My first time installing oak stair treads with painted risers — What’s the best way to attach them to the stringers? This is an enclosed staircase with three LVL stringers and painted skirtboards.
I was planning to use glue (sub-floor adhesive) and screws, two into each stringer. The risers would be screwed through the back into the back edge of the treads, plus finish nails or screws close to the top edge, where they would be covered by the cove under the tread bullnose. Is this correct?
On the treads, would it look better to use finish-head screws and fill with putty, or counter-sunk screws with wood plugs? The finish will be clear polyurethane.
Also, it is better to pre-finish the treads and then touch-up the plugs, or just wait to do all the finishing after installation?
Thanks!
Replies
plugs
finish after installaion is my preferred MO.
You might find these to work well for fitting the treads.
http://www.collinstool.com/base.php?page=tools.htm
I used to use adhesive with screws & plugs, but lately I've found the adhesive alone works well with just finish nails to hold in place until adhesive sets.
My preferred method is as you describe, screwed thru riser into back of tread, ( I usually glue that joint, too ), PL adhesive under tread, with 10d galvy finish into the stringer.
I would think that the glue-n-screw-n-plug would be fine, as long as the plugged look is what you want, or you can spend time matching up grain and color...either way, the nails or screws, in my opinion, act as a clamp till the glue takes over, and the glue is really what locks 'em up.
I prefer to put one coat of sanding sealer on treads first, just so the next dope with a cup of coffee doesn't ruin my day, and then my floor finisher handles the rest. I believe he does the filler on nails between the 2nd and third coat of poly; think it's because the putty less apt to shrink that way...
Bing
i was able to get under mine,so i used a kreg jig through the stringers into the tread.sure sucked them down. larry
if a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?