How to Build Porch Stairs | Ask This Old House

So you have what they call a triple floor, three different units on three different floors and I'm on the third floor and of course there's no elevator here, so of course it's been a little difficult getting up and down.

stairs

. What we're accomplishing is there are a few more projects that will be done in the apartment to make it a little bit easier and safer for me to get around as well as you know, we're working with Boston survivors. Accessibility Alliance and together we will take on some of those projects, but the first thing we want to start with is your front steps Tom, you've had a look at them.

I know how to look at them. There are a couple of things. that really catches my attention, first of all when they

build

a wooden staircase they always like to put a ledge like

this

on it and aesthetically that's great, it also gives a nice wide platform to step on when you go up the

stairs

. The problem is with someone with a prosthesis, if they climb the ladder, drag their foot, they can trip on that ledge, that's true and that's happened to me. I have to think about it all the time when I go up and down the stairs. stairs, oh that's definitely something we need to fix.

The other thing that catches my attention is the risers. The height of the risers should be constant throughout the flight of the staircase and if I measure right here I have nine and a half inches, seven inches and seven. and nine Wow, that alone is illegal and unsafe for anyone, so the project for us today is to re

build

your old stairs. I'm very excited, thank you. Okay, let's start with the tools. Wow, look at all the work you've done here. We took out your old stairs with the gun and here's a piece of the old stair rail.

Now you had three steps, they were all uneven and were also cut at a 90 degree angle. Alright, we've cut a new riser that you're I'm going to like a lot more here and the first thing is that each riser is now exactly the same height. We also added a step in two, three, four, adding a step that allows us to reduce the height of the riser, making it more comfortable. and it is safer now that its old stringers were cut at a 90 degree angle. When cutting at a 90-degree angle, the ladder rung hung down about three-quarters to an inch, creating a trick spot for you.

What we did was cut the stringer at an angle. that allows us to angle our riser making the stair tread flush, eliminating that travel point, so now all we have to do to attach the stringers is add a framing piece right here and we're ready to go exactly , we have six spaced stringers. 16 inches apart and

this

2 by 6 will hold them together at the top and another 2 by 6 will hold them at the bottom. This kick will stiffen the bottom riser and attach the stairs to the

porch

using wood screws while we're at it. I'm going to attach the bottom of the stairs to the concrete walkway with the masonry faster, so what I need to do first is pre-drill a hole.

We are using solid PVC trim boards for the risers which we fasten with a special screw that drilled through the head of the screw. a perfectly round hole that we filled with a PVC plug. Alright, these composite deck guys just bolt through the stringers. Wow, the stairs look great, yes all the breaks are built in and now it's time to start thinking about a handrail, the banister is beautiful. This is a handrail we made just for you and had it built at a local welding shop. Now they started with a straight piece of inch-and-a-quarter steel tubing and used a computer-guided machine to bend it. the exact shape we needed, then they welded the end caps to the brackets and sprayed a good quality enamel finish.

Now we made these handrails longer at the top and bottom so that you can now grab the handrail before entering the staircase. The building code says that the height of the handrail should be 34 to 38 inches from the top of the stair tread. Now you are quite tall, how does this feel to you now? It's 34 inches, it feels a little low, okay? Let's move it up a little bit, does that feel like that? Yeah, that's great, that feels good right there, okay, that's what we're going to set up now, let's put it in our gear and dial in there.

I'll drop it into my clamp. down here Sherman, the center of the post, okay, drill it, okay, our stairs are all built, our handrails are in and technically we are built to code, we don't need to close this because we're not high enough off the ground, but I want to take it one step further and close it with a balustrade system and to do that we are going to use this right here this is a kit it comes with a top rail bottom rail the balusters the holes are all drilled in the balusters it is a material engineering and you will never have to paint it yes, this is going to be a little tight there, okay Karen, your stairs and railings are complete, you want to try them.

I would love no more tripping points, no more uneven risers, that's what. excellent