Highlights –

A typical flight of stairs has 13 to 16 steps. The average length (vertical height) of a flight is 8 1/2 to 11 feet. Your local building codes impact the number of steps and other dimensions. Work with an architect or stair builder for the best design and structure.

Get quotes from up to 3 pros ! Enter a zip below and get matched to top-rated pros near you. Whether you’re adding a new set of stairs or replacing an old flight, it’s critical to know how many steps are in a flight of stairs. In most cases, there are 13 to 16 steps, but it depends on the height of your ceiling and a few other factors.

What is considered 1 flight of stairs?

What is a Flight of Stairs? A flight of stairs is defined as two or more steps linked together by common risers and treads.

How many steps is 2 flights of stairs?

Number of Steps for 10-foot Ceilings – 10 feet ceilings are used when you want a spacious, grander feel for your room. The downside is that you incur higher heating and cooling costs. In terms of the number of steps, the minimum number of steps here is 16.

Number of Steps Required for 10ft Ceiling (IRC 2018)

How many stairs is 3 flights?

Fitness: Who has the biggest heart — swimmers or runners? –

What’s the goal for anyone hoping to realize the health and fitness benefits of taking the stairs? An overview of the research suggests that 30-160 minutes of vigorous stair climbing a week for eight to 12 weeks will boost cardiovascular fitness. But in keeping with the trend toward shorter, more intense workouts, a research team from McMaster University recruited 24 university students to perform a series of short, fast stair intervals.

The students climbed three flights of stairs (60 steps) three times a day with one to four hours recovery between bouts — a protocol they followed three days a week for six weeks. With instructions to climb the stairs one step at a time as quickly as possible, using the railings as needed, the stair climbers realized a five-per-cent boost in aerobic fitness.

This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Another stair-climbing study, also performed by a McMaster University research team, involved two sets of subjects. One group performed 20-second bouts of stair climbing (about three to four storeys) three times, with two minutes recovery between each interval.

The second group performed 60-second bouts of repeatedly ascending and descending either one or two flights of stairs, three times with 60 seconds recovery between intervals. The two groups performed their workouts three days a week for six weeks. The 20-second and 60-second interval workouts resulted in similar heart rate response and fitness gains, though the study subjects preferred the repeated bouts of 20 seconds of stair climbing over the 60-second intervals of continually climbing up and down one or two flights.

They claimed to find the quick changes in direction destabilizing. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The McMaster studies add to the fitness options for people looking for another simple, accessible, time efficient workout to help achieve their weekly fitness goals.

But to be clear, we’re not talking about the type of stair climbing you do while dressed in business casual. These 10-minute workouts demand a level of intensity that brings on a sweat. But it’s not just the potential to improve health and fitness that makes stair climbing such a great workout option.

Climbing the stairs is a functional day-to-day task that requires balance and agility, both of which deteriorate as the decades add up. The ability to go up and down stairs quickly and with confidence is a task worthy of preserving. Use a set of stairs at home or at the office that will sustain a climb for a minimum of 20 seconds (about 60 steps) or a single/double flight of stairs that can accommodate quick changes in direction.

Why do staircases have 13 steps?

This is to minimize the number of trips and falls. And the vertical distance between floors is fairly standard, given usual ceiling heights and joists supporting the upper floor. The result usually falls between 13 and 15.

Is 4 flights of stairs a lot?

– Climbing four flights of stairs can indicate your risk for early death from heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses. If you fail the test, it is an opportunity to speak with your doctor to discover why and develop an exercise plan that includes daily breathlessness.

How much is 4 flights of stairs?

How fast should you go up stairs? – Participants first walked or ran on a treadmill, with the intensity gradually increasing, until they became exhausted. Researchers measured the results in metabolic equivalents (METs), which reveals a link to mortality rate.

The more METs someone exercising can achieve, the lower their chances of premature death are. After resting for 15 to 20 minutes, the group then four flights of stairs (60 stairs) without stopping and without running. Patients who took between 40 and 45 seconds to go up the stairs averaged between nine and 10 METs during the exercise test.

Study authors say reaching 10 METs during exercise has a connection to low mortality rates (less than one percent per year). On the other hand, patients who took 90 seconds to averaged under eight METs. This translates to a mortality rate of two to four percent each year, or 30 percent over 10 years.

Is 1 floor 1 flight of stairs?

The floor is the whole level space of a building – literally, a ‘floor’. A flight of stairs is a means of access from one floor to another floor. A flight of stairs cannot be a ‘floor’, and a floor is not a flight of stairs.

How many flights of stairs is a workout?

Regularly walking up 400 steps — or about 33 flights — during the course of a day can substantially increase your endurance, giving you a 17 percent bump in VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen you can take in during exercise), according to a study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

How many calories does 10 flights of stairs burn?

Here’s how many extra calories you actually burn with a walk-up apartment If there’s one upside to having a walk-up apartment in New York, it’s definitely the constant self-congratulation over all the extra calories you’re burning. Do you want some extra guac on that burrito? Of course you do! You’ve got three flights of stairs to climb once you get home.

But how many extra calories are you actually burning? Most nutritionists say that you burn about 2.5 to 5 calories per flight of stairs. That’s assuming that the flight has an average of 12 steps and your weight is 150-160 pounds. If you want to get super specific, people generally burn,17 calories per stair climbed and,05 per stair descended.

So if you’re simply leaving your apartment in the morning and returning at night, you’ll be burning around the following extra calories per day by having a walk-up. Go ahead and pop an extra tic-tac this afternoon. You’ve earned it.

How many flights is 60 stairs?

Full Text To the Editor, Achievement of a maximal workload of 10 metabolic equivalents (METs) is associated with good outcome with events rates of just around 1%/y, 1–3 whereas patients with lower exercise capacity have significantly worse outcomes. However, there is little information on common daily exercises that can be quantitatively measured and provide information equivalent to this exercise performance.4 We aimed to assess the ability to climb stairs in patients undergoing exercise testing. Consecutive ambulatory patients referred for a clinically indicated exercise test were included. After exclusions due to premature interruption of the test for clinical reasons (n = 6) or inability to properly count the stair-climbing exercise time (n = 3), we included 165 patients (mean age 66 ± 12 years, 55% male) who underwent treadmill exercise testing with an electrocardiogram (n = 15) or echocardiography (n = 150). All included patients exercised until exhaustion. At least 15 minutes after exercise testing, patients were asked to climb 4 flights of stairs (60 stairs) at a fast pace without stopping but also without running. The time to complete the task was recorded. Good exercise capacity was defined as the achievement of 10 METs, 1,2 intermediate as the achievement of 8-9.9 METs, and limited exercise capacity as < 8 METs. Clinical and exercise testing patient characteristics are listed in table 1, Patients who achieved 10 METs during exercise (n = 69) completed the stair-climbing test in 46 ± 11 seconds, those who achieved 8-9.9 METs (n = 37) in 58 ± 21 seconds, and those who achieved < 8 METs (n = 59) completed it in 82 ± 41 seconds ( P <,001). The correlation between METs and the stair-climbing test time was 0.53 ( figure 1 ). The area under the ROC curve for the stair-climbing time to predict an achievement of 10 METs was 0.79 (95%CI, 0.72-0.86; P <,001). A cutoff value of 60 seconds had high sensitivity (94%) and negative predictive value for 10 METs (93%), although specificity and positive predictive values were 53% and 59%, respectively. A cutoff value of 90 seconds had low sensitivity (34%) but high specificity (96%) and positive predictive value (83%) for predicting < 8 METs. Abnormal results were seen in 58% of patients with limited exercise capacity, 30% with intermediate exercise capacity, and 29% with good exercise capacity ( P =,002), as well as in 32% of patients who completed the stair-climbing test in at least 60 seconds compared with 52% of those that took between 61 and 89 seconds and 58% of those who took longer ( P =,018). In a previous study measuring O 2 consumption in healthy young volunteers, climbing up 70 steps in 1 minute equalled 8.6 ± 0.4 METs.5 Most participants able to step up 4 flights of stairs in 1 minute in our study performed well during exercise testing. However, the lack of prediction in them is likely because the stair-climbing test consists of a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic evaluation, as it implies achieving a high workload in a short time. Regardless of this consideration, individuals who cannot complete the stair-climbing test in 1.5 minutes are expected to have poor functional capacity and worse exercise test performance and results. In contrast, the range of achieved METs in patients who complete the stairs test in less than 1 minute varies more widely. These findings could be of interest for stress testing and stress echocardiography triage strategies. References J. Peteiro, A. Bouzas-Mosquera, F. Broullón, D. Martinez, J. Yañez, A. Castro-Beiras. Value of an Exercise Workload ≥10 Metabolic Equivalents for Predicting Inducible Myocardial Ischemia. Circ Cardiovasc Imaging., 6 (2013), pp.899-907 N.M. Fine, P.A. Pellikka, C.G. Scott, M. Gharacholou, R.B. McCully. Characteristics and Outcomes of Patients Who Achieve High Workload (≥10 Metabolic Equivalents) During Treadmill Exercise Echocardiography. Mayo Clin Proc., 88 (2013), pp.1408-1419 J. Peteiro, A. Bouzas-Mosquera, S. Pertega, C. Barbeito-Caamaño, F. Broullón, J.M. Vázquez-Rodríguez. Predicción de diferentes causas de mortalidad mediante ecocardiografía de ejercicio en mujeres. Rev Esp Cardiol., 71 (2018), pp.55-56 B.E. Ainsworth, W.L. Haskell, M.C. Whitt, et al, Compendium of physical activities: an update of activity codes and MET intensities. Med Sci Sports Exerc., 32 (2000), pp. S498-S504 D.R. Bassett, J.A. Vachon, A.O. Kirkland, E.T. Howley, G.E. Duncan, K.R. Johnson. Energy cost of stair climbing and descending on the college alumnus questionnaire. Med Sci Sports Exerc., 29 (1997), pp.1250-1254 Copyright © 2020. Sociedad Española de Cardiología

Is 40 flights of stairs a lot?

Photo: Stocksy /Jeff Way I f you’re trying to create an effective exercise routine without leaving the —one that includes adequate cardio—you should definitely think about adding a stair climbing workout into the mix. “The most obvious benefit of stair climbing workouts is that you’re fighting gravity more than you are when walking or running on flat ground,” says Eric Cohen, 99 Walks coach and competitive CrossFit athlete and trainer.

• That requires your body to work harder.
• Your legs must balance more and stabilize your lower body, and your core is activated more as well.” Another benefit of stair climbing workouts is that, as you’re working harder, you’re taxing your aerobic system to a greater degree, giving a stair workout a great one-two punch for effectiveness, says Cohen.

Going down the stairs might seem like the easy part, but don’t be fooled. “You’ll activate different muscles and use them in the eccentric phase—your quads in particular. Eccentric contractions of your muscles can be thought of as the ‘braking’ phase—the slowing yourself as you walk down the stairs,” he says.

1. Even anyone who works out regularly rarely focuses on this type of movement.
2. If you feel sore after your first try, it may very well be from the coming down, not the going up.” Cohen says climbing about 40 flights of stairs is comparable to running or walking a mile.
3. That said, it’s a lot harder for some people.

You’re using a different set of muscles when you climb the stairs, and it can take some time to work up to a full mile of stair-climbing in one stretch. Below, Cohen provides three different levels of stair climbing workouts to get you started. Related Stories

Are stairs a good workout?

Stair climbing – one of the best exercises By Luke Coutinho | Source Credit: GOQii You can run a 5k but running up a couple of flights of stairs tires you out? You can squat heavy and lunge with weights, yet walking up a couple of flights of steps makes it feel like a whole other workout? Here’s a workout that can actually challenge your body, endurance and actual strength and stamina.

1. It is totally free and just about all of us can get access to a set of stairs.
2. It leverages gravity and the heavier we are, the harder we’re forced to work and the more calories we burn.
3. It is a relatively intense exercise that quickly increases our heart rate and in doing so can greatly improve our cardiovascular fitness.
4. It helps strengthen and shape our most common problem areas like calves, thighs, buttocks and tummy.
5. It is a very efficient way of burning maximum calories and is great for those of us with limited time to exercise.
6. It can easily be mixed with other exercises, like walking, skipping and weight training, to maximize results and stair-climbing workouts are easy to build progression into.
7. It can be done by almost anyone, regardless of fitness level.
8. Because it is weight bearing, it helps build bone strength.
9. It is low impact and safe for the knees (providing correct technique is used and a preexisting condition doesn’t exist).

The way forward with exercise is quality over quantity. Too many people fix a ‘ one hour’ work out in their mind and if they can’t find time for that’ 1 hour’ they just don’t do it. Aim for power workouts, 25 to 30 minutes max, where you max out your reps, burn those muscles and really get your heart rate up.35 to 40 minutes should include a great warm up and an extremely important cool down.

• In a nutshell –
• Burns more calories:
• Maximizes your cardio efforts:
• Increases core muscle strength:
• Tones and sculpts your body:
• Low impact workout:
• Safety first: Never run down the stairs, be confident while running up, and take a break when needed.
• Start doing this regularly and soon, you will be running up flights of stairs, feeling fitter, younger, stronger and leaner.

Stair climbing engages your body’s largest muscle groups to repeatedly lift your body weight up, step after step. Thus using your muscles to carry your own weight is far higher to running as compared. It also raises your heart rate immediately thus maximizing your cardio benefits.

1. Climbing stairs is a great way to amp your core muscle strength.
2. It also engages every major muscle in your lower body – glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, abs and calves to exercise and thus tones your body better.
3. You don’t have to ideally sweat it out while climbing stairs.
4. Just a few stairs every day will give you a good workout.

: Stair climbing – one of the best exercises

Why are the stairs in the Netherlands so small?

Why Do Such Steep Stairs Exist in the Netherlands? – You will not be surprised to know it is money related. In the olden days (think seventeenth century) you paid tax based on the width of your house so the clever tax avoiders built narrow and tall. Death-defying-steep stairs take up much less room than normal-regular-wide-safe stairs.

So this is why you see so many narrow, tall houses in the bigger cities such as Amsterdam. There you go, I aim to educate too. However, this lovely little nugget of history doesn’t explain the ladder stairs in our home in The Hague. It was built in 1923. It isn’t a particularly narrow house and there was certainly plenty of room for a proper staircase.

Did the Dutch just become such masters at ladder climbing the trend continued unnecessarily? I have no idea but one of the first things we did was put in a ‘proper’ stair case. We wanted it moved from the middle of the room so it ran along the wall at the side of the room.

What is the 27 rule for stairs?

by Nick Gromicko and Ben Gromicko Join the Discussion According to the InterNACHI® Home Inspection Standards of Practice ( www.nachi.org/sop ), the home inspector is required to inspect the stairs, steps, landings, and stairways. The following information is about a load-bearing component of the stairway that is usually not readily visible and beyond the scope of a visual-only home inspection – the stair stringer. Home Inspection Standards of Practice During a home inspection, the stair stringers are usually covered up, and therefore not observed and not inspected. A home inspection report shall identify, in written format, defects within specific systems and components defined by the Home Inspection Standards of Practice that are both observed and deemed material by the inspector.

The home inspection will not reveal every issue that exists or ever could exist, but only those material defects observed by the inspector on the date of the inspection. Code Structural performance issues of stair stringers in residential buildings can result in problems ranging from cracking of the cosmetic finish and vibrations to major structural failures, which can result in severe injuries.

Despite those issues, there are a lot of general rule-of-thumb recommendations but very few specific prescriptive code construction provisions for wood-framed stair stringers in residential buildings. Stair stringers should meet the general construction standards except where amended by the local jurisdiction.

• The International Residential Code (IRC) and the International Building Code (IBC) contain few provisions regarding wood-framed stair stringer design and construction.
• Most of the code provisions describe dimension minimums and maximums for width, rise, run, and vertical height.
• There are limited dimensional constraints for residential interior stair construction.

Therefore, it’s mostly left to the builder’s or contractor’s knowledge, experience, and the rules-of-thumb they follow in relation to stair stringers. Stair Stringer The stair stringer is a structural member installed on either side or in the center of a flight of stairs into which the treads and risers are attached. According to the 2018 IRC, R311.7.5, the riser height maximum is 7-3/4 inches (196 mm). That is measured vertically between the leading edges of the adjacent treads. The tread depth must be at least 10 inches (254 mm). See the illustration above. That is measured horizontally between the vertical planes of the foremost projection of the adjacent treads at a right angle to the tread’s leading edge.

These tread and riser dimensions directly affect the size of the stringer board, the throat dimensions of a cut stringer, and the amount of board remaining beneath the tread-riser piece that was removed. The throat depth is the net depth of a stringer once the steps are cut and removed, and it is measured from the step perpendicular to the bottom edge of the stringer.

Building Process Stairs inside a house are often built by two different contractors. Framers will cut stringers from 2×12-inch boards or sometimes laminated veneer lumber (LVL), and then attach rough treads for temporary use during the home’s construction.

A finish carpenter will later remove the rough treads and install finished treads, risers, and inner and outer skirt boards. Some finish carpenters prefer to remove the entire rough stairway and build a housed-stringer stairway that has treads and risers fitted and glued into routed dadoes of closed, solid stringers.

And the stringers and treads could be made from 5/4-inch- thick boards of pine, poplar, oak, or Douglas fir. The information presented here covers 2×12-inch board stringers. Types of Stringers There are two common types of stringers for stairs in residential buildings.

1. The first type is the cut stringer, sometimes referred to as the open or sawtooth stringer, whose treads are exposed when viewed from the side of the stairway.
2. This stringer is cut open with the rise and run measurements.
3. Some carpenters refer to this type of stringer as a carriage because it exposes the treads and risers.

The second type is the closed stringer, sometimes referred to as routed, housed, boxed, solid, or side stringers, whose treads are contained in between the stringers. Closed stair stringers can have notches or dadoes into which the treads and risers can be inserted.

Closed stair stringers hide the tread edge. A third and less common type of stringer the mono stringer that acts more like a large centrally located beam in what is referred to as a beam stairway. Stringers may be made of solid wood lumber, pressure-treated lumber, timber, LVL, and many other types of building materials as well.

Steel and aluminum stairways are less common in residential buildings. Boards, stair treads, guards, and handrails for exterior decks and stairways are often made of plastic composite materials. Another term used for the stringer is a carriage. There are some sources that define the stringer as the component that encases the treads and risers, and a carriage is the component that exposes the treads and risers.

• Carriage and stringer are mostly used interchangeably.
• Cleats are small pieces of wood that act like small ledger boards installed underneath the ends of the treads on an uncut stringer.
• Cleat stairs are dangerous if the cleats are not made of substantial size or strength, and if not fastened properly.

Cleat stairs or ledger stairs may not be permitted in some areas. Stairway Width Each of the three key components related to egress – the egress door, hallways, and stairways – have minimum widths. The width of the stairway can determine the number of stairway stringers that should be installed. Stairways must be at least 36 inches (914 mm) in width, but there are exceptions. When the building code specifies a required width, it is in reference to the clear, net, usable, unobstructed width. However, in relation to stairways, the width minimum is in relation to only the area above the permitted handrail height and below the required headroom height (2018 IRC, R311.7.1).

• At and below the handrail height, the required width of the stairway, including treads and landings, is only 27 inches (686 mm) if handrails are installed on each side, and only 31-1/2 inches (800 mm) if there is only one handrail installed.
• Inspectors do not need to be concerned about trim, stringers, or other items that may be found below the level of the handrail, as long as they do not exceed the handrail’s projection.

Spiral stairways can be as narrow as 26 inches (660 mm). So, in general, the typical stairway is 36 inches wide. The number of stringers installed at a wood-framed stairway is related to the 36-inch minimum width. If cut stringers are used in the stair construction, then at least three stringers are required.

1. Cut stringers should be spaced no more than 18 inches on center.
2. For example, a 36-inch-wide stairway should have three stringers.
3. If the stairway is wider than 36 inches, four stringers should be installed.
4. If the stairs are wider than 36 inches (914 mm), a combination of cut and solid stringers can be used, but the maximum spacing between the stringers should be 18 inches (457 mm) on center.

The maximum 18-inch spacing works well with treads made of 2x boards or 5/4-inch boards.2×12-Inch Stringers The rough-framed stair stringers made from solid wood lumber are often made of 2×10-inch or 2×12-inch dimensional lumber boards. Some stair stringers may be sistered with 2×4-inch boards in order to strengthen a 2×10-inch stringer that has only 3-1/2 inches of board remaining beneath the tread-riser notch.

• An undersized stringer may also be over-spanned, of poor-quality wood, and may also have knots, cracks, or other defects that weaken the stringer board.
• Carpenters may add an uncut, unnotched stringer board to the outside of a cut stringer to strengthen it.
• A cut stringer is significantly weaker than a closed stringer; therefore, it may be necessary to reinforce it with an uncut stringer or LVL beam.

Span of Stringers Stair stringers should not span more than 13 feet and 3 inches (4039 mm) for a closed stringer. Cut stringers should not span more than 6 feet (1829 mm). Refer to the American Wood Council’s 2018 Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction Guide for stringer spans. If the stringer span exceeds these dimensions, then a support (such as a knee wall) should be provided to shorten the stringer span’s length.

An intermediate landing may be installed to shorten the stringer span. Load Stairways should be able to adequately hold up a live load. Live loading is specified as 40 pounds per square foot for residential applications. Individual stair treads in homes shall be designed for the uniformly distributed live load of 40 pounds per square foot, 100 pounds per square foot for other applications (IBC Table 1607.1), or a 300-pound concentrated load acting over an area of 4 square inches, whichever produces the greater stresses.

(2018 IRC, Table 301.5). Stairway Vertical Height The 2021 IRC, R311.7.3, states that a flight of stairs shall not have a vertical rise greater than 12 feet and 7 inches (3835 mm or 151 inches) between floor levels or landings. The code also states that there are exceptions to this vertical height limit.

They are: (a) stairways not within or serving a building, porch, or deck; (b) stairways leading to non-habitable attics; and (c) stairways leading to crawlspaces. The 2021 IBC, Section 1011.8, states that a flight of stairs should not have a vertical rise greater than 12 feet (3658 mm or 144 inches).

The vertical height is measured from one landing’s walking surface to another. It is ultimately up to the local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) to apply specific provisions from particular codes. Usually, the most restrictive provision is preferred and applied. In cases where different codes (IRC and IBC, for example) have different requirements for the same specific application (the stairway’s vertical height, for example), the most restrictive requirements take precedence.

• Carpeting All of the stairway dimensions in the building code are exclusive of carpets, rugs, and runners.
• Stair covers are often changed by homeowners and are not incorporated into the code.
• It is important that the tread and landing surfaces are consistent and comply with the code prior to the addition of carpet.

The IRC does not require solid risers, but in a flight of stairs, any riser opening that is located more than 30 inches above the floor below must not allow the passage of a 4-inch-diameter sphere. Connections A critical issue for wood-framed stair construction is the connection of the stair stringer to the supported structure connected to the stairway. Fitted into notches at the bottom of the stringer boards, there is often a thrust block, cleat, or kicker board to prevent movement. There are various ways that the top of the stair stringers could be attached to the structure or stairwell header, and that is where a serious failure can occur. The top of the stringers could be flush-framed to a header. The floor or landing header could serve as the top riser.

1. The top tread could be flush to the top finished floor.
2. Some may use a plywood hanger, ledger board or a nailer.
3. If the tops of the stair stringers are dropped down from the landing or floor level, then there must be a doubled header or adequate framing components to which the tops of the stringers will connect.

End-nailing the stringers through the header boards is not recommended because of the possibility of withdrawal. Dropping the stringers without also installing a dropped header can lead to the stringers having an inadequate bearing on the rim joist. Failures at the stairway stringer connections could be sudden and catastrophic.

1. There is a history of occupants and firefighters getting fatally injured from collapsing stairways.
2. Some installers will use lag bolts.
3. Some stringers may only be nailed at the top.
4. Stringer ends should not be end-nailed or toe-nailed.
5. The 2018 IRC Table R602.3(1) and 2018 IBC Table 2304.10.1 offer specifications on how a joist connects with a header or girder.

These connection provisions cannot be applied directly to stair stringer boards, but the 2018 IRC, Section R311.5.1, states, “Attachment shall not be accomplished by use of toe nails or nails subject to withdrawal.” This refers to stairs, decks, and other building elements.

Because of the complex forces acting upon a set of stairs, nails may be subject to withdrawal when used to mount the top head of a set of stringers. The most cost-effective way to hang a stringer is with metal hardware. Mechanical connections with sloped sawn lumber face-mount hangers should be installed.

They are simple to use and are capable of handling the connection forces. The stringer must be fully seated or bearing on the mechanical connector seat. And the correct type of fasteners must be used with the mechanical hardware. Deck and drywall screws instead of approved connector fasteners are sometimes used to fasten the connector to the framing, which is a major defect.

Notching and Overcutting Notching dimensional lumber to build cut stringers (see illustration below) is a common practice that takes into consideration only the depth of wood beneath the tread-riser notches as effective in resisting the applied load. For cut stringers, care should be taken not to overcut the limits of the notch.

Overcutting notches in stringers is a major defect. Overcutting of notches in the stair cut stringer at the tread-riser intersection is a common major defect caused by unskilled or careless carpenters. Overcutting weakens the stringer’s overall strength by reducing the effective depth of the stringer member. For example, a typical wood-framed stair stringer may have 15 risers. Each riser may be cut at 7¼ inches in height, with 10-1/2-inch-long treads, but the unit rise and unit run measurements will depend upon the total rise and total span of the staircase. See illustration below. The stringers are commonly cut of 2×10-inch or 2×12-inch boards made of spruce-pine-fir (SPF) or LVL. This configuration results in an effective throat depth on a 2×12-inch cut stringer of approximately 5 inches, and a total horizontal stringer span of 12 feet and 3 inches. The uniformity of risers and treads is a safety factor in any flight of stairs, inside or outside the home. The maximum variation between the highest and lowest risers is limited to 3/8-inch (9.5 mm). Variations in excess of the 3/8-inch tolerance could interfere with the rhythm of the stair user.

The most common location for a large variation between riser height is at the landings. The finish framer often needs to make adjustments to the rough stringers in order to meet this tolerance. Deflection Deflection is the degree to which an element of a structure changes shape when a load is applied.

When a load produces a deflection on a stringer that is too great, the component may fail. Structural systems and members must be designed to have adequate stiffness to limit deflection. Deflection limits are needed for the comfort of the occupants and so that the structural member’s deflection does not cause damage to other components of the supporting construction. The deflection of stair stringers is mostly ignored by builders in typical residential construction, but code limits should be applied. Deflection criteria are listed in the 2018 IBC Table 1604.3 and 2018 IRC R301.7. According to these tables, the most applicable limits for stair stringers are L/360 for live loads and L/240 for total loads.

1. What L/360 means is that when you know the load criteria provided by code, the live load deflection of that member is limited to 1/360th of the span.
2. To use a very simple example, a floor joist that is 360 inches in length would be permitted to deflect (sag) a maximum of 1 inch.
3. The second number – the L/240 – is the total load, which is the live and dead loads added together.

If the floor joist’s live load deflection limit is L/360, the total load deflection limit is typically L/240. That means that the 360-inch floor joist would be allowed to have a total load deflection of 1-1/2 inches. Plastic Composite For an exterior stairway, plastic composite deck boards, stair treads, guards, and handrails may be used and must be installed in accordance with the locally adopted code and the manufacturer’s instructions.

1. According to the 2018 IRC, Section R507.2.2.1, plastic composite deck boards, stair treads, guards, and handrails for exterior decks, or the packaging, should have labeling that indicates compliance with ASTM D7032.
2. The labeling should describe the allowable load and maximum allowable span.
3. Each deck board and stair tread, similar to pressure/preservative-treated wood, is required to have a label.

Deck board labels should identify the allowable load and span. For example, 40 psf load on a 16-inch (406 mm) span would be expressed as “16/40” on the label. The spacing of stringers for plastic composite treads may be as little as 9 inches apart. Summary The home inspector is required to inspect the stairs, steps, landings, and stairways, but much of the structural components of an interior finished stairway are hidden and beyond the scope of a home inspection.

American Wood Council, Prescriptive Residential Wood Deck Construction Guide, 2018Wood-framed Stair Stringer Design and Construction, Christopher R. Fournier, P.E., 2013Stair Stringers and Treads, Specifier’s Guide, Weyerhaeuser, February 2019Stair Stringer Technical Guide, Tolko, October 2018Bruce Parker, Common Deck Stair Defects, Journal of Light Construction, July 2017International Residential Code (IRC), 2018 and 2021International Building Code (IBC), 2018 and 2021

What is the 18 rule for a staircase?

On the first stairs I built, I sized them for a 1×8 riser and a 2×8 tread. The result was a disastrously uncomfortable stair, with treads too short for adult feet. Although the rise itself wasn’t terrible, something about using it felt very cramped, and I set out to find what went into a safe, comfortable stair.

1. Since then, I’ve built and/or designed many stairs, and every time I think about the lessons I learned on that first one,
2. For anyone not familiar with the terms, “Rise” refers to the vertical distance from the top of one tread to the top of the next tread.
3. It also happens to be the dimension of one of the cuts on each of the actual stair stringers –the framing members that hold up the stair treads.

The “Run,” however, seems to cause some confusion. It’s the horizontal distance from the face of one riser to the face of the next riser, or from nosing to nosing, and the other stringer cut—it’s NOT the size of the tread itself, which includes a leading edge overhang of ¾” to 1 ¼” (according to the IRC for most residential stairs). IRC code limit stair: rise r ≤ 7 3/4″ run R ≥ 10″ r+R = 17 3/4″ (good) 2r+R = 25 1/2″ (within range) → stair will be comfortable Rule one says that rise plus run ( r+R ) should equal 18 inches. Why? That’s what most people find to be a comfortable stride on most stairs.

• You can cheat a bit up or down, but below 17″ and more than 19″ will result in steps that require strides either too big or too small for most people.
• On my first stair, r+R was roughly 15 inches—way too far from 18″ to be comfortable or safe.
• The IRC limit gives an r+R of 17 ¾”—pretty darn close to 18.

I relied on the 18″ rule for several years, until I met another carpenter who insisted that a better measure was that twice the rise plus ( 2r+R ) the run should be 25 inches. After trying to decide which rule really was better, I settled on the idea of using both,

1. If a stair meets both numbers, it will be comfortable.
2. If it meets only one of the numbers, it will be less comfortable.
3. If it meets neither number, it will not be comfortable.
4. My first stair had a 2r+R of about 23.
5. The IRC limit gives a 2r+R of 25 ½”.
6. My ideal stair has a 7″ rise and an 11″ run.
7. I usually end up having to squeeze the stair for one reason or another, but on the rare occasions I can include a 7-11 stair, it ends up being very comfortable.

I call it a lazy stair, because it seems to take no effort to use (but you still feel like you’re getting somewhere). Its r+R is 18″ and its 2r+R is 25″, right where they should be. The Perfect Stair (in my opinion): rise r = 7″ run R = 11″ r+R = 18″ (perfect) 2r+R = 25″ (perfect) → Stair will be comfortable You have probably had the experience of using stairs, often in an institutional setting, that felt ridiculously shallow, possibly even requiring stutter steps, or inducing the strong desire to take two steps at once. Shallow stair example: rise r = 4″ run R = 14″ r+R = 18″ (perfect) 2r+R = 22″ (too low) → won’t be comfortable Rhode Island amended the IRC to allow a maximum rise of 8 ¼” and a minimum run of 9″. With an r+R of 17 ¼” and a 2r+R of 25 ½”, both numbers are close enough to the ideal to be comfortable for most people. Mike Guertin’s ProHOME adjusted dimensions: rise r = 8″ run R = 9 1/4″ r+R = 17 1/4″ (good) 2r+R = 25 1/4″” (almost perfect) → stairs will be comfortable What if situation allowed for keeping the maximum rise of 8 ¼” and we expanded the run to 10 1/2″? Then r+R would be 18 ¾”, acceptable, but 2r+R would be 27″, which is more than ideal.

• Very tall people may find stairs with those dimensions comfortable, but the vertically challenged among us would not.
• How about a minimum run of 9 ½” but keep the riser down at 7″? 2r+R would be 24 ½”, pretty good, but r+R is only 16 ½”, not enough, and the stair would feel diminutive.
• Here’s a good example of a stair I don’t think anyone would mistake for being comfortable.

I designed and built it many years ago, but recall using a stepladder for dimensional inspiration. Aside from the treads being too small for safety, the rise would have been about 12″ and the run about 4″. The r+R, then, was 16″ (too low) and 2r+R was 28″ (too high). Steep stair example: rise r = 12″ run R = 4″ r+R = 16″ (too low) 2r+R = 28″ (too high) → won’t be comfortable To summarize: The rise plus the run ( r+R ) should be within an inch of 18″. Twice the rise plus the run ( 2r+R ) should be within an inch of 25″.

Is 10 flights of stairs a good workout?

There Are Other Advantages Besides Burning Calories – Before you give up on stairs altogether, you should know that climbing stairs is still really good for you, even if the calorie burn is minimal in your daily trek to your upstairs bedroom or up to your walk-up apartment.

Regular stair climbing can lower resting heart rates and improves balance, according to a 2014 study, And each trip up and down the stairs helps shape and tone different muscles in your legs and lower body. Overall, being able to climb stairs is a good marker of general health. Dr. Harvey Simon, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said it well in a column for the New York Times : Many football coaches “ask” their players to charge up flight after flight of stadium steps to get in shape, and other competitive athletes put gymnasium stairwells to similar use.

In the days before stress testing held sway, doctors would often walk up stairs with their patients to check out cardiopulmonary function. Even today, cardiologists tell heart patients they are fit enough to have sex if they can walk up two or three flights comfortably, and surgeons may clear patients for lung operations if they can manage five or six flights.

Should 3 flights of stairs make you out of breath?

Here’s Why You Get Out of Breath Walking Up Stairs (Even Though You’re Fit) If you’ve ever felt winded after climbing a flight or two of stairs despite considering yourself fit, you’re not alone. The American Lung Association notes that a sudden change in breathing for no obvious reason could be cause for concern but that it’s normal to feel breathlessness after exercise.

• While it might seem strange to huff and puff while doing something as simple as going up the stairs, there’s good reason for it.
• You’re introducing a new variable very quickly,” explained Joe Holder, a Nike master trainer and health and wellness consultant in New York City.
• You go from resting to doing something very quickly that’s typically under 10 seconds.

That means you’re going to be in an oxygen-depleted environment and then have to go back to normal; your body takes a second to catch up.”, founder of Frankly Fitness in New York City, added: “In order to deliver more oxygen to more muscles, you’re going to start heavier to take in that oxygen, and your heart rate is going to increase to deliver it to your muscles.” But while it’s normal to get winded, the timing of when you start to huff and puff depends on the individual.

Each person has a threshold, Holder noted. “Depending on the number of steps, you get to a point where it becomes more and more conditioning,” explained Holder. “Some people get through four steps without being winded, and it’s nothing. Some people eight, and some people 12. You have to find out what your threshold is.” For some people, Holder said, “those short first bursts don’t need oxygen, but then there’s that transition period where.your body starts to know that to use oxygen a little bit more, and that’s when you’re like, oh whoa —you’re a little bit tired.” So is there anything you can do to get a handle on your breathing while going vertical? The answer is yes.

You have to work on your conditioning; the better conditioned you are, the further you’ll be able to push that threshold back. Here are three strategies to help. If you want to get better at stairs, there’s a simple solution: walk up them more often. The more accustomed your body becomes, the better you’ll become at this skill.

• Half of the problem has to do with the fact that your body isn’t efficient walking up steps,” said Holder.
• Climbing the stairs more often can increase the efficiency of your so that, eventually, they’ll need less oxygen to move and produce less carbon dioxide, according to an article in Breathe,
• In turn, you won’t have to inhale and exhale quite as much.

If you don’t encounter stairs often but want to feel good walking up them when you do, Holder advised using a StairMaster. “This is the best way to make those incremental jumps in your VO2 max, a measure of how well your body uses oxygen,” said Baptiste.

• Ultimately, how efficient you are in taking in oxygen and using it will allow you to do something as intense as stairs for longer.
• Baptiste recommended going fast up one flight, then slowing down on the next.
• Or take two steps at a time, and then just one step on each leg after that.” You can even hop on a stationary bike to help you prepare to conquer that climb, added Holder.

“Go as hard as you can for 6 seconds on a bike, slowing down for 20 seconds. This will get you used to maintaining that constant power output while still increasing your volume of work,” Holder said. “It will also help you acclimate to repeated short little bursts of energy while at the same time not totally resting, but going into a little bit of lower intensity.” “It is important to decipher whether your lungs are getting tired first or if it’s a situation where your legs are just beat,” noted Holder.

1. If it’s the latter, you need to strengthen your lower body because walking up steps takes muscle power.
2. As Baptiste explained about the movement: ” You’re essentially doing repetition after repetition of single-leg bodyweight squats.
3. You’re only going up, but it’s all of your body weight on one leg.” Climbing the stairs involves multiple muscles and triple extension (moves involving the hip, knee, and ankle).

To power up your legs, try these three moves from Baptiste: Step ups, This exercise builds strength and endurance. Here’s how to do it:

Hold a 5-pound dumbbell in each hand (adjust the weight according to your comfort level).Step onto a low bench or stair with your right foot.Bring up your left foot until you are fully standing.Step back down, right foot first.

Baptiste suggested three to four sets of 10 to 15 reps per leg. Squats. This exercise increases lower-body muscular endurance. Here’s how to do it:

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, chest high, abs drawn in, and hands clasped in front of your chest or straight out with palms down.Sit nice and deep, bringing your hips to just below parallel.Push into your heels to rise to a full-standing position.

Baptiste recommended three to four sets of intervals lasting 30 to 45 seconds. Toe taps. This exercise develops cardiovascular endurance. Here’s how to do it:

Stand with a ball (medicine, soccer, or rubber playground ball) or a low box in front of you. Tap your right toe on the ball or box. Jump up as you switch feet in the air, landing with the left toe on the ball or box.Continue alternating feet as fast as you can.

Baptiste suggested performing four sets where you work for 20 seconds and rest for 10 seconds of rest. Repeat two to three times. Even if you consider yourself “in shape,” it’s still normal to feel out of breath after climbing stairs. That’s because you’re transitioning from a resting state to a high-intensity exercise quickly, and your body needs more oxygen to deliver to your muscles (hence why you start breathing heavily). Thanks for your feedback! : Here’s Why You Get Out of Breath Walking Up Stairs (Even Though You’re Fit)

How many steps is 20 flights of stairs?

The climb route is roughly 20 flights of stairs equaling approximately 1,300 steps.

How long is 1 flight of stairs?

Highlights –

A typical flight of stairs has 13 to 16 steps. The average length (vertical height) of a flight is 8 1/2 to 11 feet. Your local building codes impact the number of steps and other dimensions. Work with an architect or stair builder for the best design and structure.

Get quotes from up to 3 pros ! Enter a zip below and get matched to top-rated pros near you. Whether you’re adding a new set of stairs or replacing an old flight, it’s critical to know how many steps are in a flight of stairs. In most cases, there are 13 to 16 steps, but it depends on the height of your ceiling and a few other factors.

How many flights of stairs is the Eiffel Tower?

Visiting the Eiffel Tower on foot: how many stairs, how long does it take and how far up can you go? – While the Tower has a total of 1,665 steps from the ground to the top, you can only climb 674 of them, from the ground to the second floor (327, then 347 steps). It will take you around 15 to 20 minutes to climb one floor, Those keen for a sports challenge can try to make it in under 10 minutes per floor! Did you know? Great athletes can climb the stairs all the way from the ground to the top in less than 10 minutes! A race named the “Vertical Race” regularly takes place at the Tower, with dozens of athletes from all over the world competing to climb the 1,665 stairs to the top as fast as possible.

Why am I tired after climbing stairs?

Stairs use many muscle groups. – “My runners are always asking me why they can run a marathon but going up one flight of stairs leaves them out of breath,” says Meghan Kennihan, a NASM-certified personal trainer and USATF run coach. Simply put, it’s because going up stairs demands a lot of your muscles.

• Climbing a flight of stairs uses more muscles than walking,” explains Kennihan.
• You are basically doing lunges uphill and fighting against gravity.
• If you’re already working out hard to train for a strenuous event like a triathlon or a marathon, then getting up a flight of stairs is just contributing to your heavy workload, so your legs and lungs are going to let you know,” she notes.

(Anyone else going to call it “doing uphill lunges” instead of “going upstairs” now?)

Is 1 floor 1 flight of stairs?

The floor is the whole level space of a building – literally, a ‘floor’. A flight of stairs is a means of access from one floor to another floor. A flight of stairs cannot be a ‘floor’, and a floor is not a flight of stairs.

How many feet in elevation is 1 flight of stairs?

No Tools? Climb Stairs! – If you don’t have a way to track elevation gain, or if going uphill isn’t a part of your sport, you can still participate. One flight of stairs equals 10 feet in elevation gain. If you keep track of how many flights of stairs you climb, you can still log that elevation gain.

What is considered a flight of stairs on Apple Watch?

My “Flights Climbed” has gone crazy Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply My iPhone X has been reliable since I got it almost 2 years ago, as were any prior iPhones I have owned. I recently started feeling the stair count was overstating but I was never able to confirm it.

• Last night I managed to find out how far off it is.
• My house has 12′ ceilings and my stairways are 18 stairs vs the typical 12.
• Last night I climbed one flight of stairs, at about 12:15, so I was recording a new day.
• When I checked things this morning prior to going downstairs I noticed I had recorded 4 flights! I’ve looked everywhere and cannot find a setting to change and I cannot figure out what has happened.

The phone was not dropped nor has it seen any severe handling of any sort. iPhone X, iOS 15 Posted on Oct 21, 2022 11:54 AM Page content loaded Hi Paul Tabone1, Based on the Health app, it states for flights climbed, ” A flight of stairs is counted as approximately 10 feet(3 meters) of elevation gain(approximately 16 steps)”.

With that information, does it show all of the flights listed at the exact time you climbed the one? More information on the Health app data can be found here: Best regards Looking back at the time in question it does show 4 flights but I only did one. The specific time for the steps was slightly over 2 minutes as well.

I don’t take two minutes to climb the stairs, even after a few cocktails! Alternately, last night at almost the same time I went up to bed and it only recorded a single flight. I don’t have an Apple Watch, and there are no other devices synch’ed to my phone.

• The phenomenon seems to have developed in the last few weeks/months although I can’t place my finger on the exact time it started occurring.
• I also checked my step count and that seems to be consistent with reality.
• Hi Paul Tabone1, Is this happening on the latest iOS? Currently, the latest version is iOS 16.0.3.

To update:

1. Connect to a Wi-Fi network
2. Go to Settings > General > Software Updates
3. Tap on Download and Install if an update is available

Hope that helps! Hi Paul Tabone1, The X can certainly update to the latest version. Since you’re not seeing an option to update, we suggest checking for any beta profiles:

1. “Go to Settings > General, and tap VPN & Device Management.
2. Tap the iOS Beta Software Profile.
3. Tap Remove Profile, then restart your device.”

– Removing the beta profile will allow you to check for a standard software update. If you’re still not seeing the option, contact, Cheers! I followed the path, but once I tapped on VPN & Device Management, I only see the icon VPN which shows not connected and the “Sign in to Work or School Account”.

• Hey there Paul Tabone1,
• It sounds like you’ll want to reach out to for additional asistance.
• Have a good one!

My “Flights Climbed” has gone crazy : My “Flights Climbed” has gone crazy

How many stairs is 4 flights of stairs?

Share on Pinterest Researchers say the ease or difficulty someone has walking upstairs may reveal potential heart health issues. Westend61/Getty Images

Researchers say how quickly a person can walk up four flights of stairs may be an indicator of their heart health. Experts note that cardiologists use stair climbing in some physical exams, but the exercise shouldn’t be a substitute for regular checkups. They also say there are other tasks, such as carrying a bag of groceries to a car, that can be used as a preliminary gauge of heart health.

A simple and free test of your heart health is as close as your nearest high-rise building. Researchers from Spain say that being able to climb four flights of stairs in under a minute is an accurate indicator of good cardiac health. “The stairs test is an easy way to check your heart health,” said Dr.

• Jesús Peteiro, a cardiologist at University Hospital a Coruña and a study author.
• If it takes you more than one and a half minutes to ascend four flights of stairs, your health is suboptimal and it would be a good idea to consult a doctor.” The study presented at a recent scientific meeting of the European Society of Cardiology compared the results of the stair-climbing test to those obtained from exercise testing conducted in a lab.

The research hasn’t yet been peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal. The 165 study participants each walked or ran on a treadmill until exhaustion with their exercise capacity measured as metabolic equivalents (METs). After a rest period, the study group climbed four flights of stairs (60 steps) at a fast but non-running pace, then had their METs measured again.

• Participants who climbed the stairs in less than 40 to 45 seconds achieved more than 9 to 10 METs.
• Past studies have shown that achieving 10 METs during an exercise test is linked with a low death rate (1 percent or less per year, or 10 percent over a 10-year span).
• Participants who took 1.5 minutes or longer to climb the stairs achieved less than 8 METs, which translates to an anticipated death rate of 2 to 4 percent per year, or 30 percent in 10 years.

Imaging of heart function during the tests revealed that 58 percent of the participants who took more than 1.5 minutes to climb the stairs had abnormal heart function during exercise. That compared to 32 percent of those who climbed the stairs in less than a minute.