Determine what type of landing you are going to have.
Attaching deck stairs to concrete pad.
Attaching deck stairs to footings.
If the stairs are resting on a concrete slab or a patio then the slab or patio should also be built with a similar foundation to resist frost movement.
Place the board between the stringers and attach to stringers with 3 galvanized deck screws.
Concrete slab or patio landings.
Installing a multi color deck over concrete.
Attach the 2x6 board to concrete pad with masonry anchors.
The fine homebuilding article stronger smarter deck stairs by steven baczek and mike brussard issue 258 april may 2016 offered a number of great suggestions.
When the lower floor is made of concrete you will need a special fastener to attach the wood to it unless one has already been embedded for this purpose.
Each tread is made of two lengths of 2x6 board.
If you re installing two different colors of boards for your deck then you can screw the accent color boards into place temporarily to act as guides for the primary color boards.
The hangers are fitted to the back edge of the stringer and then bent to contour to the bottom edge.
In order for a wooden stairway to be safe the stringers support boards should be securely fastened to both the upper and lower floors.
When building a landing for deck stairs typical codes require the pad to extend beyond the steps about 36 inches behind the steps about 12 inches and on the sides of the steps about 6 inches.
If you are landing on a concrete pad or a patio this should not be a problem.
One of the easiest ways to attach deck stair footings to concrete is through the base plate.
On the decks i built in the past i never gave much thought to how secure the connection was between the stairs and the deck frame.
To cover the ends of the sleepers install deck fascia board.
However if you are landing on the yard you may want to install paver blocks or fill the area with compacted gravel to promote drainage.
A typical pad has a 4 inch layer of gravel underneath and about 4 inches of concrete on top.
If you attach the bottom end of your stringers directly to the concrete footing pad that long stretch of open wood grain will absorb water and rot even with.
Guertin also explains how he pours a concrete stair landing pad and how he attaches the bottom of the stairs to that.
Stair stringers should always land on a level and well drained surface.
These hangers are adjustable to fit most types of wood structured stairs.
A concrete pad does not require the footings to rise above grade like other landing types.
As a bonus he details a rock solid method of attaching the bottom railing posts to the stairs.
