stairs

Design Preliminaries
by Ness Tillson

WOOD
designer

Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

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This document offers information only. The author has

endeavoured to provide accurate and up to date information. Nonetheless, it may not be applicable to everyone in
every circumstance.
The author disclaims responsibility to all people and entities for any liability, damage or loss that occurs as a result of
acting upon the information in this document.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Contents
Legal Disclaimers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Preparing your project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Wood sections for stairs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Hand or CAD sketching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Draw a plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Calculate approximate head room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
Draw sections at arrival. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
How to assemble steps, risers and strings . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
How to assemble steps to strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Boxed string in 3 parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
How to assemble strings and handrails to newels. . . . . . 26
How to assemble strings to strings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Curved parts - an overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Preparing your project

Wood sections for stairs

Hopefully you have read the tips on taking site measurements and are now ready to start designing your stair.

If you are new to stair building its a good idea to research

what materials you will have to build your project before
starting the design.

Before throwing yourself into StairDesigner to design your

stair you will need to do some ground work to know exactly
what parameters youll be using.
To start the design process its necessary to have a general
overview of your project.
This should include:
List of the wood sections that youll be using for each
individual component, strings, handrails, risers, etc
Rough dimensioned sketch of the overall stair
Dimensioned sketches of the assembly with the upper
floor
Dimensioned sketches of the assembly details of strings
and handrails with newels and strings to strings
Dimensioned sketches of the assembly of steps to risers
Dimensioned sketches of the assembly of steps and
risers to strings

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The final sections of each of your stair components will

depend on a number of parameters:
The base material you want to use to build your stair
(solid wood, laminated boards, manufactured sheet
material, etc)
The dimensions of your local suppliers
The aesthetics of your project
For general stair building here are my minimum thicknesses
in solid wood:

strings 35mm
newels 70mm
steps 30mm
risers 15mm

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Hand or CAD sketching

Draw a plan

The best way to sketch out a project is to use a CAD

program. You can download DraftSight, a really good free
CAD program from the members area of WoodDesigner.org.

The first job is to draw a scale plan of the existing stairwell. If

the project is simple a rough sketch with a few dimensions
may be enough.

A CAD program will enable you to set out your project

precisely and directly provide all the constraints to input
into StairDesigner.

On the other hand if the stairwell is complicated youll have

to draw a detailed plan and elevation views of the complete
stairwell.

The disadvantage of CAD is that youll have to know how to

use it.

Once the plan of the stairwell is set out draw in where you
would like the stair to start and finish.

So if youre not familiar with using CAD youll have to sit

down and at least learn the basic functionality.
If you make stairs regularly I would strongly suggest that
you take the time to learn how to use a CADD system.
On the other hand if your project is fairly straightforward
and you only design occasionally and you dont know how
to use CAD its perfectly feasible to set up your preliminary
sketch with pen and paper.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Its also a good idea to draw an

elevation view of the stairwell
like this.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Here is an example of a more complex stairwell plan that

rises up through 5 different levels.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Calculate approximate head room

The start of a stair can depend on the position of other
obstacles, doors, windows, other walls etc but more often
than not, if the stair moves up inside a stairwell, it will
depend on the minimum headroom that has to be allowed
as a person climbs up or even more importantly goes down
the stair.
The minimum headroom is usually 1m80. This can be very
tight for a tall person going down and there remains a risk of

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them hitting their head if they are leaning forward. In most

situations its a good idea to use 1m90 to 2m as a minimum
and 1m80 only in extreme situations.
In the following illustration although the stair could start
at the door the number of steps outside the stairwell will
depend on the minimum headroom.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

If designing a stair manually its important to have an approximation

of the position of the first step and its necessary to calculate the
approximate start of the stair according to the head room.
The minimum head room is calculated by finding the maximum
height of the step thats just outside the stairwell.
To calculate the maximum height of this step use this simple
formula:
HS = TH - FT - 1m80
Where:
HS is the headroom step height
TH is the total stair height
FT is the upper floor thickness
1m80 is the minimum headroom

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Note that its often quicker on site to measure the distance

from floor to ceiling than the thickness of the upper floor.
This under ceiling distance UC is of course equal to TH - FT.

Multiply the number of steps NS by the step width SW and

youll have the approximate distance the first step will be
from the edge of the stairwell.

To calculate the number of steps outside the stairwell we

have to know the height of each step or rise. To do this,
divide the total height TH by a number that gives a rise
between 160mm and 210mm. The lower the rise the easier
the stair will be to climb.

This process is the standard way to calculate stair headroom

and its important to understand how this is done.

Then divide the height calculated for the headroom step HS

by the rise and you have the number of steps outside the
stairwell.
The actual position of the first step will depend on the width
of the steps.
To calculate the step width you can use the Blondels
formula :

But as we will be using StairDesigner to design our stair, the

program proposes some neat tools that will help optimise
all these parameters.
To gain time its possible to calculate the position of the first
step using a default step height and width of 200mm and
optimise the stair once set up in StairDesigner.
Please refer to the following members area page for advice
on how to optimise the stair using StairDesigner tools:
Stair Optimisation

2 x rise + width > 600mm < 640mm

This gives the minimum width of each step as 600 - (2 x rise).

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Draw sections at arrival

One of the points often ignored by amateur stair builders is
the optimisation of the assembly details where the stair will
meet the upper floor.
There is an infinite variety of possibilities and each stair will
have its own problems and solutions according to the situation at hand.
One point before we start is that whenever possible you
should add a landing step to your stair.
The landing step creates a harmonious transition from the
stair to the upper floor and finishes off the stair allowing the
last riser to be assembled to the strings and newels of the
stair.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Note that its often difficult to get a perfect joint

between the landing step and the upper floor so allow
for some way to fill any gap.
You can use a strip of wood or a metallic filler.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

A more elegant way of covering any eventual space is to

rebate the landing step.
In this case dont forget to increase the total height of the
stair and the length of the last flight according to the over
lap of the last step onto the upper floor joist.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

The main question that arises as a stair meets

the upper floor is how will it assemble to other
components on the landing?
If the stair doesnt assemble to other components
and just has to rest against the upper floor joist
the easiest solution is to rest the stair against the
stairwell.
Cutting a notch in the last post will enable the
stair to hook onto and rest on the floor.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

If the stair has to assemble to elements on the upper floor

the position of the last posts and strings will depend on how
you want to align the upper floor posts, strings and handrails. If there is a false string covering the face of the joist a
simple notched newel may suffice.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

On the other hand if the upper floor balustrade

is resting on the edge of the stairwell the deep
notching of the last post may weaken its assembly
with the string.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

In this case an arrival with double

newels can be easier to make and
give a stronger assembly.
Note that in each case the position
of the newel and last step relative
to the stairwell changes and will
vary according to the solution you
choose and the also the sections and
positions of the newels, strings and
handrails.
Its important to draw how you are
going to configure the way the stair
assembles onto the upper floor joist
to know what parameters youll use
in StairDesigner.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

How to assemble steps, risers and strings

When choosing how the different elements of a stair will
join together its important to keep in mind how you will
assemble and install the stair.
A stair that can be assembled outside the stairwell and
hoisted or lowered into place can have assembly details
that would not be possible to use if the stair has to be
assembled in the stairwell.
This is true for the assembly details of the steps and risers
as well as the steps and risers with the strings.

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I have found that the best step to riser assembly is a

double tongue and groove that looks like this.
In this way the risers are tongue and grooved into the
back and under side of the steps. This assembly allows
eventual shrinkage of the steps and risers without the
joints opening on the face of the stair.
If the stair has a cut string and/or the steps and risers are
wedged this joint works well.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

However when building European housed string type stairs

that require a perfect finish on both sides of the steps and
risers, the disadvantage of this assembly method is that the
steps and riser must be assembled before assembling with
the strings.
This means that the stair cannot be assembled in the stairwell if the strings cannot be moved laterally at least the

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depth of the step housings. This is the case if the stair is

between 2 walls.
In this case where the stair cannot be assembled outside the
stairwell the strings have to be installed and fixed onto the
wall before the steps and risers can be fixed onto the strings.
For stairs with boxed strings that have to be assembled
between 2 walls, a different step to riser and step to string
assembly will have to be found.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

How to assemble steps to strings

In France and Europe the traditional way to build stairs
allows the stair to be assembled in the stairwell.
In general the outer string is a solid boxed string and the
wall string a cut string.
This diagram shows the traditional assembly of European
style stairs.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

This type of assembly allows one to position the strings,

place the risers and then place the steps without moving
the strings, much easier and needing less space than having
to assemble the complete the stair and then lower into the
stairwell.
However this method has two disadvantages:
1. If the steps shrink a gap will appear along the back edge
where the step assembles with the next riser.
2. A plinth has to be cut to cover the gap between the
steps and the wall. Cutting the plinth to move around
the steps and risers is a tedious and time consuming
task.
To get around these problems its possible to build the wall
string in 3 different parts...

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Boxed string in 3 parts

Lets make a dismountable boxed string thats say
36mm thick with 15mm housing.
Take a board that has the same thickness as the depth
of the housings and screw it to another board of
21mm to have the total 36mm.
Make sure the screws are not where the housing will
be routed out.
Mark up the board and rout out the housings with a
hand router or CNC.
The housings will cut the 15mm boards in two.
Unscrew the 15mm board that is now a lower part I
call support and the upper part I call the plinthe.
Glue and screw the support back into place.
Now when installing, the steps and risers can be
screwed on to the supports and the plinthe pinned on
after everything is in place.
If you keep the screw heads close to the end of the
step, they will be hidden when you pin the plinthe on
to the string.
In this way the complicated plinth is automatically cut
when you rout out the steps and risers.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Heres a photo of a 3 part wall stringer being assembled in the workshop.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

To avoid the possibility of a gap showing if the steps shrink

its possible to rebate the risers to overlap the steps.
In the following drawing the lower edge of the risers has an
8mm deep rebate that allows it overlap the step.

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Note also that the step nosings and lower edge of the risers
are rounded off with a 8mm radius so that they will fit neatly
into the housings routed out with a 16mm router bit.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Of course if the underside of the stair in not visible and/or

the outer string is a cut string, its possible to assemble the
step and risers easily.
In the case of a stair with boxed strings and a hidden underside the step and riser housings can be extended on the

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lower edge of the string and steps and risers pushed in from
under the stair.
Housings can also be opened to allow wedging which
makes assembling the stair in the stairwell much easier.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

How to assemble strings and

handrails to newels
The traditional way to assemble strings and handrails to
newel posts is the mortise and tenon joint. The problem
with this joint is how to pull the joint tightly together.
Due to the angle of the strings and handrails its difficult
to pull the joint with a clamp. Its possible to use a draw pin
but as the pulling power of a pin is weak the joint has to be
finely adjusted, not easy with the heavy thick sections of a
stair.
Over the years I have found that the best and easiest way to
assemble both strings and handrails is to use a coach bolt
and some sort of alignment system like dowels, false tenons,
biscuits or dominos.
This enables you to simply cut strings and handrails on the
joint line and the bolt has plenty of pulling power to pull the
joint tight.
In general an 8mm x 120mm coach screw with dowels for
handrails and false tenons or dowels for the strings works
fine.
Heres a photo of a handrail using dowels.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

The strings and posts have been

machined on CNC to receive false tenons
and 2 coach bolts.
To design this type of joint in
StairDesigner set string and handrail
penetration to 0.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

How to assemble strings to strings

When there is no newel post, strings must be assembled string to string.
This joint is also best screwed using 6 x 90mm screws.
If possible its best to screw through
both strings by cutting a crotch joint.

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Wood Designer | stairs Design Preliminaries

Curved parts - an overview

Conclusion

Curved stairs and building curved stair parts is a particularly

complex subject within stair building.

You should now have a good idea of how you are going to
build your stair.

Although StairDesigner will give general drawings and information to set up a curved stair the detailed manufacturing
drawings will have to be drawn up from the StairDesigner
drawings.

If you are not used to stair building I strongly suggest that

you note down on paper all the information and keep it
ready at hand.

Setting up these manufacturing drawings will require extensive editing of the StairDesigner DXF files or paper plans.
For more information on building curved stair parts have a
look at this introductory eBook:
Different Ways to Build Curved Stair Parts
Youll find it on the Curved Stair eBook Library page.

You are now ready to start designing in StairDesigner.

Please be sure you check out the rest of our stair building
resources in the members area of WoodDesigner.org.
Happy woodworking.

Ness Tillson

On the same page youll find other eBooks on curved handrails and strings.
There is also a range of tutorials in the Stairs: Extended
Training area, both in the Design and Parts sections,
covering among other topics curved handrails and strings
again.

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