Q. I have to build a simple set of steps but I'm totally lost. I don't understand how to calculate what the distance should be for the risers and the treads. Everything about building steps seems ...

DEAR TIM: I read your recent column about building stairs for a deck. I can handle that, but I’m worried about how to make all the complex cuts required for the deck stair railing. Can you give me a ...

You probably give little thought to why the stairs in your home are built the way they are. I’m talking about how high you need to lift your foot to get up to the next step and how deep the flat tread ...

In this video, I will show you how to build exterior deck stairs from start to finish. First, I'll show you how to calculate ...

Wood stairs and railings are workhorses – built to get you where you want to go. But beyond this basic purpose, there are many different types, which can help to make your home a more efficient, ...

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 ...

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 ...

You probably give little thought to the stairs you go up or down to reach different levels of your home, deck or patio. I’ll wager that if I handed you a measuring tape, a framing square, a pencil and ...

Lloyd Alter is Design Editor for Treehugger and teaches Sustainable Design at Ryerson University in Toronto. Alternating tread stairs are terrific for saving space; you only put one foot on a tread at ...