 17 1/2 inches. This is one of the best rules to follow and provides you with a comfortable stairway to walk up and down.

Your next stair building tip, requires you as the architect, to make sure that your stairway isn't smaller than 36 inches wide, but I would prefer them to be no smaller than 42 inches wide. The correct width of the stairs can provide advantages and disadvantages in your new home design.

Now here's the last stair building tip and I want you to give this one a lot of thought. If you're designing a stairway that is going to be finished in wood, tile or any other slippery surface. I would advise you to think again or at least install nonslip gripable protection on each stair tread.

The stairways can become extremely dangerous if your feet are wet or even if you're wearing socks. I'm not going to make this article any longer than it needs to be. Pay attention to what I've said and you will be able to build safer stairways in the future.


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