Help identify stairs for garage

[thebordella]

Hi,

I am new to this message board and have been reading/searching old discussions about garage stairs. My house has a large loft area about 9 feet above the floor. Currently the only way to get up there is an old ladder with wooden rungs, but this isn't really suitable for carrying up heavier objects or larger boxes.

Then I found this post from 2008:

http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=254977&postcount=13

Notice the gray stairs in the bottom picture. Putting aside the winches and mechanics (I don't need mine to lift), this looks like a nice simple stair. I need about the same number of steps and the angle looks good. I have been reading about building stairs and most of the articles talk about stringers cut to support each step -- but these stringers don't look cut at all. How are the steps attached to each stringer? With braces or brackets on the insides?

What would you call this kind of stair? Can I buy one pre-made or would I build this myself? I really would like the exact same stair in this picture!

thanks in advance-
Aaron

 

[ghnl]

'Pre-made' stairs will rarely fit exactly. A reasonably handy person could make that type of staircase fairly easily. You can either use 2X lumber as the outside stringers and attach cleats or angle iron to it to hold the stair treads -or- cut short lengths of angled lumber to fill the spaces between & support the treads. Carefully pick out the lumber for the stringers - find pieces that are straight and without knots or splits.

One important feature of proper stairs is that all the 'risers' are equally spaced (including the very bottom & very top step).

 

[tcianci]

You can buy stair brackets made by Simpson StrongTie, the same guys that make joist hangers and such. HD has them. They are heavy steel angles that you can mount to the inside faces of your stringers and them mount the treads to them.