A story pole is a board with specific marks on it to
represent specific measurements used to aid construction workers. I've
seen electricians, plumbers, carpenters, masons, heating and
air-conditioning pro's and even stair builders, use story poles, to
increase efficiency.
|
|
 |
The picture above provides you with an excellent
example of a story pole. The black arrows are pointing to marks that
represent the top of each individual stair tread. The arrow on top is
pointing to a mark that I made to represent the top of the floor or
landing.
Do Professional Stair Builders Use Story Poles?
Some do and some don't, but most of them don't. When I was building
hundreds of different stairs each year, I would usually have a pad of
paper that I would carry around with me, from job to job.
Instead of using a story pole, I would write the important measurements
that I needed to build each individual stairway down on a pad of paper
or on a piece of wood that I could carry with me. This method replaced
the story pole.
Should Beginning Stair Builders Use Story Poles?
Absolutely, a story pole will provide you with the individual heights of
each step. While you're building your stairs, you can double check every
measurement on the stairway, within a few seconds, after putting your
story pole next to them.
For example, in the picture above, I'm double checking, to make sure
that the wall height is correct. All I needed to do was grab my story
pole and stand it up next to the wall and make sure that the marks lined
up correctly, that I put on the story pole, to represent the wall
height.
Yes, story poles can make a big difference for beginners and experts.
This is just another method that you can use to reduce the amount of
problems you could have, while building a set of stairs.
|
|
|
