I took some time off from my 'day job' to rebuild my deck. It needed to be torn apart and have new decking and handrails installed. And the steps that were on the deck when we bought the house were scary. They were steeper than we wanted, especially for our pre-schooler. The steps needed to be rebuilt.

I have never cut a stair stringer before, but I get the basic concept...use a carpenter's square to make a series of ascending L-cuts for the stair tread and the rise. (Horizontal distance is called 'run', vertical is called 'rise'.)

But trying to decide how many steps, and how big to cut them (what angle, etc.) was difficult.

Fortunately I found an on-line calculator for figuring out how to cut a stair stringer. You can find it HERE.

Using that calculator, you can try all kinds of variations on number of steps, rise, etc., and it will calculate where to make the cuts, and even show you an example of the stringer, including the treads. It provides every measurement you can want.

It certainly made my first experience successful. My steps are now on the deck, and they look great, and they are much more comfortable. (8 steps instead of 6)

I hope the calculator helps you if you need to cut a stair stringer!

Linda - http://how.best-free-information.com - The "How" Blog