Guide:How Far Apart Should Stringers Be on Deck Stairs?

A huge piece of the puzzle when you are finishing up your deck, the stairs you build need to be safe, rock solid, and designed for the long haul.

Plenty of folks, though, figure that you can sort of go halfway with stringers on deck stairs – especially if the steps are going to be that high up off the ground. Nothing could be further from the truth, though. You want to be sure that your stringers are spaced 12 to 16 inches apart and made of 2 x 12 material.

For more help building the perfect set of stairs for your deck check out the rest of the inside info highlighted below.

How Far Apart Should Stringers Be on Deck Stairs?

Sure, the stairs on your deck may not be as tall or as long as the stairs in your home – some deck steps are just a single step tall – but that doesn’t mean that you can go halfway with your stair construction.

Any set of stairs (every set of stairs) needs to be designed, built, and installed with extreme attention to detail.

These are, after all, going to be the steps that people used to come onto and get off of your deck. And the odds are pretty good (especially if you like to entertain outside) they are going to get plenty of usage.

Cheap or flimsy stairs without stringers in the right spot are going to come apart – and usually come apart a whole lot sooner than you expect.

This is why you want to make sure that you maintain a 12 to 16 inch distance between each of your stringers (and there are at least three of them on every set of steps).

You’ll be guaranteed to get rock solid steps – no matter how tall or how short they are – when you go with this kind of stringer separation.

Breaking Down the Core Deck Stair Components

Every set of stairs – deck steps or any other stairs, for that matter – are made up of the same basic components.

For starters, you have the individual stringers. These are the long pieces of wood (usually made from 2 x 12 material, often pressure-treated) that have stair patterns cut out of them.

These stair patterns are called the stair tread and the stair riser (or run and riser), and they layout the height and depth of each and every one of your steps.

You then cut stair treads and stair risers to meet those pieces on the stringer, basically putting the whole stair together. Now you’re off to the races!

Getting back to the stringers a little bit, though.

Because the treads and risers are going to be nailed to your stringers you have to be sure that they are plenty beefy enough to handle stair loads, they are engineered to be straight and have the right rise/run, and that they are properly spaced from one another so that you can get even low dispersion and proper nailing in place.

All of these things are a huge piece of the puzzle when putting your stairs together.

How to Build Strong Deck Stairs

Rise and Run Numbers

The first thing you want to do when building deck steps is figure out what your rise and run numbers are going to look like.

This sounds complex it is really pretty simple and straightforward. All you need to do is rest a straight board or level on the deck, bring it out a couple of feet (where you estimate your stairs will terminate), and then measured down to the ground.

That’ll give you a pretty good idea about the height of your new stairs.

How Many Risers Will You Need?

Now, to figure out the number of risers you’ll need, you’ll want to divide that stair height by 7 inches (rounding if you have to). This’ll give you the number of risers that you are working with.

All that’s left to do here is subtract one from the number of risers that you’ll have and now you have the number of treads you are working with.

How Many Stringers?

Once all of those calculations have been done you’ll need to figure out how many stringers you have to build to act as the backbone and foundation for your stairs.

As we highlighted above, every set of deck steps (well-built set, anyway) will want to have at least three stringers. If you are going wider than 36 inches for your deck steps you might want to add another – and then you’ll want to add one more for every extra 12 to 16 inches of width you add to your deck steps.

Sketch out your stairs on a piece of printer paper. Don’t worry about putting anything down to scale (at least not going crazy over it), but sketch up some bare-bones blueprints for your new step project.

Riser Measurments

After all of that is over with you just need to get your hands on a carpenters square or framing square and then knockout the tread and riser measurements to each of the individual stringers.

Create a template from one stringer that you cut on its own, transfer that template over to the rest of your stringers and you’ll be guaranteed a full set that matches up perfectly with one another.

It’s really that easy!

Closing Thoughts

As you can see, building a set of deck stairs really is a whole lot easier and a whole lot more straightforward than most people realize.

Even folks that haven’t ever built anything before can generally knockout a solid set of deck stairs, so long as they keep the tips and tricks we highlighted above in mind.

Of course, the real linchpin here is to remember that you want to keep your stringers about 12 to 16 inches apart from one another – and that you want to have at least three stringers (one either end and one in the middle at minimum) – and you won’t have anything to worry about, either.

You’ll have that beautiful set of deck steps up and running in record time!

Guide:How Far Apart Should Stringers Be on Deck Stairs?