I'm currently finishing our basement. I have done almost all the remodeling myself in our basement including building cabinets, framing windows & doors & building a fireplace mantel, among others. Now I only have one area to complete, but my dilemma is the stairway that leads down into the basement. It has a space less the 1/2 inch at the top of the stairs to more than 2" at the bottom from the poured foundation wall. I thought I could solve the problem by removing a 2 x 3 that was anchored to the basement floor & positioned between the stringer & the foundation wall, plus also remove a 2 x 6 from inside the stringer that is furtherest from the wall. After removing both of these boards, I still could not position the bottom of the stairs any closer to the wall. Please help
Linda M Hayden
Nixa, Missouri
Linda,
What do mean? Did you purchase pre-build stringers? You cannot bow lumber, unless you put it in a steam box. And for stringers, they should be prefectly straight. Every set of stairs in a house is totally different, and need to be designed and built as such. If you do not know how to build a set of stringers, then you need to hire someone to design and build the stringers for you. They will design and build them to fit the structure, and to replace the structure where needed. You may not be able to set the stringer directly against the wall at some point. But there are certain rules that must be followed.
If you could take some pictures, that may help for better understanding of your issue.
Andrew
Handy Andy In Mt Airy NC
The stairs & stringers were already there. I know that you can't force the the already existing stairs/treads/stringers to move, but I thought if I removed the 2 x 3 from the base of the stairs that appeared to keep the existing stairs away from the foundation, that I could move the base of closer to the wall. But that wasn't the case. Is there something else that can be done to rememdy the situation other than replacing the entire structure? I downloaded a picture of the existing stairs.
Linda