Box Stairs for the Dummy Carpenter

Box stair framing

Our DIY staffers love it when we find one of our more... "creative" awardees stepping outside of their beloved comfort zones to pick up a few extra cents from the nice people at eHow.com. Today's is once such occasion, a day in which a repeat DotD with advanced degrees in "creative writing" and "math education" tries her hand at a carpentry primers. Please welcome to the nomination stand Stephanie Ellen (also known as S. Deviant), whom we found attempting to explain "How to Make Stairs Out of a Box," now residing at HomeSteady.com

Ellen plugged the question into her favorite search engine and found out that there is something called "box stairs" and that there was a website with instructions. "Hooray!" she said, "My post is written!" And so Stephanie performed a classic copy-reword-paste job on that post which, the house carpenters allow, is of acceptable quality. As is so often the case with eHow's contributors, failure to understand what she was rewording led to some problems.

First, though, Stephanie had to write an introduction explaining the task, an intro that included the following:

"...Box stairs have the advantage of being easier to build. They are also sturdier than traditional steps. While traditional stairs use stair stringers as a basis for steps, box stairs use a series of pressure-treated wood boxes..."

A couple of points, Steph: your reference doesn't say that box steps are "sturdier," because that's not necessarily true. It's especially unlikely to be true if the reader follows your instructions. Second, that  "pressure-treated" specification? that's for decks. You wouldn't want to do that in your family room.

So let's get to Ellen's instructions:

• Measure for the stairs.
• Build "boxes" of 2-by-6 stock (in which Steph forgets to allow for the 1½" thickness of a 2-by-6 when constructing her box).
• "Cut the 1 1/4-inch-by-6-inch boards to the width of your stairs."
• "Place the second box in position on top of the first box, then screw the boxes securely together up through the base of the second box. Complete Step 5 for the topmost box."

We noticed that Stephanie changed the reference's "5/4x6 deck boards" to "1 1/4-inch-by-6-inch boards," clearly revealing her unfamiliarity with the terminology of carpentry and lumber. We also note that Steph failed to mention the blocking required inside the boxes to prevent flexing of the treads (probably didn't know what "blocking" means). She also neglected to mention any overhang on the treads, which is necessary to make the stairs look "finished." As for the the bit about securing the boxes together by "[screwing] up through the base of the second box," that''s not just ambiguous, it's also not what her reference said. The reference chosen by our Dumbass of the Day (and every other reference we've found) says to construct the box frames and strap them together (and to the deck) before adding the treads.

But who are we to argue with someone with a degree in creative writing?

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