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Story Pole · feet, inches and fractions
Email wuyuxai@gmail.com.
If a number looks wrong, say which screen and what you typed — that is usually
enough to reproduce it.
Common questions
- How do I type a measurement?
- Write it the way a carpenter writes it.
5' 7-3/8" works, and so
do 5' 7 3/8", 5'7", 7-3/8, 3/8"
and 5.5'. The ft, in and ⁄ keys type the marks for you.
- Why does it say "Rounded"?
- Because the exact answer is not a mark on your tape. Nine foot one over
fifteen risers is 7 and 4/15 of an inch, which no tape shows. The app keeps the
exact value internally and tells you when what it displays has been rounded to
your working precision. An exact answer says "Exact" instead.
- The riser heights in the cut list are not all the same.
- That is deliberate, and it is the point. Cutting fifteen risers all at
7-1/4" leaves the top step a quarter inch short, which people feel underfoot.
The cut list spreads the remainder — eleven at 7-1/4" and four at 7-5/16" — so
the risers add back to the rise you measured. The spread stays well inside the
3/8" that IRC 2021 R311.7.5 allows within one flight.
- Where do the numbers come from?
- Settings → Formula sources lists every one, with the date it was checked:
PS 20-20 for lumber, IRC 2021 R311.7.5 for stairs, Quikrete and Sakrete data
sheets for concrete, Sherwin-Williams for paint. Check any of them yourself.
- Does it tell me my stairs pass inspection?
- No, and it says so on the screen. It reports against the model residential
code and names it. Your jurisdiction may have amended that code, and commercial
work falls under a stricter one. Verify against the edition your inspector uses.
- What is free and what costs money?
- The feet-inch-fraction calculator and the squaring check are free forever,
with no trial and no expiry. Stairs, roof, concrete and materials are one
payment, not a subscription. You can open those screens and use their inputs
before deciding.
- I paid on another device.
- Settings → Restore purchase. It is the same Apple Account purchase and it
is family shareable.
- Does it need a signal?
- No. Everything is calculated on the phone. The only time the app talks to
anything is the purchase itself.