Hi Jasper,

Landing steps are usually less wide than others.

The exact width depends on how you want to connect the stair with the upper floor level.

The way you connect the stair depends on the stair elements and the upper floor configuration.

For cut strings the landing step width is very important as it will determine how the sting meets the floor joist.  

The wider the landing step the higher the lower sting edge will meet the joist:

In the above drawings the left stair has a narrow landing step that makes it difficult to assemble the string to the joist.

The right stair is what I consider the best situation where the lower string edge meets the face of the joist. This then determines the right width of the landing step. However this often means that the landing step is fairly wide and reduces the total tread line which can be a problem if the stair well is a tight fit.

You have to bare in mind that you must assemble the structural lower part of the string to the joist or first floor, so in the left stair you will will either have to extend the string under the ceiling:

or use a hanging bracket or post.

This type of assembly reduces the width of the landing step and maximises the tread line length.

In your case you have plenty of room so you can set the landing step to the width that you want.

To determine the ideal width of the landing step you should make a drawing of the arrival with the string and the joist height.

If you want me to do this, I’ll need to know if you have a newel on the end of the string, what elements are around the stair well at the first floor level (assembly with eventual balustrades or railings) and the joist height.

All the best,

Ness

Hi Jesper,

Sorry to reply so late, but I’ve been away on a trade show the last week.

For your stair, unfortunately you can’t make the risers shorter in StairDesigner.

To do this you have to modify the DXF files or the production drawings by hand.

As well as this for this type of stair I would suggest that you make the risers sit on the step and eventially notch the back of the steps into the cut strings like this:

Once the StairDesigner model is set up like this you can manually reduce the riser lengths.

The risers can be just screwed from under the step as in the above image or grooved into the step like this:

In this case you’ll have to also reduce the groove length to suit.

The easiest way to check the different heights and clearances is to make a SketchUp model and insert the StairDesigner 3d DXF file.

I’ve set up and attached a quick model for you :

As you can see from the model your stair will fit neatly into the corner with no problem.

However I see that you don’t have a landing step, is this done on purpose?

In general I alway suggest using a landing step if possible.

I attach a StairDesigner model jesper02v01.sds as an example of how I would set up a stair like this.

All the best,

Ness