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Building wood stairs to a second story deck Stair building for decks and porches is a great home improvement project, but only if you have a fairly good degree of carpentry experience and skill.

If you’re a DIY novice or you’re in any doubt as to how to build stairs which are structurally stable and safe to use, hire a professional contractor to do the job. If you’re ready to do it yourself, you’ll find a wealth of how to build stairs instruction guides online.

The tools and materials required are very straightforward. If you buy the materials pre-cut, you’ll only need a hammer and nails, a carpenter’s square, measuring tape and an adjustable wrench to complete the job.

Before you begin building your stairs.

Because there are important safety concerns involved with building stairs, it’s absolutely essential that you check first with your local planning authorities. You’ll find that there are regulations for the angle or slope of the stairway, the height of the risers and width of the runs, the width of the stairway, the thickness of the stringers, the height of the handrail and distance between the balusters, and the depth and type of foundations needed.

If you are planning a particularly long staircase, you’ll find there is a maximum number of stairs permitted in a single flight before a break is necessary. Your local planning authorities will be a useful source of information and advice on how to build stairs.

Building stairs for decks and porches is all in the planning. It’s vital that you do the math accurately, to determine exactly how many risers and runs you will need, and the exact size of each. A hand drawn sketch with figures worked out using a calculator will suffice, but if you prefer, there are some very inexpensive computer software packages you can download which make the job very easy.

For more deck related projects, please read this article on how to build a bench for your deck.