Why are no two stair treads exactly the same width?

Stairs
Finish Carpentry
Remodeling

On an existing staircase the walls are rarely parallel, so treads come out a sixteenth or an eighth apart all the way up and a single template cuts every one of them slightly wrong. The T1R Range reads each tread where it sits and saves it, so the run becomes a list of individual lengths rather than one number repeated. Cutting from that list is the difference between a stair that closes up and one with a gap at every riser.

Why each tread gets its own number

Walls on an old stair are rarely parallel
34 1/2 then 34 3/4, one tread apart
One template cuts every tread wrong
T1R saves each tread as its own figure
The T1R Range list drives the cuts

Shop Now Shop All

A staircase stripped back to bare treads and stringers is measured tread by tread, plaster walls either side and a laser dot visible on the far string. The display steps through readings that differ slightly from one another, thirty-four and a half followed by thirty-four and three-quarters. Each is captured before the tool moves down to the next tread.