Amateur carpenters who have laid out the cuts in a stair stringer (the zig-zag structural support for the steps) know the queasy feeling that bubbles up at the prospect of this job. There’s the simple ...

To lay out a set of stair stringers from scratch requires a little math, but not much. Equally important is some quiet time to run the numbers and at the same time to think about the construction ...

For the sake of discussion, let’s say you’re building a simple set of stairs for a deck, basement access, or up to an attic. You’ll just be using 2-by-12s for both the stringers and the treads. This ...