Questions for stair folks

[Charlie McGuire]

I'm in the process of attempting to refinish a 40 yr old set of stairs in my split foyer house in prep for selling.

The stairs were built with housed skirts - 36" wide. There are 5 treads per run - landing between runs. The treads are oak. The risers and skirts are mahogany. They have seen their share of wear and abuse. At this point, I have all of the structural fixing up done. Bottoms of risers are glued/screwed to treads where they had originally been nailed. Glue blocks are installed behind riser/bullnose joint, and re-enforcing the housed joints. They are solid - no creaks or bends.

My plan is to refinish/fill the treads and put 1/4" oak ply skins on the risers.

1. I'm planning on using PL400 to glue the riser skins. What is the best way to clamp, brad, these 1/4" oak skins ?

2. I have to scribe fit the riser skins on 4 sides which seems no small feat. If necessary, I'll use a cove molding underneath the tread bullnose to hide any gap there. I've practiced on some 1/4" birch and no matter how careful I am, I end up with a .010 or so gap at the skirts. Is it reasonable to trowel fill the treads and these gaps and finish after installation ?

I'm planning on using Timbermate filler on the treads which seems to blend very well with the light amber stain I'm using.

Thanks for your collective wisdom.

Charlie

[Richard Wolf]

Any PL construction adhesive will work fine for gluing the risers, tack them with brads to hold in place.
To get the risers to fit well, using a tread template will help; http://www.collinstool.com/base.php?...gauge_ends.htm
You should plan on using the cove under the treads for a professional look anyway, so just take your time with the side fit and it will look fine. Avoid using wood filler in staircases construction, stairs move so much that it will not last.

Richard

[Charlie McGuire]

Thanks Richard. I've looked at your work you've posted - Wow! I truly appreciate your helpfullness.

This is my first attempt at a project like this, and I'm definitely a newbie sort of woodworker. It's a lower end house and I'll be selling in the next year, so I figured it would be a good place to learn. I was originally just going to carpet, but I must be a masochist and prefer wood if possible. I had to replace the landing tread and railing arrangement which were badly damaged and the floors will be refinished before I move.

I've attached a couple of pics. The treads have some deep (.030) gouges in places and some old holes from carpet tack strip. Some black spots from old nails as well. A couple of treads had 3-4 inch split which I edge-drilled, glued/screwed and plugged so they are stable now.

So, you're saying the look should be ok without attempting to trowel a filler for the troughs and dings. I'm leary of sanding too deeply. I'm using a belt sander to remove the hardest top coat, then ROS and finish bloc sander, multimaster and scraper for tight spots. Still takes a long time it seems.

I'm honored for your suggestions.

Charlie

stairs-bef 004-small.jpg stairs-bef 005-small.jpg

[Richard Wolf]

Refinishing stair and floors are not my strong suite, but I have seen stairs that looked worse than your turn out well. Maybe some of the floor finishers on the forum can help you with the refinishing. Best of luck.

Richard

[Ben Grunow]

There are jigs for cutting risers and treads but you can make your own.

Cut two blocks the same height as the riser is and about 8" long and a piece of 1x4 (or something) about 3" short of the stair width. Place the blocks against the sides and nail the 1x4 over them and you have a template of the riser. Pull the nails when done to re-use.

I have done this with success. I think your work will improve with this method (smaller gaps). THe finish is thick (3 coats of poly) and will fill small gaps.

Keep the pics coming.

[Charlie McGuire]

Hey Ben,

Thanks for the idea.

I came up with a similar jig. Cut (3) 2" wide pieces of hardboard (masonite). Two are close to the height of the risers. The third is close to the width of the stair. Stick pieces of double sided carpet tape onto each of the 2 small pieces near the bottom. Lay the side pieces against the riser and tight against the skirt pushed up to the top of the riser. Lay the long piece against the tread at the bottom and stick it to the side pieces. This seemed to work better than my first test.

It's an adventure. My girl friend said - "I thought you were just going to carpet". Yeah but, where's the fun in that?" I can always carpet later if it turns out ugly.

Today I made a landing tread out of a damaged stair tread I found at Menards for cheap. Ceramic tile is going on the landing and I needed the landing tread to match the tile height.

Played a bit with stain too. I wanted a light color (blo), but the oak ply looks too new against the "charaterized" treads, so think I'll use golden oak color which seems to match up better. Will use Bona Mega on top.

Charlie

[James Hart]

Charlie,

I just did my stairs recently. I picked up a bar gauge from Veritas/Lee Valley and it worked great. They're two little parts the size of a quarter that let you lock two small stick together to capture an exact width.

First used an angle tool to make sure the riser met the wall at 90.

I cut the risers about 1/16 or so over size and bowed them a tiny bitas I put them in place.

Jim