Metal stair bracket

[BMH]

I have to build a outdoor straight staircase going from our upper patio to our lower patio. The Total rise is 99 inches and I was thinking of making my riser 7 inches and run 12 inches. Has anybody had experience with either of these solutions. I will probably use cedar decking for the threads and make the stairs three feet wide.

http://www.goproconstruction.com/gallery.html or http://www.ez-stairs.com/.

I am open to any other product.

Thank you,

Bruce

 

[peter halle]

I will be the first to ask the question:  Is there a design choice that is making you want to use these brackets or some other reason?  I am sure that we can walk you thru how to cut stair stringers or the equivalents if you want.  At least I know I would be willing to help.

Peter

 

[BMH]

Peter.

I have cut stringer in the past, but I am always looking for new and more cost effective ways of doing projects. This is a home project and my regular jobs takes an average of 10 hours a day, so if I can do this in half the time I have more play time. The other reason is that I hate cutting pressure treated lumber as it is one of the most toxic dust you can inhale, anything that limits my exposure is welcome.

Bruce

 

[Tim Morris]

I would recommend a ten inch tread if you are using deck boards for the treads. Two deck board butted tight will give you eleven inches which provides a nice one inch nosing.

 

[junk731]

If your worried about exposure to PT wood you should do some reading about the toxicity of cedar. They have taken out the really bad stuff out of PT to make it more environmentally friendly. Best advice is to wear a good dusk mask. Like Peter not big on metal brackets for stair stringers.

John

 

[Jason Kehl]

If speed and dust are your only 2 reasons for using a metal bracket instead of cutting the stringers I would stick with cutting the stringers. I don't think that there is a faster way to make a stair than cutting stringers and wearing a dust mask will solve the dust problem.

Depending on your Festool arsenal you could use a TS and track for the bulk of the cutting, Trion to finish the inside corners (both with a CT vac of course) and you would have virtually no dust but would also slow the process somewhat.

With a 99" total rise I would use a 7 5/8" unit rise and a 10" unit run. The 7 5/8" rise works out equally (very close) on your 9" total rise, the 10" run is for the reason already posted.

Hope this helps.

j

 

[Sparktrician]

If your worried about exposure to PT wood you should do some reading about the toxicity of cedar. They have taken out the really bad stuff out of PT to make it more environmentally friendly. Best advice is to wear a good dusk mask. Like Peter not big on metal brackets for stair stringers.

John

+1.  I'd add this - be sure to wear long-sleeve shirts when working with cedar.  Two years ago I did some work using cedar, and had residual issues from the resulting contact dermatitis (same as in poison ivy) until earlier this year.  And a good respirator, or dust mask as a minimum, is essential. 

[smile]

 

[Holzhacker]

Never even knew they made stuff like that.
You won't save any time or money buying those.
A- you won't save money because you obviously have to spend money to buy them. I'm sure they cost more than a saw blade.
B- Even if you are slow at cutting stringers, since you've done it before you at least know the basics. Using a 'new system' always takes more time the first time. So any perceived time savings are probably just that, perceived.
If you don't have them already buy the little indent locks for your framing square; set them on the square, mark and cut away.

 

[peter halle]

The one thing that the brackets do eliminate is fastening into end grain.  As I am sure every carpenter wh has done decks or repair work has seen is that eventually cut stringers on exterior stairs have a good possibility of splitting and the fasteners losing their holding power or worse.

That being said, there are other ways around those issues without using these style of brackets.

Peter

 

[Roseland]

I've just done a couple of runs of stairs, one in cedar, using an MFS400 to rout the pockets in the strings.  It made the whole job so easy; I'd recommend it to anyone!

The first one was done with a half inch diameter bit (and quarter inch radii on the edges of the treads), but the second was with a quarter inch diameter bit (and eighth inch radii) and it looked a lot nicer, although it take a little longer to clean the pockets.

The first one the joints were so tight that I could use the stairs without them even creaking before I'd even glued or screwed them; the second I left a little more room in the joints for glue!

Andrew