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 ...

Q. I asked a contractor to build a set of porch steps using name-brand materials. He made a mess of it and when you step off the last step you trip on a sloped piece of concrete he added. I know you ...

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 ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Your front porch is the first impression your home makes on guests (or potential buyers if your house is about to hit the market).

Simple stairs have just two components. The flat board that your foot steps on is called a tread. The treads connect to side stringers and sometimes to one that is in the middle of the stairs. The ...

You may be like most folks. I’m guessing you give very little thought to the stairs you go up and down on a regular basis. They might be constructed from wood, steel, or concrete. The vast majority of ...