- 1). Lay a long, straight board on its edge on top of the deck. The end of the board should be perpendicular to the approximate area where the stairs will touch the ground. Place a carpenter's level on top of the board and adjust the board up or down until it is at level.
- 2). Stretch a tape measure from the ground up to the bottom of the board and read the height. This is the total rise the stairs will need to cover.
- 3). Divide the rise measurement by an average rise per stair -- 7 inches. For example, if the rise measurement was 32 inches, dividing by 7 would yield a number of 4.57. In this case, since the decimal amount is greater than .5, round up. That means 5 stairs are needed to cover the span. If the decimal had been less than .5, you would round down so that 4 stairs were required.
- 4). Divide the rise measurement by the number of stairs you calculated to get the actual rise per stair. In this example, 32 inches divided by 5 stairs results in a rise of 6.4 inches per stair. Most building codes accept a rise of anywhere between 6 1/2 to 8 inches per stair, so this example would fall into the correct range.
- 5). Decide whether the calculated rise per stair is acceptable. While it may be in the range, a 6.4-inch rise per stair may seem too short for you. If it is, try calculating the rise per stair again with one fewer step. In the example, 4 steps would produce a rise of 8 inches per stair. That's still in the acceptable range and may result in a more comfortable stride when taking each step.
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