Tried face nailing stair stringers on a basement project and now I've got 3 crooked steps

Had a buddy tell me to just toe nail the stringers into the ledger board instead of using hangers. Said it was fine for a low traffic basement. Well after 3 months the middle stringer shifted and now steps 4 through 6 are all off by about half an inch. Planning to rip it all out this weekend and do it right with brackets. Anyone else learned this lesson the hard way and have tips for getting the level perfect when you've got a wonky basement floor?

3 comments

3 Comments

wade_dixon6d ago

Ripped out my whole basement stair set twice before I figured it out. What finally worked was using a long level across the whole run and shimming the bottom of each stringer until the level said it was good before I even touched the brackets. For the wonky floor part I cut a scrap piece of 2x4 to the exact height difference and taped it to the level so I could check the slope first. Also swapped out the cheap L brackets for the Simpson strong ties with the little teeth that bite into the wood, made a huge difference keeping everything from shifting while I screwed them in.

the_rose6d ago

@wade_dixon that 2x4 trick is genius, wish I'd thought of it sooner.

lisas786d ago

I saw a guy on YouTube use a laser level to check stringer alignment before nailing and it saved him from having to redo his whole staircase.