Step 1: Lay your framing square flat on top of the lumber you have chosen to use for your stringer as shown in picture above.  You will be working from your right to your left.  Position the framing square between 8 and 12 inches away from the right edge of the lumber.

Step 2: Line up the individual step or tread measurement on the framing square with the edge of lumber.

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Step 3: Do the same on opposite side for riser.

Step 4: In our example above and most of the examples through out the book, we’ll be using 7 1/2 inch risers and 10 inch treads.  Don't make any marks on lumber until you have positioned your framing square correctly.

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Step 9: Before you can mark the next tread and riser you will need to line the tread measurement mark on framing square up with the riser mark on lumber.  Then you must re-position the framing square as shown in step four.  Once this is done, mark lumber for your second tread and riser. 

By now you should have something resembling the picture above.

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 Step 23: In this illustration you notice an inch and a half thick ledger and get a better idea why you subtracted an inch and a half from your last tread.

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Landing Wall Method

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Step 11: As you can clearly see in the illustration above, the line representing the top of the landing joist, lines up perfectly with the top of the framed landing.  Sometimes a picture can be worth a million words and if you didn't understand what you were doing earlier, when laying out your stringer, hopefully by now you do.

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