A ledger is used in the building industry to attach one
section or part of the framing to another. A good example of this would
be the picture below. The black arrow is pointing to a ledger that
attaches to the stair landing and it's providing the stair stringers
with an excellent connection point.
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Ledgers can also be used to connect roof rafters to
walls, floor joist to walls and stair landing joist to walls.
Stair Framing Tip: I seen something like this happen more than
once and I'm sure that I'm going to see it plenty of more times, before
I die. Inexperienced stair builders will actually assemble a set of
stairs without using a ledger.
Obviously, you don't need a ledger if you have enough structural support
for your stair stringers. However, I've seen professionals and
do-it-yourselfers, use half-inch plywood, metal straps and even wood
braces, to support their stairways.
The top and bottom of your stair stringers need to be fully supported.
The entire length of the top or bottom cut of the stair stringer needs
to make a solid connection, when connecting it to another part of the
framing.
I even have a picture of a set of stairs with only 3 inches of the top
section of the stair stringer, connected to the balcony framing. The
rest of the 4 x 12 stair stringer is unsupported and if that section
ever splits, it could cause the entire stairway to collapse.
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