Pro tip: I quit cutting stair stringers with a framing square and switched to a story pole, and it saved my last two decks

Zara Kim · 2026-10-13T22:15:05.404705+00:00

I used to lay out every stringer with a framing square and a pencil, step by step, tapping the square down the board with my thumb. It worked fine on small runs, but last June I was cutting a 14 riser set for a deck in Richmond and somewhere around riser 9 my pencil line drifted about a quarter inch. The treads still sat down, but the whole run was off at the bottom and I had to shim the landing pad to save it. A guy I sub with, Dale, watched me fight it and said just make a story pole next time, man. So now I clamp a scrap 2x4, mark every riser and tread on it once, then just walk it down the stringer with a sharp pencil. Last two decks I cut came out dead on, no shimming, no redoing. If you are still tapping a square down 14 times per board, why are you doing that to yourself?

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Pro tip: I quit cutting stair stringers with a framing square and switched to a story pole, and it saved my last two decks | Carpenters - The Design Community Hub