Replies

1. 
   Froed | Oct 20, 2004 07:24pm | #1

   Since no one has offered an opinion, I'll give it a go, but first I'll say you might have better luck over with the Breaktime crew.

   Do you know whether the current treads and risers are plywood or solid wood?  You don't give the age of the house, but that may allow you a guess.  If you can look from below that will tell you as well.  If the treads and risers are plywood, the easiest thing to do would be to veneer (or overlay) tread material onto what's there.  However, this may compromise the rise at the top and/or bottom of the stairs, and could potentially violate code if the discrepancy is big enough.  Ripping out the plywood treads is another possibility, but that is easily more complicated and dispruptive (unless the stairs aren't used much).  If you don't have housed stringers, that actually might be easier, but again, I don't know what's there.  If it's an older house, you may be able to clean up and finish the existing parts.

   You could find  books on Amazon or Taunton, but I suspect they mostly deal with new stairs.  You may be able to find something through someplace like Old House Journal, or google and see what you get.  Awful long response for not much answer, but your first step is to thoroughly investigate what you have.  And I don't think you'll find much out before first ripping up the carpet to see what you have underneath.

   Good luck.

1. 
   chills1994 | Oct 21, 2004 02:09am | #2

   I would recommend taking it down to the rough stringers.  Then face them out with oak treads and/or oak or poplar risers.

   I used to work in a stair shop.  All of our treads came to us, and some we made, were all 11 1/4" wide.  The rough stringers were always cut out with a 10" tread.

   The bullnose of the tread, the thickness of the riser, 3/4", and the 10" tread cut on the stringer gave us enough space to put a piece of scotia where the two met at the top.

   The catch with using the rough stringers is that they may or may not have been cut to allow for the thickness of the first tread.    Say if I had calculated that the unit rise was 7".  I go ahead and cut out the the stringer.  If I put a 2 X tread on the bottom step, the bottom step is now 8 1/2" above the floor.  This would be a code violation in most areas, if the building inspector catches it.

   So you would have to cut 1 1/2" off the bottom of all the stringers in that case.

   This effectively drops the stringers at the top where they attach to a joist or header.  But the 1 1/2" goes back on when the 2 X top tread goes on.

   Finish treads run 1" to 1 1/8" thick.

   The risers were rabbetted at the bottom. 

   I have not quite figured out how the installation guys cut the rough stringers.  They did it in a way where they didn't have the points or sawtooth design of regular stringers.

   Anybody out there have any ideas of how they did that?

    

2. 
   mlbfreestyle | Oct 21, 2004 04:46pm | #3

   I purchased the Taunton book "Best of... Stairs".  1995 publication.  It was very valuable as I used it to construct from ground-up 3 stair cases.  I highly recommend this book.

3. 
   robkelly | Oct 21, 2004 10:14pm | #4

   Three years ago I covered the "temporary" plywood stairs in our remodeled house with oak treads, 11 of which were 36" x 11.25", and 4 were triangular, about 40" on the longest side and 36" on the other two sides. They were 1 1/16" thick. Here's what I learned.

   If you are running the treads between walls, as I did, you need a stair marking jig to scribe the treads to the wall. I bought a Stair Wizard Pro Line II from Wheaton Jigs in Sebastopol, CA. It is a quality product, but even with the excellent instructions it is not immediately obvious how to use it. Once you figure it out it is simple. I think it was around $100, and well worth it.

   Cut and install a riser, then the tread above. My risers were 5/8" thick. Work from the bottom of the stairs. The treads overhang the risers by 3/4".

   The plwood will not be level. For the larger (triangular in my case) treads, put down large dabs of kids' modeling clay in the low spots, put a piece of waxed paper about 3' x 3' on top of each dab, install the tread and jump up and down on it until solid. Then remove the tread and cut wood shims the thickness on the smashed down clay, and glue them in place, removing the clay. Locate the stringers by putting small pieces of masking tape on the finished riser below and the plywood riser above, lay down a generous amount of Liquid Nails or equivalent between the shims and then stomp the tread into place and air nail into the stringers with 15ga x 2 1/2" finishing nails. Mostly I didn't use shims on the regular size treads. Place the nails when possible so they are hidden under the riser. For the rest, use Zar wood filler, wipe with a damp cloth, let it dry, and finish the spots with a small artist's brush. I used 18 ga x 2" air nails on the risers, as well as a little adhesive.

   I prefinished the treads and risers before installation with J. E Moser's Floor Shield (a water based acrylic from Woodworkers' Supply) one coat of sealer and 3 coats of finish. Results were excellent. I sanded to 180 after the sealer, and 320  between the top coats. This finish tends to form small bubbles sometimes. After the finish was applied, I'd drag the bubbles to the edge with a dry 3" foam brush before it dried. It worked like a charm. The finish is still like new after three years. (one cat with claws, 2 people with shoes).

   Since putting in treads is so much work, I spent some extra time and did a mahogany inlay 3/4" wide which follows the outline of the tread, 3" from the walls, 2" from the front, and 1.5" from the risers. This was surprisingly quick once I made the jigs for the router to follow. Because of the inlay, and because the triangular treads were glued up, I had the treads commercially wide belt sanded.

   From raw wood to installed and finished, I think I had about 8 hours in each tread/riser unit.

    

   
   

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   Edited 10/21/2004 6:38 pm ET by rob

1. 
   mlbfreestyle | Oct 22, 2004 04:44pm | #5

   I did not bother with any type of "stair tool" other than sticks for measuring inside-dimensions and a scribe (modified compass) for getting the lengths and end-cut angles right.

   I installed my treads directly on the carriages with no plywood or temporary treads under them.  Keep in mind that I made the carriages myself and thus put some care in making them.  Because I was open to the top of each tread/riser as I built; I had access to the back and bottom sides.  Once I got to the top unit, then I hade to do some more trial and error on shiming etc. as I no longer had access to the back side.  I made adjustments to the carriages with my block and bull-nose planes if they were close to get good contact with the finish boards .  A few were far enough out that I had to resort to pine shims to insure a solid footing for each board.

   I attached my treads/risers to the carriages with 2" deckmate brand deck screws.  I really like these.  Got them at Home Depot.  I drill a 1/2" hole in the surface that I later filled with a tapered face-grain plug.  I also glued them to the carriages.

   2+ years later, not a squeak!

   Lean on the book I mentioned in my earlier post.  This should provide a sufficient over-view of  the whole process, assuming your are reasonably competent with wood.