What is the best way to make fasteners for the string of stairs. Instructions for making a bowstring for a ladder with your own hands

Any staircase rests on a supporting beam, which can be made like a stringer or bowstring.

Bowstrings allow you to maximally adapt the staircase to the characteristics of a particular interior, thus making it elegant and modern.

When supported on strings, the steps are placed between adjacent boards, attached to them at their ends.

It turns out that if you attach the steps to the strings, then their ends, unlike installation on stringers, will be hidden, and the profile view of the stairs will be inclined and even. If you use only one string, then the second end of the step can be mounted into the wall. Stair steps can be with risers (closed) or without them (open), then either the horizontal part of the step or only the horizontal part is attached to the string.

The fencing of the staircase, which makes it reliable and convenient, is formed using balusters (vertical support posts), attached at the top to the railing, and at the bottom attached to the beam, with such frequency that the gap between adjacent posts does not exceed 15 cm. This ensures a safety margin. To protect it from cracking due to deformation under the influence of the environment, a wooden staircase should be made from the same types of wood with fencing and fastenings. Flights of stairs, landings, and railings are connected together by balusters, so they must be especially reliable.

For stairs supported by bowstrings, you can place balusters relative to the steps in any place, since they are mainly attached to the beams, and not to the steps. The easiest way is to attach the posts to the outside of the bowstring. Then it is enough to screw them on the side with screws, having previously drilled recesses for them, and covered them with wooden dowels on top for masking. You can put a beam on top of the edge using a baluster (a board slightly wider than the bowstring), which has a groove at the bottom the size of the width of the bowstring, onto which it fits on top. The racks are placed on the baluster from above, screwed from below with self-tapping screws. Then the structure is coated with wood glue and placed on the bowstring, fastened with clamps. Balusters can be mounted on a beam using dowels, round fastening tenons, drilling holes half their length in the posts and string so that there is no play. All dowels are tightly inserted into the holes of the posts, fixed with glue, then the railings are fastened to the bowstring with the lower halves of the dowels.

Return to contents

We fix the racks

Attaching the stands to the bowstring is possible using pins. Take tools:

• miter saw;
• drill.

Materials:

• bowstring;
• railing posts;
• standard galvanized studs (M6 thread);
• PVA glue).

Perform in stages:

1. Mark the places for installing railing posts.
2. The racks from below are cut with a saw at an angle (the angle of inclination of the beam).
3. From below, at the ends of the racks, holes are drilled (80 mm deep, drill with a diameter of 12 mm).
4. The pins are placed on glue and inserted into the holes, leaving the ends about 7 cm.
5. Holes are made in the bowstring with a drill with a diameter of 14 mm to a depth of 100 mm.
6. Balusters are inserted with pins into these holes, securing first the outer posts, then the rest.

Return to contents

How to install steps

The steps themselves are attached to the strings by cutting them into a beam or mounting them on supporting elements. These are corners or bars that are screwed to the beam with screws along the line of the tread, the horizontal parts of the steps. The treads are similarly attached to the supports with screws. You can make a staircase with steps cut into a string, in which grooves of the same (2 cm) depth are made with some indentation from the top edge, then treads with risers are inserted into them. Sometimes, using the simplest method, the steps are secured by screwing them into the end with screws. outside boards.

A staircase will be reliable and stable if its strings are connected to the balusters. Then the beam consists of sections that are attached to the grooves of the balusters using protrusions. At the same time, loads with upper parts the strings are redistributed onto the fence posts, and when used, the entire staircase, including strings, steps and balusters, turns into a single, interconnected system.

Return to contents

Mortise mount

To make a mortise mount to a bowstring, the following tools are used:

• manual milling machine;
• drill;
• jigsaw;
• bit;
• screwdriver.

Materials:

• screws;
• wooden slats;
• plywood sheet;
• treads and risers;
• bowstrings.

Perform actions:

1. The string is marked using a plywood tread template (or a tread with a riser), cut taking into account calculations for a march with the required slope and number of steps.
2. We draw a reference line on the bowstring, retreating 50 mm from its edge.
3. We will nail guide rails to the template, which will “slide” along the top edge of the board. Moving the template, we mark the zigzag markings of the steps so that its vertices lie on the reference line. At the top, the marking line ends at the level of the second floor landing, and at the bottom, the end of the tread corresponds to the floor.
4. Grooves are made in the bowstring (chosen at an angle to the grain line). In order to make the grooves efficiently, it is better to cut them using a stencil from plywood, making a hole in it using a drill and jigsaw, slightly larger than the width of the tread and riser and located at the same angle of inclination with the lines on the markings.
5. We place the beam on the trestle, and place the stencil on it, aligning it with the image of the first tread, and nail it.
6. Using a milling machine, moving clockwise, we select a groove to a depth of 20 mm, then working with a chisel in the corners.
7. Having completed the required number of holes, we assemble the structure by coating the ends of the steps and grooves with glue.
8. Treads with risers are fastened with screws; the steps can also be additionally attached with screws outside bowstrings, deepening them and closing them with wooden plugs.

The grooves for the steps must be made with high precision so that the stairs do not wobble or creak. In the strings of stairs with embedded steps, under them, for strength, place (every 4-5 steps) tightening metal rods or bolts at the ends of the treads, if there are no risers, i.e. viewable stairs.

Fastening stair steps depends on the design of the staircase and the materials used, the covering of steps and load-bearing elements, the planned exterior finishing. Let's consider possible options fastening wooden steps in wooden stairs.

There are two main designs of wooden stairs: on stringers and with bowstrings. For quick understanding: stringers- these are the load-bearing elements on which steps are attached on top, A bowstrings mounted on the sides of the stairs and steps are attached between them or between the bowstring and the wall.

Attaching the steps of a wooden staircase to a stringer

In stringer stairs, the stringer absorbs the entire load-bearing load, so fastening the feet solves two problems - fixing the steps from displacement and vibration, as well as hiding the fact of fastening in open, visible structures.

The most simple option installation involves drilling the steps and fastening them through with powerful self-tapping screws to the stringer. Self-tapping screws are used with decorative heads, screwed in, or the surface of the step is drilled to a shallow depth with a large drill and a decorative polymer plug is installed. Similar view fastenings are often used in do-it-yourself stairs. It is worth paying attention to the fact that steps should only be drilled feather drills at high drill speeds, which will prevent chipping at the mouth of the hole.

IN open stairs steps can be installed without casing in a hidden way using cotter pins. In this case, the tread and stringer are drilled exactly to fit the diameter of the cotter pins and installed with glue. This option is not suitable for dynamically moving stairs with a stringer of small cross-section or steps that are too wide, which will sag under load and destroy the adhesive joint.

In staircases under the cladding, the step can be secured through a block or corner made of metal, fixed in the right places on the inside of the stringer. The photo shows a fastening option using a tie rod with a threaded tread and a sheet (for example, plywood) hemmed underneath.

Attaching the steps of a wooden staircase to a bowstring

The main methods of attaching steps to strings:

1. a support block for the step, secured to a string;
2. a metal bracket for the step, screwed through with self-tapping screws or bolts to the string;
3. pad or bump on inner part bowstrings, according to the principle of a zigzag stringer;
4. selection of grooves for steps in the string (exactly in size or for the option of wedging the tread and riser during assembly).

The first two options for attaching steps to a ladder on bowstrings can be considered the most cost-effective and often used in self-production stairs However, for greater security, the third and fourth options are preferable.

Bars, brackets or overlays can only be used in the construction of staircases for sheathing. In transparent, unlined stairs, you need to hide the fact of the fasteners and the grooves do an excellent job of this task, in addition, transferring the entire load from the steps directly to the string.

Attaching the steps of a wooden staircase to the wall

In some cases, it may be more practical to secure one side of the tread to a stringer or bowstring, and fasten the other side directly to the wall. This is the most popular fastening method for staircases on rails, which have become fashionable today, when the steps on one side are pulled together with metal pins, bushings (bolts) and a handrail with posts into a single whole, and the other side is mounted on the wall.

Attaching wooden steps to the wall can be done by embedding them into the wall (this is labor-intensive and depends on the thickness of the supporting wall + if the depth of embedding is shallow, the niche will gradually break when walking up the stairs) or by laying it on support element(bar, corner, decorative turned element), directly attached to the wall. Typically, anchors, embedded studs or powerful self-tapping screws are used for fastening if the wall is wooden.

In bolted staircases, an option is used when a corner of the shelf at the bottom with the dimensions of the end of the step is attached to the wall with anchors. In the steps, the bottom plane is milled to the depth and width of the corner flange + holes are drilled from the end using a feather drill to hide the anchor nuts.

Still, the most beautiful stairs are obtained from specialists in their field who have gained experience on real objects and who understand how many little things arise during installation and operation of them during life. Excellent examples of wooden staircases can be viewed on the website http://lestnichnik.com.ua/, and if someone wishes, they can order such a staircase for their home. These are high-quality works of art, combining graceful chiseled balusters, carved decorative ornaments support pillars and handrail finishing, high-quality monolithic tinting with a soft coating of varnish, conveying all the delights of the natural structure of wood.

There are several ways to attach your feet to the bowstring. The most in a simple way the steps can be secured using support bars or corners (see Fig. 66, c, e). To do this, nail or screw along the tread line to the bowstring wooden blocks or metal corners with holes for screws. The steps are attached to support bars or corners using screws. Despite the fact that this method is the simplest, it is rarely used in practice. A flight of stairs made using this method looks rough and can be placed in utility rooms or other places where high aesthetic requirements are not imposed on the stairs. In our opinion, the implementation of this method is available home handyman without high qualifications, so we will not dwell on it in detail. Sometimes the steps are simply attached to the bowstring and secured with screws screwed in from the front side (Fig. 66, d). This method is called end-mounting. But in this case, the fastening strength is low, since the steps are held in place only by screws. Therefore, this method can only be used in exceptional cases when other fastening is impossible. The loads on such steps should be minimal. The fastening method using a secret groove made in the bowstring helps to avoid this drawback (Fig. 66, b). In this case, the step receives additional emphasis on the edges of the groove and the possible load on such a step increases.

Fastening in groove with remainder(Fig. 66, a) is quite reliable. To do this, two counter grooves are cut out in the string and the steps, with the help of which fastening is performed. The advantages of this method include its greater reliability. In addition, the strings of such a ladder will never come apart during operation. Essentially, this method is a transitional option from a ladder with bowstrings to a ladder with stringers. Appearance such a staircase will look more like a staircase with stringers. The disadvantages of this method include the artificial lowering of the load-bearing capacity of the step and string due to counter-grooves. When loads are applied to the step from the groove side, the wood fibers may peel off, and half of the step may break off. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to additionally secure the front edges of the steps. Therefore, despite the apparent advantages of the method of fastening into a groove with a remainder, it is not used very often. The installation of railings in such a staircase is carried out according to the methods of fastening to stairs with stringers (that is, not to a bowstring, but to a stringer, which will be discussed later).

Fastening steps using various tenon joints are shown in Fig. 74. Such connections are called middle knitting. Despite the complexity of manufacturing, these connections are durable and have improved aesthetic qualities compared to the methods described above. Let's look at them in more detail.

Rice. 74. :
a - in a wide groove; b - in a narrow groove with one shoulder; c - into a narrow groove with two shoulder pads; g - reward with one shoulder pad;
d - reward with two shoulder pads; e - reward with flat spikes; g - using dowels

Connecting steps using dowels(Fig. 74, g) is considered the least labor-intensive. But in this case, the load-bearing capacity of the steps will be determined only by the strength of the dowels and walls of the sockets in the steps. Therefore, this method can only be used when large loads will not be applied to the steps of the stairs. The diameter of the dowels in this case should be maximum (8-10 mm), and their number on one side of the step should be at least three. Dowels should extend into solid wood at a distance of at least 20 mm.

Connecting steps using spikes(Fig. 74, e) more durable. But difficulties in accurately marking spikes and sockets impose certain restrictions on its use. The strength of the steps in this case will be determined by the strength of the spikes made in their sides and must comply with regulatory requirements.

Connected to the award with one or two shoulder pads(Fig. 74, d, e), made in the form of a beveled solid spike (type dovetail), holds the bowstrings so that they do not diverge in different directions. This method does not require additional fastening flight of stairs from possible divergence of bowstrings. However, the use of the award fastening method is limited by the fact that the step tenon can only be inserted into the bowstring groove from the side position. Therefore, this method can only be used in flights of stairs made without a reference line of bowstrings.

Narrow groove joints with one or two shoulders(Fig. 74, b, c) are quite effective. But they are used less often due to the fact that they have to perform additional work for the manufacture of shoulder pads, which also weaken the strength of the steps.

Wide groove connection(Fig. 74, a) is devoid of all the previously mentioned disadvantages and therefore is used most often. Therefore, in the future we will talk about this connection, calling it simply a groove connection. With this method, the end of the step fits into a groove made in the string, providing a sufficiently large load-bearing capacity of the flight of stairs.

So, if you decide to attach the steps to the groove, then you should make precise markings. The boundary of the groove should be taken as the line of the tread made when marking the bowstring. A piece of board with a width and thickness equal to the corresponding dimensions of the steps can serve as a template for marking. For it, you can use the segment obtained during the manufacture of steps. To mark, the template is applied to the line of the bowstring obtained during preliminary marking, and traced with a pencil, obtaining the contours of the groove.

A flight of stairs can be made with or without risers. IN in this case The riser is not a mandatory part of the flight of stairs and its production is dictated by the following conditions. If children use the stairs, then between the elements of the flight of stairs there should be no gaps exceeding 10-15 cm. Therefore, in order to prevent the child from sticking his head between two steps, the space between them is completely or partially covered with a riser (Fig. 75) (called sometimes muted).

Rice. 75. :
1 - riser; 2 - tread; 3 - bowstring (kosour); 4 - railing post; 5 - connection of the riser with the tread (in a narrow groove)

In addition, a solid riser can serve as an additional reinforcement of the step against sagging if the thickness of the board from which the step is made is insufficient. The presence of a solid riser makes the flight of stairs closed, so accidentally fallen objects and debris cannot fall through the gaps in the flight. But most often the installation of risers is dictated by purely aesthetic considerations. If you decide to make a staircase with risers, then their marking and fastening can be done using all the methods we have listed for steps. If the strength of the steps is sufficient, then to simplify the design of the stairs, you can omit the grooves for the risers, limiting yourself to attaching them to the step and to the “end” with a bowstring. The length of the riser in this case will be less than the length of the step by twice the distance at which the step enters the groove of the bowstring. Such a riser should be placed symmetrically relative to the step.

Installing stairs to the second floor is a long and expensive process. To make it as easy as possible, you need to be properly prepared. For more convenience, preparatory work can be divided into 3 stages:

1. design (drawing creation);
2. selection of necessary materials;
3. preparation of tools.

Installation of a spiral staircase: a brief description

Since the shape of the screw structure differs from the marching varieties, the installation principle here is different. It is recommended to install such a staircase to the next floor in the following order:

1. a drawing is drawn up;
2. Based on the calculations, structural elements are manufactured;
3. in the selected location, the lower support unit is installed and secured to the floor;
4. a vertical stand is inserted into the unit;
5. the steps in the tripod are pinched (or placed on it);
6. a platform is installed at the floor level of the second floor and a support rod is secured;
7. Balusters are inserted into the holes on the steps, onto which the railings are placed.

Installation of finished spiral staircase

Installation wooden stairs requires a careful approach and attentiveness from the master. Incorrect calculation or poor quality fixation of elements can negatively affect the strength and durability of the structure. For this reason, the assembly staircase design must be carried out with special attention.

The most convenient option is to attach the steps to the stringer at the top. This option for fastening steps, in turn, can also be divided into several fastening methods:

1. Fastening the step to the stringer, leaving the head of the hardware on the surface of the step, bolt-nut or bolt-thread connection in the stringer.
2. Attaching the step to the stringer with the hardware head partially recessed into the step. The connection is the same as in the first method.

If you choose the first method of attaching the steps to the staircase frame, then in this case it is necessary to purchase bolts with a decorative head and, preferably, a turnkey hexagon. When installing such bolts, the decorative cap will serve as an additional decoration for the staircase, and if the fastening of the steps becomes loose during operation of the staircase, then tightening or replacing the fastening material can be done without hindrance, because access to the bolt and nuts in this case is free and nothing interferes with repairs. works

When choosing the second method, when the head of the hardware is partially recessed into the step and the hole is closed from above with a wooden plug or putty. In this case, repairing the steps (replacing or tightening the fastening) will be difficult, since we will have to drill out a wooden plug in order to get to the head of the hardware, and this, you will agree, is not a very convenient option for repairing steps or tightening the fastening.

In principle, these two methods of attaching steps to a stringer have almost equal chances of being used, and therefore we will consider both methods in this article. Now we need to decide on the hardware, that is, choose the most suitable bolts for the connection wooden products, in our case it is a wooden step. Next, we need to select hardware suitable for both methods.

As you can see in the photo, self-tapping screw No. 1 (on a yellow background) is suitable for fastening a step from the bottom of the stringer; accordingly, it is not suitable for the methods of fastening the step we have chosen, so let’s move on immediately to considering other hardware.

The same photo on the right shows a countersunk head bolt (No. 2). This bolt has a countersunk head with a mustache; when installing such a bolt into a hole made in wooden steps, while tightening the nut, the bolt will not be able to rotate, since the mustache, when tightened, cuts into the wood and serves as a kind of stopper. The hole is closed from above with a wooden plug (to the left of the bolt).

The photo below shows furniture bolts with a semicircular head. There is a carriage under the head of the No. 3 bolt and a carriage under the head of the No. 4 bolt. These bolts, just like bolt No. 2 in their design feature will not rotate in the wooden step while tightening the nut. The only thing is that the heads of bolts No. 3 and 4 will remain on top of the step.

All that remains is to select the bolts. Let's choose bolt No. 4 for the first method of fastening the step and bolt No. 2 for the second method of fastening the step.

Next, we will make markings for through holes in the stringers of the stairs. We need to make at least two holes in the support corner of the left and right stringers. Let's look at an example of calculating the location of holes:

First, let's determine the center of the hole. To do this, measure 20 mm from the edge of the stringer (half the width of the corner flange) and draw the X axis. Next, measure 40 mm from end A and draw the Y axis, measure 60 mm from end B and draw the Y1 axis, at the intersection of the axes we get the center of future holes .

The diameter of the holes depends on the diameter of the bolts with which we will fasten the steps. Let's take as an example the bolts we selected in photo 3. Bolt No. 2 (DIN 604) and bolt No. 4 (DIN 607) - bolt diameter 8 mm. This means that to make holes we will need a drill with a diameter greater than 8 mm, for example 8.5 mm. The use of a drill with a large diameter is not recommended in order to ensure the tightest possible installation of the bolt.

Now you need to make holes in the steps. We mark the locations of the holes in the steps so that they coincide with the holes in the stringers.

If you and I use bolt No. 2 with a countersunk head to fasten the steps, then in this case we need to drill two holes. The first hole is through with a diameter of 8...8.2 mm. Through this hole we will install a bolt with a partial recess of its head, so we need to make another hole with a diameter of 17 mm and a depth of at least 15 mm, as shown in Figure 7 (footnote on the right). Why is the hole depth exactly 15 mm?

As can be seen from Figure 7, the head of bolt No. 2 has a diameter of 16.55 mm and a height of 5 mm. This means that when installing the bolt, the head will take up at least 3...4 mm in height, and we need the remaining height of the hole to install a wooden plug with a height of 10...12 mm. Therefore, you and I will make a second hole with a depth of at least 15 mm.

When using bolt No. 4, we only need to drill one through hole with a diameter of 8...8.2 mm. In order for the whisker to cut into the step, you can make several not too strong blows with a rubber mallet on the head of the bolt. With each blow, the bolt will lower, and the mustache will crash into the step, and then when the nut is tightened, the bolt will not turn.

Installing steps and risers on stairs

So, the steps are ready to be installed on the stairs. After we figure it out, we can begin installing steps and risers on the stairs.

Let's start with the lower flight of stairs, first install the lower frieze step (A), attach it to the stringer using four bolts, for example, with a countersunk head, and install wooden plugs. Then we install the riser (B) and the second step (C), and also attach the step to the stringer. In the same order of riser - step, we continue installing steps on the entire staircase.

The procedure for installing hardware is shown in the figure in the footnote. First we install the bolt, then we put a washer and screw on the bolt and after that we screw and tighten the nut.

Note: and we will install the lower riser after installing the staircase railing.