Stairway design and construction is a cornerstone of homebuilding. This is where carpenters show off their skill in combining safe, solid construction with suitable dimensions, excellent craftsmanship and (more often than not) impressive measures of ingenuity. Even in the simplest of houses, building a stairway can be a complex project. That is where this book comes in: it contains a selection of stairbuilding projects that cover a broad range of details relating to design, fabrication and installation. It's all here - from simple, site-built utility staircases to elaborate spirals. For Pros, By Pros series: written by professional builders who actually do the work, then offer the very best design and construction advice plus building site-proven tips and techniques. Professional Building Guides: these are the very best books in Taunton's highly successful home-building backlist, completely revised and updated, redesigned and now illustrated in full colour. Fine Homebuilding is the leading international journal for home builders and architects.

Author Biography

Andy Engel grew up near Belvidere, NJ, in a house that his father nearly always had under construction. Woodworking and carpentry were just what you did. When other teenagers were dancing to The Bee Gees and Donna Summer, Andy was in the shop building a dulcimer inspired by a chapter in The Foxfire Book. For a few years after high school, he alternated between college, dead-end jobs, and travel. In 1982, he found his feet and hired on as a woodworker in a pre-hung door shop. From 1985 through 1996, he was self-employed as a carpenter and home builder. In 1996, Taunton's Fine Homebuilding magazine offered him an assistant editor's position. Andy left Taunton in 2005 to chase a living as writer, carpenter, and building consultant. He now lives in Connecticut, with his wife and two sons, in a house that's nearly always under construction.