Handrail (banister)The sloping rail you hold. It follows the pitch of the flight and forms the top of the balustrade. Banister can mean this rail alone, or the rail together with its balusters.
Stringer (string)The sloping structural board that carries the treads and risers. There are typically three, one on each side and one in the center. On an open side it is cut to the steps, as drawn. A closed one hides the tread ends.
Baluster (spindle)One of the upright members between the handrail and the tread. Balusters hold the rail up and fill the gap under it. They are also called spindles, or sometimes guards. American codes typically keep them no more than 4 inches apart.
Newel post (newel)The large post that anchors the handrail. It is the main support of the rail system. It is fixed to the floor framing, not only to the step. A starting newel stands at the foot, and landing newels stand at turns and at the top.
TreadThe horizontal part of a step, where the foot is placed. One tread and one riser together make one step.
RiserThe near-vertical board that forms the face of a step. It closes the space between one tread and the next. Some stairs leave it out for an open look.
Side view 9
Finial (newel cap)A decorative cap on top of a newel post. It is turned or sometimes carved, and most often seen where a balustrade ends. On a box newel it is optional.
Landing treadA trim-like strip along the edge of a landing or balcony. It is set flush with the floor, with a nosing that overhangs as a tread's does. It makes the change from the stair treads to the flooring, and balcony balusters stand on it.
LandingThe area of floor at the top or bottom of a flight. An intermediate one is a platform between floors that lets a stair change direction or gives a rest: a half landing turns the stair 180 degrees, a quarter landing 90.
HeadroomThe clear height above the stair. It is measured straight up from the nosings to the lowest point of the ceiling or soffit over them. Building codes set a minimum, and the figure depends on the code.
Pitch lineAn imaginary line along the tips of the nosings. Handrail height and headroom are measured from the nosings it joins, and the angle it makes with the floor is the pitch of the stair.
Decorative bracketA thin ornamental piece, carved or scrolled. It is fixed to the face of a stringer or skirtboard under the end of each tread. One stair maker lists them at about a quarter inch thick, in the same wood as the stair.
Total riseThe vertical distance that the flight climbs. Measured from the finished floor at the bottom to the finished floor at the top. It equals the rise of one step times the number of risers, 14 on this drawing.
SpandrelThe triangular space under a flight with no other flight directly beneath. It is frequently closed in and used as a closet.
Total run (total going)The horizontal distance between the faces of the first and last risers. It counts one run fewer than there are risers, because the landing takes the place of a last tread: 14 risers here, 13 runs.
Front view 3
Wall railA handrail fixed to the wall with brackets. Found where a stair runs alongside a wall. It needs no balusters or newel posts. A closed stairway, such as one down to a basement, often has only this rail.
Handrail bracket (rail bracket)The bracket that fixes a wall rail to the wall. One stair maker suggests 2 of them for a rail up to 6 feet long, 3 for a rail up to 12 feet and 4 beyond that.
Starting step (bullnose step)The first step at the foot of the flight. Often made wider than the rest. Its end is usually rounded, a bullnose, and runs out past the stringer. Makers pair it with box newels, volutes and turnouts.
Step detail 5
Run (going)The horizontal distance from the edge of one nosing to the next. A tread is deeper than this by its nosing, which laps over the tread below. British sources call it the going.
Cove molding (scotia)A small concave trim strip fitted under the nosing. It sits in the corner where the tread meets the riser below it. One stair maker lists a common size of 1/2 by 5/8 inch. Scotia and quarter round are used in the same place.
Glue blockA wood block fixed under the stair. It sits in the corner where a riser meets the tread above it. It holds the two together and helps prevent squeaks.
RiseThe vertical distance from the top of one tread to the next. It is not the height of the riser board, which leaves out the thickness of a tread.
NosingThe front edge of a tread. It projects past the face of the riser below and is usually rounded. On a stair with no nosing, the tread is exactly as deep as the run.
How this list was compiled: Part names and every detail line were checked, for facts only and with nothing copied, against pages read on 2026-09-19. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairs (tread, riser, nosing, starting or feature tread, curtail step, stringer and cut stringer, three stringers as typical, scotia and quarter-round trim under the nosing, handrail and the meanings of banister, baluster also called guard or spindle, a typical 4 inch baluster spacing in American codes, newel fixed to the floor joists, finial, wall handrails on wall brackets, landing, half landing and quarter landing, flight, spandrel and its use as a closet, rise measured from tread top to tread top and different from the height of the riser board, going measured from nosing edge to nosing edge, total rise, total run from first riser to last riser with one going fewer than the number of steps, headroom, pitch line and pitch, volute, gooseneck, apron, winders), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newel (the post at the foot of the stairs, posts on landings and at the top, turned and box newels, fixing to a joist) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baluster (spindle, balustrade, banister). One stair parts maker, StairSupplies: its glossary https://www.stairsupplies.com/resources/wood-stair-advice/stair-parts-glossary/ (balusters and their spacing of 4 inches at most, balustrade, banister, brackets, bull-nosed starting tread, carriages, closed stringers, cove molding and its common size, finial, glue blocks, going, handrail, headroom, landing, newels, nosing, open stringer, rise, risers, soffit, step, starting tread, stringer, treads, volutes, wall rail, wedges, winders), its ordering guide https://www.stairsupplies.com/resources/wood-stair-advice/stair-anatomy/ (skirtboard, starting step, landing tread, apron, cove under every tread, wall rail in closed stairways, handrail brackets and how many to use), its skirtboard page https://www.stairsupplies.com/product/skirtboard/ (skirtboard also called stair stringer) and its landing tread page https://www.stairsupplies.com/product-category/wood-stair-parts/stair-treads-materials/stair-landing-treads/ (what a landing tread is and where it goes). Decorative bracket, glue block and landing tread rest on the StairSupplies pages alone. Pitch line and spandrel rest on Wikipedia alone. https://www.ljsmith.com/glossary returned 404 and https://codes.iccsafe.org returned 403 on the same day, so no building code page was read. Labels, hints, detail lines, groups and position notes were written for this site. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site, 2026-09-20. Original line drawing made from our own part list and layout. Read for accuracy, not traced or copied: the Wikipedia article Stairs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stairs) and the StairSupplies glossary of stair parts (https://www.stairsupplies.com/resources/wood-stair-advice/stair-parts-glossary/), both read on 2026-09-20. Licence: own work
How it works
This parts of a staircase diagram shows one straight flight. The side view carries the rails, the posts and four measurements. The front view shows the wall side, and a close-up cuts through two steps. All 23 parts are numbered. Read the names in Study first, then check them in Find it or Name it. Miss two, then Practise the 2 you missed retries them.
Read the full guide
What are the parts of a staircase called?
Six names cover most of it. The tread is the board you step on, and the riser is the upright board behind it. The stringer is the sloping board that carries both. On the open side, balusters hold a handrail between two newel posts. The Start here: 6 main parts button asks those six. The other 17 add trim, the landing, the wall side and six measurements.
Parts of a step, close up
One step is one tread plus one riser. The Step detail button zooms to 7 parts, cut through so the hidden pieces show. The nosing is the rounded front edge of the tread. Cove molding fills the corner under it, and a glue block hides behind the riser. Two dimension lines finish the figure: rise and run. A wrong tap shows the right part.
Banister can mean the handrail alone or the rail with its balusters. Balustrade adds the newel posts. Under Name it, Type it takes banister for the handrail.
Rise runs from the top of one tread to the top of the next. The riser board is shorter than that by one tread thickness.
Count on the side view: 14 risers but 13 treads, because the landing takes the place of the last tread. So total run spans 13 runs.
Questions and answers
Where can I get labeled parts of a staircase to print?
Print labelled gives the drawing with all 23 names listed by number. Print blank gives the same drawing with numbered lines to fill in. Fill in the blank sheet, then check it against the labeled one.
Is a skirtboard the same as a stringer?
Often, yes. One stair maker sells its skirtboard as another name for the stair stringer, and carriage is a third word for it. Type it accepts all three. A cut stringer is sawn to the steps so the tread ends show, as drawn here. A closed stringer hides them.
Why is there no volute or gooseneck on this drawing?
The handrail here stops at a plain newel post at each end. A volute is a spiral that ends a handrail at the foot of the stairwell, and a gooseneck is the upright bend that lifts a rail to a landing. Both are handrail fittings.