# Deck: how to attach stringers



## jklingel (Dec 21, 2008)

I don't know about laughable, but interesting. Any pics? Drawings?


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## 10Thumbs (May 27, 2011)

*Photo*

Hi JKlingel, here's a view from underneath the
stairs of the way the stringers attach to the "silly sticks"

Sorry about the false color -- result of compressing it 
down to the allowed file size. In my browser (google
chrome) it shows way-too-zoomed-in, and you need
first to zoom out a bit with control-mouse-wheel to see
the whole pic.
/jim


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## Daniel Holzman (Mar 10, 2009)

That is pretty amusing. You attach the stringers to the hanger board using stair stringer brackets, which are adjustable galvanized brackets made by Simpson or competitor, specifically designed to attach stringers to a hanger board. Typically the brackets take 10d galvanized nails. You need to make sure the hanger board is very solid. Usually it is attached to the deck posts, which may not be possible in your case. If you have no posts or other solid vertical framing to attach to, you may be able to use Simpson or equivalent framing brackets to attach to existing framing, but is it hard to know exactly what framing to attach to and what connectors to use without being there.


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## 10Thumbs (May 27, 2011)

*Vertical Framing*



Daniel Holzman said:


> That is pretty amusing.


Yeah, I was thinking so. Glad to see someone shares my sense of humor!


Daniel Holzman said:


> You attach the stringers to the hanger board using stair stringer brackets, which are adjustable galvanized brackets made by Simpson or competitor, specifically designed to attach stringers to a hanger board. Typically the brackets take 10d galvanized nails.


I guess this is a stair stringer bracket like you mean:

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...age=2&ndsp=52&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:46&tx=40&ty=56


But a 10d nail is 3" long, and would pass right through the hanger board and through the stringer (2" thick) too, except the one nail that goes into the endgrain of the stringer. ??



Daniel Holzman said:


> You need to make sure the hanger board is very solid. Usually it is attached to the deck posts, which may not be possible in your case. If you have no posts or other solid vertical framing to attach to, you may be able to use Simpson or equivalent framing brackets to attach to existing framing, but is it hard to know exactly what framing to attach to and what connectors to use without being there.


At one side, there is a post (metal 3 or 4" pipe on concrete footing) that holds up the corner of the deck. So there is vertical support there (setting aside the question of how to hook into it). At the other side of the stair there is no vertical support at all. Short of putting in another pipe and concrete footing, it's hard to see how one could get any. Sigh.

There are examples where the stringer is extended under the deck so it eventually connects to the second joist. That could be done here, but it still doesn't provide any vertical support.

/jim


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## jklingel (Dec 21, 2008)

That looks like a creative solution to an IF'dU deal. Any way to put the bottom of the stairs on a concrete or PT wood frame to raise them, and hang the stair stringers onto one of those 2x10s? I'd also likely put some kind of post(s) under them, just for stink and giggles.


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## 10Thumbs (May 27, 2011)

*Followup*

Well, in the end I didn't go with the hanger board. I cut the stringer longer, so there was a "step" extending up under the deck between the rim joist and the next one. Then I secured it as best I could. See attached photo.

Only about 2" of it reached the second joist, however, so to use a joist hanger there, I tacked on a triangular bit. I think this is fine for purely vertical support. It cannot move forward/back since it is trapped between the two joists and fits pretty flush. But it could conceivably move sideways, sliding off the triangular bit, so I used some twisty-thing hangers inside the rim joist to hold it in that dimension as well. The only thing I didn't use was duct tape.

Now the remaining concern I have is that the critical dimension on a stringer is the distance between the deepest cut and the opposite side of the board, which, I have read, is supposed to be at least 5 1/2 ". The rest of my steps are fine, but it only about 4" on the last step up under the deck, the one in the photo, because that step is deeper (because it has to reach under the rim joist before rising again).

So are there any further reinforcements that can be applied to strengthen that weak spot?

I have the same problem on some other stairs, where I was not replacing the old stringers. They are longer (8 or 9 steps) and only about 4" at the critical dimension. So I might reinforce them similarly.

Thanks
Jim


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