When you convert the basement into the busiest place, basement stairs will play an important role. Because of the only gateway to visit your basement. Not only for the reason of entrance but also a vital part of basement decoration and family safety. In some house structures, you will get one specific gateway to enter into the basement. In that case, you have to follow some specific code to build your basement stairs.
Building basement stairs is a great deal of cost with the right choice of tools. Also, you need some solid skills to complete the project. If you are planning to start a DIY project of building basement stairs then you are in the perfect place. The content is not only the solution of How to build basement stairs DIY but also the proper concept of basement stairs-related issues.
Replacing the basement stairs and building basement stairs is nearly the same. Depending on the replacement part you need to add the features of your basement. Remodeling the basement stairs will take a lesser time & cost than building a full structure of a basement stair. To have a modern look you can follow the trending structure of it. Depending on the stair materials the cost can vary.
Common Stairs Building codes
To a carpenter, building stairs is an advanced level of DIY work. If you know the basic idea of how to cut the roof then you can also try this one. Even the straight stairs building is easier than other style stairs. Make sure you have arranged all the necessary tools to start the project. Like a hammer, drill, Chalk line, circular saw, level, PPE, hand saw, and framing squares. Follow these stairs building codes for safety purposes.
Headroom
The minimum length of any stair should be 6 feet 8 inches. The height also depends on the movement of peoples and the movement of any furniture also. It is the platform where you will land from the surface. If you don’t keep enough headroom, the stairway will not be comfortable from all directions. It will not be comfortable enough to go with heavy things also.
- Width
The width of a basement stair should be 3 feet. Make sure it’s not less than 3 feet. You can expand the width if you feel the necessity of it. Make sure the width of the stair is adjustable with the design and structure. When you are going to use the basement for multipurpose like a guest room, living room, party room, or movie theater, you need a wide space stair. The gateway will help you to carry the furniture and others smoothly.
- Handrails
The open side of every stair needs to apply the handrails work like a guard. As a laundry room or gaming room or others, in a residential area basement, you should use the handrails as a mandatory part. If you have the occupied space then you should use a standard handrail according to the layout. Follow the pattern of stairs and the floor.
- Raiser
In a stair, you will find many vertical parts to walk through. Here you need to maintain a fixed distance from one step to the other step. Make Sure the steps are not so high or low to have a smooth riding experience. The horizontal part of the stairs is called nosing. With what you will connect your foot to cross the stairs. Do not apply more than 7 3/4″ . The maximum length can be 3/8″. Higher distance raises can be risky for children or old people. Follow the medium raiser of the stairs.
- Tread
According to the modern trend you should not make the width less than 10”. If you make the width less than 10” you can slip from the stairs. In the USA the tread measurement is 7 to 11 inches. The run is 11” and the rise is 7”. The riser means the vertical space should not be 7.¾ inches. Then the horizontal space of the tread should have a minimum step of 10”. Also, keep in mind the bullnose and angle of the stairs. They are also part of the stair building code.
How to build basement stairs (DIY)?
Before starting any DIY project, you should keep some specific design or structures in your mind. When you want to follow multiple structures, you can mix up the total design. Separate your most lovely designs. It can be two or three types of structures. Now collect the design part from different structures to make a unique complete design. Selecting the design also depends on the basement features and decorations.
Set up basement stairs not only depends on the lifestyle of the homeowners but also depends on the total basement furniture, free spaces, backgrounds, and trends also. Let’s start the following steps one by one.
- Taking measurement according to the layout
Which type of staircase you are going to build is not the major fact. It can be L shape, curved, straight, or others. But the matter is you have to determine the overall run & rise then divide it into a comfortable length or range.
In the case of house farming, you may need to take the measurement of the basement to the ground floor or the first floor to the second floor. It’s all about the working station to the landing space. Once you get the total length of rising, now divide it by the number seven or 7 ½. Here you will get how many steps or the raiser you need to reach the landing place.
- Mark the wood or the materials
When you get all the measurements you need to make a perfect shape of the stair, you should apply the dimension on the materials like wood pieces or other things. Make sure the springer is straight enough to get a nice structure of stairs. The height of the raiser should not be more than 10 inches.
By using the farming square ruler you should mark on the wooden pieces. To mark on the stringer apply the pressure through your thumb or finger. Markdown the steps previous to the next with the marker. Keep it continuing until you reach the endpoint of the stringer. You can mark out the whole design by using gauges or not. Before finalized the mark, make sure you draw with a perfect dimension.
- Cut the wood into perfect pieces
Now start the cutting steps of the wooden stairs. For a better experience, you can follow a paper direction. As an experienced carpenter, you should check the dimensions twice before you cut these. Building a stair is an expensive task. But you can cut the figure of your budget by purchasing all comfortable and long-lasting materials wisely.
Make the working area clean to get a better cutting experience. Take the framing squire compass on the stringer. As you need to cut the frame of the stairs into the half-angle of square shape ruler, you can use the circular saw. With that, you can complete most of the cut of the stringer. You can also switch to any kind of sharp hand saw. When you need to stop short and move to the next step you can easily use a sharp hand saw.
- Attached the stairs
This is the time to check out the whole cutting portion s of the stairs. After confirming the maximum cutting part of your stairs, you need to attach the parts. Here you just need to follow some rules to attach the parts. Place the stringers in the perfect place to make sure the connection between the surface to the upper floor.
Place all the parts in the right place. You can also follow the demo layout attachment pointing pictures. To secure the shape in the right place you can glue them first. Then screw tightly. To secure the tread apply some screws behind the riser. Starting from the behind to the front will make all the things more stable and secure. Choose the best suitable & comfortable railing from the outer side of the stairs.
- Paint or color the external part
After setting up the whole stairs framing, you can paint or can apply color. Or can apply the polishing. It will totally depend on your basement background. Wooden pieces also have a different color. Sometimes applying polish can give you laziness. If you are worried about the children or old people in your house, then you can also add the carpet on the external part of the stairs riser. This will save you from any unexpected accident.
Which type of stairs is best for your basement?
The type of staircase or the type of stairs is very important for visual appearance and space consideration. When you are thinking about replacing the staircase or building a new one, you should follow different types of staircases.
You should also think about the uses of your staircase. How randomly are your family using the basement stairs? What amount of space is free to set up a staircase? To get a proper idea of the staircase, we have written down some types of staircases while considering some of the advantages & disadvantages.
Spiral Stairs
The design is based on a compact structure with a central pole. The whole stairs steps will go forward by the spiral way of the pole. At first glance, the stairs look like the snake spiral appearance. The compactness is the special feature of these stairs. At any premium type of place, you can find this type of stairs. Especially in the city area, you can find it. You can get a variation by using different expensive handrails.
It’s very critical to design without the experience of stairs settings. To apply these stairs you need to follow the code. You can’t use this staircase as the only entrance to your home. In a hurry, it is very difficult or risky to go down or up through the stairs. If you have enough space, you should keep a minimum of 5 feet diameter.
- Straight Stairs
Without changing the direction of the landing space, installing the staircase is called a straight staircase. These are the common type for the official background or for residential places. You can change the stringer with different styles. These types of stairs have some advantages and disadvantages also.
It is the easiest installing and easy to go up and down. The connection starts from the top and ends at the bottom of the space. So they have no middle space to take a rest. In a minimalist decorated home, you can apply the style. Straight stairs do not have the privacy option like the other stairs which work like a barrier.
- Ladder Stairs
If you don’t have a different pathway to go to your basement area or to the basement living room you can apply this type of stairs. This will give you easy access to your basement. At a friendly cost, you can use this style of stairs. No need to follow any building codes. It has a quick and customizable stair system. Cost-effective with a simple design and easy to move anywhere.
You can also apply the stairs to get easy access to any type of shelves or cabinets. In a descending mood, it can be hard to ascend the layout again. But you should not use this type of stairs as your primary entrance to the basement.
L-shaped stairs
When you are searching for a variation of the straight stairs, you can choose the L shape stair. Just the designer needs to bend the design at the middle portion of the staircase. Designers tend to bend like 90-degree angles. The visual appearance of this style is comparatively interesting. This design is to provide you with barrier privacy.
Building the L shape structure stairs is a little bit more difficult than the straight stairs. The builder needs support to build these stairs. You need to be more expert to install the handrail of the stairs. Any mismatch of the angle will focus the error. So the engineers need to be more careful while building the handrails of the L shape stairs.
- Winder Stairs
If you have a corner space to build a stair then you can install the Winder Style stairs. You need a pre-plan design to set up the layout. It can be pie shape or triangle structure corner transition. But the primary facility of this stair is, you can install it in a small space. You can see this common style satire case at any house entrance.
Navigating the staircase is harder than central straight stairs. Adding the handrails is more difficult. The center of the staircase needs support to build the structure strongly. Ultimately the cost of the stairs will be costlier also.
U-shaped stairs
When you have enough wide space to install the staircase, you can try this one. It is the combination of two parallel lines of straight stairs. By the joining structure, the design will create a 180-degree walk line. To the architecture, it is an easy plan to install U shape stairs. Sometimes you can see a little bit more interest in the architecture to install these style stairs.
Though it is not easier than the straight or the simple style staircase you can also install the stairs without any difficulties. Something like the structure will give you an auto shape and measurement to set up the stairs.
- Floating Staircase
Among the huge variation of the staircase, you can see different types of floating staircase depending on the basement design and background. Actually, the treads are installed without any riser to give the appearance of floating. This type of stairs has a great visual interest. Technically the treads are invisibly attached to the wall. But when you will see the structure, it seems like an invisible attachment.
The treads are installed without the riser. If you want you can add the glass or the plexiglass riser to have the minimum visibility. With the contemporary look, you should not add the handrails. You can use metal, glass, stone, or wood to build the stairs. Without the traditional look or to care about safety first, you can add a glass handrail.
- Storage Staircase
In some short space houses, you can find this type of stairs. You can use the space of stairs to store your things like shoes or other suitable things. The way is to overlook the storage spaces you can install this type of staircase. The under area of a stair usually stays free. To use those spaces and work like multi-purpose stairs the homeowners need to install this type of stairs.
You can turn every single or multiple steps of the stairs into a cabinet or drawer. When you are not able to get the full use of the underneath of your stairs you can follow this style. For taking this step you also need a support wall. Or to install the shelves will be difficult and costly.
- Bent_metal staircase
If you are searching for an intriguing staircase to create more attraction, you can install this type of stairs. There you may have a question in your mind. By which materials the stairs are created. It looks very lightweight. The appearance of the stair style is responsible for that view. But the metal is not as thin as you think. It’s more durable and sturdy than the wooden stairs.
Concrete stairs
To get a specific design as you want you can build concrete stairs. When you need to establish an industrial-grade style to decorate your house you can apply this one. Modern people also like to specify step space while setting up the stairs.
Curve as you want and add some features or design you need, you can create these concrete stairs. You can also use the concrete handrail for more safety. This type of stairs is long-lasting for any kind of house and suitable to go with heavy things.
Final Thought
In a modern house, a basement is undoubtedly an important place for entertainment, living room, guest space, and kids’ spaces. When space is lower than the floor you need to build a solid pathway to visit there regularly. The importance of basement stairs also depends on how randomly you are visiting the place. If you are using the basement as an altar space for your recreation or entertainment, you can’t overlook the stairs’ importance.
Not only for safe access but also to get a comfortable stylish entrance we install the staircases. Installing a modern design of basement stairs can improve your basement outlook also. To an inexperienced person building a nice piece of modern design, the staircase is not so easy. Before you start the project you need to know every information in detail what you can learn from this content. Visit our other pages to learn about your sweet home solutions.