Hardwood Stair Treads

[crokett™]

I want to replace the builder grade railings and balusters on our stairs with walnut.  The stairs are currently carpeted.  I'm wondering about also doing walnut stair treads.  I'm not sure what's under the carpet, but if I pulled the carpet could I just wrap what's there with hardwood?  I know the bottom step height would rise by the thickness of the walnut, but I figure the net change wouldn't be much given that there's ~3/4" of carpet and padding there already.

[crokett™]

Also I think I will go with walnut treads and painted risers. It will add a break between treads and make things easier to see. It also matches the white trim of the house and the existing skirt boards

[Snipe Hunter]

How old is the house? You might have manufactured particle board treads.

I replaced my particle board treads with oak. But I saved the pine side stringers. I can't believe how cheaply the stair was built. The only thing holding up the tread was the particle board riser. Also, the treads weren't level.

I left the particle board risers but had to cut shims to make them level. I covered the risers with 1/4" oak ply. I cut a narrow dado under each tread so the new riser cover slipped up into the tread. I used vinyl floor adhesive with a notched trowel to glue on the new riser covers.

Then I made cleats from scrap and glued and screwed them to the old stringers. Then set a 2x4 on top of them and the new treads on top of that. The 2x4s prevented the treads from moving. Glued and nailed the treads down and filled the nail holes. I prefinished everything prior to installing.

The new treads were 1" thick. The old treads fit in slots in the risers. The new treads were a little thicker so they covered the slots and hit them. I mad a jig to measure the angles of the tread area so I could transfer that measurement over to the new tread. A pain but it worked. Nothing was square so each tread was different.

I would have liked to use the existing slots in the stringers but there was no way to do it.

Pics to follow

[Snipe Hunter]

The original particle board treads and risers. I had to cut out the treads.



These are the cleats I made



The 2x4 on top of the cleat... glued and screwed

[Snipe Hunter]

Shimming the existing risers to level



The jig I made to measure each tread and riser cover



The new treads and riser covers. I did make some oak molding to cover the gap between the walls and stringers. It was just caulked before

[Snipe Hunter]

[crokett™]

The house is 6 years old. My stairs look very similar to yours. The railing on the left is builder grade oak. balusters are turned white ones. the hand rail on the right is white and doesn't match the railing on the left. I will replace the railing on the left and the handrail. I'l probably build it as a unit, then install it. Rather than have a medallion for the upper end of the hand rail I'll bring walnut up vertically. However, scope creep already, I thought about replacing the carpet on the stairs with wood treads and risers. I need to decide that soon though, we're getting ready to replace some carpet upstairs and will do the stairs at the same time. Is there a reason you didn't just wrap everything, other than it being very poorly built?

[Snipe Hunter]

The house is 6 years old.  My stairs look very similar to yours.  The railing on the left is builder grade oak.  balusters are turned white ones.  the hand rail on the right is white and doesn't match the railing on the left.  I will replace the railing on the left and the handrail.  I'l probably build it as a unit, then install it.  Rather than have a medallion for the upper end of the hand rail I'll bring walnut up vertically.    However, scope creep already, I thought about replacing the carpet on the stairs with wood treads and risers.  I need to decide that soon though, we're getting ready to replace some carpet upstairs and will do the stairs at the same time.  Is there a reason you didn't just wrap everything, other than it being very poorly built?

Every tread had about a 1/2 inch sag in the middle and the entire thing was 1/2 inch low on the left.

[BrentDH]

Hardwood stair treads can be slippery.  Our stairs are a little wider (I think 4') and we chose to do a carpet runner with hardwood on the sides.  I would guess we have 6" of wood on each side and 3' wide carpet.   You get the "look" of hardwood but lower the risk of falling down the stairs.   Not sure what it would look like on 3' stairs if you left 3-4" on each side.  Maybe the carpet would look to narrow?  Maybe mock it up and see if it would work.

[Turner52]

Wisconsin code says all stair rises must be within 1/4" of the rest .maximum rise of 8" minimum tread depth of 9". No idea where you live, but might be a good thing to check out your local codes. It is truly amazing how the human brain works. After a step or 2 we know exactly how high to raise our foot for the next step Vary it by just a little and you will stumble.