Not invaders but assassins. The people who belong to the castle will be used to the stairs. Any outside intruders will stumble about and therefore be heard.
They mean making sure each step is the same height above the previous. Like if your first step is 7” high, then all steps should be 7”. Not a 7” step, then a 10” step, then a 5” step, etc.
There’s some math involved to figure out the riser height given a certain distance from the upper landing, and it all depends on how much space you have, what code says for a landing, what the minimum tread depth can be, etc.
Somehow Lowe’s only has these things in pressure-treated lumber. So I made my own for my stairs in my basement using regular lumber. And then my basement flooded.
Well, yeah. Generally you’d want pressure treated for a basement because they should be resting and fastened directly to the concrete anyway, which would require pressure rated to meet code. Even if your basement didn’t flood, the bottom of the stringer would have rotted away because concrete wicks moisture.
There’s virtually never a time you’d want to use non-pressure treated lumber to build stringers, except above grade transitions. In which case, cutting them yourself is also stupid easy.
The tricky part, I am told, is ensuring every step is the same height
where’s the fun in that? Make the last step a little bit shorter or higher!
They do this in some castles to trip up the invaders
Not invaders but assassins. The people who belong to the castle will be used to the stairs. Any outside intruders will stumble about and therefore be heard.
“stumble steps”
also “trip steps”
That’s a subtle ingenious trap.
Funny story: I built the staircase heading up to my loft, and spent days sourcing the perfect planks for the risers so I’d have exactly 13 steps.
Forgot to account for the loft’s floorboards and beams, now I have a 13.25-step staircase.
Wait, isn’t that just a hallway? Don’t you want each step to be a higher height than the previous one?
They mean making sure each step is the same height above the previous. Like if your first step is 7” high, then all steps should be 7”. Not a 7” step, then a 10” step, then a 5” step, etc.
There’s some math involved to figure out the riser height given a certain distance from the upper landing, and it all depends on how much space you have, what code says for a landing, what the minimum tread depth can be, etc.
Here’s a video of a subway staircase where one step is slightly higher than the rest. Everyone trips.
Thats what these guys are for:
Somehow Lowe’s only has these things in pressure-treated lumber. So I made my own for my stairs in my basement using regular lumber. And then my basement flooded.
Well, yeah. Generally you’d want pressure treated for a basement because they should be resting and fastened directly to the concrete anyway, which would require pressure rated to meet code. Even if your basement didn’t flood, the bottom of the stringer would have rotted away because concrete wicks moisture.
There’s virtually never a time you’d want to use non-pressure treated lumber to build stringers, except above grade transitions. In which case, cutting them yourself is also stupid easy.