All,
Customer wants to R&R pine treads w/ oak. I did this too many years ago to remember the cost, (all records carried away by a flood) so can someone give me a ball park figure on replacement? I can figure out the finishing cost but was just wondering what the going rate per tread is these days.
Thanks,
dlb
.
Replies
Wow, I haven't posted here since they re-did the site. It's been a while. I just did a set of treads, but they were my own, so I'll share some of the process and hope it'll help you come up with a good price. Mine were old. Regular 3x10 stringers, 30" wide, 14 treads, and 1x8 skirts. They sat on a landing at the bottom. They were almost an inch out of level across the 30 inches if you can believe that. It was a result of 120 years of settlement, and poor framing techniques. Anyway, I bought the treads from bairdbrothers.com. I had them pre-finish them so that i would have to take the time to do it, and it was cheap enough. I think they were like $20 per tread pre-finished. I used windsor one 1x8 for the risers and skirts since it was already primed. (I hate finishing).
I started by knocking out the old treads and risers. Most of them were cracked or loose, but the skirts were nailed through into them. They must have been pre-built and the rest of the house was built around them because there was no way to nail them together like that other wise. I took out the old skirts next. They gave me the most trouble, but eventually came out. Once I had the everything off, I was left with bare stringers. They were only attached at the top, and were just sitting on the landing. I knocked down the plaster and lath on the under side so that I could get to them from below.
To put them back together, I first shimmed up the low stringer. Then I pocked screwed and glued a riser to each tread. I placed a set (tread and riser) on the stringer starting at the bottom. I shimmed them to level and square. I then used PL premium on both the riser and the tread, stuck them on the stringer and face nailed them with 2 1/2" nails. Then I moved on to the next set and did the same steps and added more PL premium where the next riser sat on the previous tread. Eventually going all the way to the top. Once they were all in, I went below and pre-drilled each tread and put four screws through it into the riser that was sitting on it. The top and bottom risers had to be scribed a little bit, but no big deal.
Once that was done, I fit the skirts in along side. Pain in the neck, but it worked out fine. Then I pre-drilled through the treads and risers from below and screwed the skirts in along side to pull them tight. I tried to spread some wood glue along the sides of the treads and risers before I pulled the skirts tight, but i don't know if it did anything other than make a mess. Since the skirts aren't really structural, I wasn't too worried about anything other than squeaks.
Finally, I drilled and lag bolted the stringers into studs in two places on each side. Then I went back and filled in my nail holes. Fill stick on the treads and filler on the risers and stringers. I touched up the risers and stringers, and put a carpet runner down the middle. It looks great. No squeaks at all. Working by my self, it took about two days to complete. Hopefully this will help you out.
Pix?
Wow,
Your stairs sound a lot like mine. Really old, really worn and in need of replacement.
Do you have any pictures of the work you did? I can basically follow what you wrote, but pictures always help.
Thank you
There are so many ways to construct stairs I don't see how anyone can give an estimate without a lot of details