Manual of Purpose-Made Woodworking Joinery

Designing, setting out and making stairs 115

steps; two or three angled glue- blocks are glued and

rub- jointed into position – as illustrated in Figure

6.44(a) – and, if necessary, these may be fixed with

panel pins whilst testing the upstanding riser board of

each step with a try square. The steps are set aside in

one or two stacks of riser- up, riser- down formation.

After allowing for the glue to set, preferably until

the next day, the steps are positioned in the dry hous-

ings of the wall- string laid face up on a stair- assembly

bench and the opposite (outer) string is placed on top.

stage – although this is less so with modern adhesives.
However, contrary to the recommendations of BS
585:1972, in my experience the practice has always
been to dry- house the steps into the strings and only
glue the wedges.
To improve on this traditional practice, the fol-
lowing method has been tried and proved to be
successful – but is more time- consuming.
After cleaning up (sanding) all visible surfaces, each
tread and riser are glued together to form separate

4 12

12

15

Wedges should be of hardwood,

which is less likely to shrink

10

9

Figure 6.44 (b) After knocking up the treads to fit the nosing- housings tightly (with a claw hammer and ‘hammering
block’), the tread- wedges are the first to be glued and driven- in. In practice, this is best done more thoroughly and speed-
ily by generously brushing glue into the housing (and underside of tread), inserting the wedge, pressing it in against
the string with the finger- tips and then hammering it in. After the tread- wedges are trimmed to allow entry for the riser
wedges, glue is applied again and they are driven in as before. The trimming of the wedges, as described above,
completes the gluing- up and stair- assembly.

1 2

2

1

Back-side of riser

Pocket

screws

1) Modern pocket-screwing

2) Traditional method

Figure 6.44 (c) Note that the top riser of a flight of stairs and the ‘top tread’ (the latter known in the trade as a ‘landing-
nosing’ or ‘nosing- piece’) – both illustrated above – are not fixed in the joinery works. This is partly because the rebate
of the nosing- piece often requires ‘easing’ to suit the floor thickness, but mostly because one end of the riser needs to
be screwed to the newel- post housing – and the newel(s) are not fixed at the joinery stage. The reasons for this are for
easier transportation, manoeuvrability through doorways and other practical issues involved in the fitting and fixing. In
total, stairs usually arrive on site separated from the newel posts, the balustrade, the bottom step(s) (if one or two protrude
beyond the newel), the top riser, the landing nosings and the apron linings.