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With what I paid him, it was no longer in my budget to hire a professional. So here’s my advice based on a hard lesson.

- Before you start, check and make sure that building stairs doesn’t violate any local codes or requirements. This was something my cousin didn’t do. Fortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any problems here.

It was probably the only area, but that could be because the code inspector didn’t see the stairs. If he’d seen them for himself, there might have been a whole new section written!

- I am no expert, but I believe in quality materials. My cousin, on the other hand, worked with the cheapest stuff he could get. His reasoning was that since we’d be covering the stairs with carpet, it would be unnecessary to get ‘fancy.’

But cheap wood, especially if it has knots and other imperfections, has a greater likelihood of cracking sooner than other kinds of wood. Since I have children, I can’t gamble on something like that.

- Draw up a plan or blue print. That’s one of the most useful tips I learned about building stairs, because it really helps you get everything laid out and organized. This way you’ll get to see how the end result should look and how everything adds up.

So if you plan on making your own stairs, I hope these tips help you avoid any pitfalls. No glitches means no spending more money than you have to. Oh, another word of advice: Don’t hire relatives to build stairs for you!

Working on a new stair project? Visit Build Stairs and discover How To Build Stairs quickly and easily without the headaches. We even cover Pet Stairs!

- Jessica N

First of all, you don’t need to take any measurements. Pretend to ignore the subtle and most blatant of hints from people who think you ought to use a measuring tape. Evade probing questions like, how big are the stairs are going to be once you finish?

Use your eyeballs, that’s what they’re there for. You can’t go wrong. And if you end up wasting space, or if your stairs are so wobbly and crazy-looking that they appear to have been constructed by a drunk teenager, just smile and tell everyone that your stairs have character.

Be sure to cut every single piece beforehand! Don’t waste time figuring out if they’ll fit together. Get that junk out of the way and cut everything first. Yes, things may not line up correctly and you could end up wasting dozens of pieces of wood.

If your lucky stars happen to be in alignment that day, all those pieces just might fit together seamlessly to create the perfect stairs. Or maybe not. Hey, what matters is you’re having a ball either way.

Most importantly, don’t use quality wood. In fact, use whatever wood you might find lying on the side of the road, or found in old shacks in the woods.

This way, you’ll save money. Can you trust the stairs to last more than a few months? Well, that doesn’t matter! Come on, it’s not as if you spent real money on them.

Working on a new stair project? Visit Build Stairs and discover How To Build Stairs quickly and easily without the headaches. We even cover Hardwood Stairs!

- Jessica N