Total Rise - Stairway Construction Arithmetic

The total rise is the total distance between two different levels that will be connected, by one set of stairs. A good example of this is the illustration below. The distance between the top of the bottom floor and the top of the second floor will equal the stairways total rise.

What Is The Total Rise Used For?

The total rise measurement will be divided into equal individual risers. For example, your total stair rise is 49 inches and you're going to have seven risers. If we divide seven in the 49, we will come up with 7 - 7 inch risers.

Here's Another Example: You measure the distance between the top of the bottom floor and the top of the top floor and you find out that it's 56 inches. You don't know how many risers you're going to need, because you don't have a set of building blueprints. You need to figure the individual staircase risers out on your own.

You can start by dividing a few numbers into 56 inches, until you arrive at something around 7 to 7 - 1/2 inches, for each individual riser. You quickly realize that 7 divides into 56 inches, 8 times. This would give you an 8 inch riser.

However, an 8 inch riser is going to be uncomfortable, so you decide to go to the next number and divide eight into 56 inches and finally arrive at a 7 inch riser. A 7 inch individual stair riser would work perfectly for your stairway and that's how it's done.

Measuring the total rise and dividing it into the amount of risers your stairway is going to need is critical. Make sure that you take your time and understand what you're measuring. This would be the time to make any adjustments necessary, to end up with your total rise.

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