Lower Stair Angle?

[man_water]

I have a set of carpeted stairs connecting the 1st and 2nd floors that seem too steep and could use a little more foot space on the treads. I was thinking of building new stringers and lowering the angle a little. This would also elongate the treads. The current 2nd floor header would become the first step. Is it possible to run the new stringers under this header to another joist or build a new header under the current one to attach the top of the stringers? Are there metal hangers that might help here? There is a load bearing wall under the upper portion of the stairs that can be used for support. Is this a completely crazy idea?

Thanks,
Willi

[bkrahmer]

One problem that I could foresee, that I'm not sure if you've thought of: If you elongate the length of the treads, near the bottom of the stairs, you may induce a skull-cracker. You'll need (should!) keep 6'8" of headroom at any point on the stair. Is it still possible to lengthen the stairs with that in mind?

[mjpliv]

Before installing your stringers, determine what your finished tread thickness will be. Remove the same amount of material from the bottom of the stringers. This will lower the whole assembly by the thickness of your treads. When you put the treads on, all your rises will be the same, including the first and the last one.

An easy way to attachthe stringers at the top is to cut a piece of 1/2" ply the width of the opening and the height of one rise plus the height of the plumb cut on the stringer end. Nail through the plywood into the stringer plumb cuts to create a stringer assembly. When you place the stringers in place, verify your treads are level and your rises are consistant then nail through the plywood into the stairwell trimmer. I will follow up this post with a sketch.

Also, if you have remove the drywall/plaster from the stairwell opening, ass a piece of 1x4 to the outside face of the ouside stringers as a spacer. That way when you re-drywall, the sheets can slide behind the stringers (saves trying to cut around the run and rise cuts on the stringers). When you add the risers and the treads they can be fitted to the face of the finished drywall.

[mjpliv]

here is a sketch

[man_water]

bkrahmer: There's a vaulted ceiling all the way up to the 2nd floor above the stairs. So no problem with head room anywhere. The old treads might be ok with just a slightly less angle too. Need to see how things go.

mjpliv: Thanks for the sketch. That's close to what I had in mind. I'm not sure if the the stringer will catch that top header (trimmer?) or slip underneath it. I'll need to measure and see when things are more apart. I was hoping to not have to open up the side drywall. The underneath will be completely open after removing some drywall.

[mjpliv]

The stringer does not actually have to reach the trimmer because you will have the 1/2" ply between and spanning the two. The plywood gets nailed to the stringers (all of them) first. Then lift the whole assembley in place. Then you nail through the plywood (in the opposite direction) into the trimmer. This solves two problems -

One - the stringers are supported by the full height of the plumb cut instead of just an inch or so on the bottom of the bottom of the trimmer.

Two - you are not chewing up the ends of the stringers by trying to toenail through a few inches of material.

[man_water]

Thanks again. Good points. That should work fine then.