How a straight stair stringer gets laid out and cut — four steps
Lay out a straight flight in four moves: measure the full floor-to-floor rise, mark the sawtooth with a gauged framing square, drop the bottom riser by one tread thickness so every step stays equal, then template and cut all three stringers.
What this diagram shows
A four-panel walkthrough of laying out a straight-flight stair stringer. Panel 1: measuring the total rise from the lower finished floor up to the upper finished floor, shown as a vertical dimension between the two levels. Panel 2: a 2-by-12 with three sawtooth steps being marked by a framing square, riser on one leg and tread run on the other. Panel 3: a before-and-after of the bottom riser — on the left the uncut bottom riser is one tread thickness too tall and is marked wrong, on the right it has been dropped so every finished riser is equal and is marked correct. Panel 4: three identical stringers traced from the first as a template and dry-fit side by side.
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