Patent ID: 7934344

Claim:
A stairway stringer and finished stairway skirt board combination for use in constructing a stairway using first and second parallel stringers and pivotally mounted tread/riser support brackets wherein a) said stringers comprising an elongated planar board having an upper surface, a lower surface, a front surface and a back surface, b) at least one of said upper or lower surfaces formed with a contoured face adapted for mating cooperation with a similar formed upper or lower surface of a parallel stringer, c) said stringers being adapted at their front surface for pivotally mounting a plurality of spaced and aligned tread/riser support brackets, d) said first stringer being aligned vertically and parallel to said second stringer, each stringer adapted for pivotally mounting said plurality of spaced tread/riser support brackets to establish an upper and lower parallel stinger, e) said pivotal mountings of said brackets to said stringers adapted to permit said parallel stringers to be moved parallel to each other and to rotate said brackets about said pivotal mountings on each stringer, f) said pivotal mounting of said brackets on said upper stinger being releasable to permit said upper stringer to be moved vertically with respect to said lower stringer so as to engage a lower surface of said upper stringer with the upper surface of said lower stringer and to engage said contoured face of each stringer into mating cooperation, g) said vertically moved upper stringer being adapted i) for substantially permanent remounting of said brackets to said front surface of said upper stringer, ii) for concealing behind said substantially permanent remounting of said brackets any mounting mark on said front surface of said upper stringer from said prior pivotal mounting of said brackets, iii) and for engaging said contoured face of each of said stringers in mating cooperation to produce said substantially smooth finished stairway skirt board appearance at said engaged surfaces of said upper and lower stringers, wherein said contoured face of said upper or lower surface is a tapered slot in one of said upper or lower surface and a tapered extension in the other of said upper or lower surface, said tapered slot and said tapered extension having the same angle of taper so as to mate with a similarly formed upper or lower surface of a second stairway stringer to produce said substantially smooth finished stairway skirt board when said first and second stringers are engaged at said slot and tapered extension.