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Hi all,
In our new (but used) house, the stairs going down to the basement look so awful. The steps are so filthy, no protective finish, don’t have the risers either, and have those giant nail heads shown so clearly.
We’ve been considering the followings:
– clean the steps and sand them throughly, then put on 3 coats of polyurethane,
– then we thought it would be easier to do a better job if we remove the steps then do the clean/sand/finish process on the floor instead of on the stairs since that area is kind of dark too. However, for this option, we are concerning about removing the nails from the steps, could it damage the steps and/or cause the steps to be loose after being re-attached.
Another matter is: we’d like to add the risers to make the stairs look more finished. Has anyone heard of any rules that such addition needs to be approved for safety reason, because that’ll add more weight to the existing stair?
I’m sorry for being lengthy and thanks very much in advance for any inputs!
Replies
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B., Stairs are actually considered safer if there is a riser, but you also want the tread to overhang the riser by 1" or so. The problem in your case is that often there is not enough room to add a riser and get an overhanging tread. Since you are considering removing the treads anyway, you could install deeper ones, prefinish them, add risers, and end up with a nice stair. Or sand and polyurethane what you have and call it good.
If you install new treads, you might try spiral nails or trim-head screws for appearance's sake.
Mike
*Thanks, Mike, for your response.After reading your message, I went down and measure a tread, it's 11.5" wide. I think the building code for stairs specifies that it has to be at least 9" or 10". So, I think we're ok there, i.e, enough width to have the 1" overhang.In my previous message, I mentioned of my concern about whether the steps will be loose if we took the nails off the steps, then put new nails in the same holes after finishing the steps. I was just thinking now: I don't have to put the new nails (spiral nails or trim-head screws, that is :) back in the same holes where the old nails were, do I? Is there certain rules for where the nails have to be, for instance, 1" or 2" from the edges or something like that? If we can put the nails in different places, then we can fill the old holes and won't have to be worried about the new nails will be loose in the old holes. Or, another second thought, I can always use bigger nails/screws, right? I hope my mumblings make some sense. Thanks! :)
*Hey Mr. Ribler,I wouldn't take the treads off if I were you. You stand a good chance of damaging the "stringer" or "horse" as it is called. That's the toothed out runner that seats the tread. I really feel you are asking for trouble. If you knock off the outside corners of the stringer, you'll have a mess on your hands. The wood grain direction of the stringer lends itself to breaking easily.If you can attach a riser to the back of one tread so it comes up under the tread above and still leaves about an inch and a quarter of the above tread sticking out past the riser, then I think that would be OK.Having built many staircases, I'd think twice about the whole thing if it were mine.Ed.
*Thank you, Mr. Williams, for your response.I'm not clear which part you meant when you said you'd think twice about? Did you really mean "the whole thing", which includes:1. taking the threads off2. sanding and finishing3. adding the risersOr, just item #1? Sorry for my ignorance. Thanks!
*Mr. Ribler,Just the taking off the treads part.Ed.
*As usual, have to agree with Ed. on this one--the pointy part of the sawtooth is fragile, and some of them would likely break off if you tried to remove the treads. That leaves your options as: sand and poly what you have; or hire a carpenter to build you new stairs. You could try to rebuild them yourself, but if they weren't built properly someone would get hurt. Good luck,Mike
*Ah... We'll leave those treads where they are then. Better safe than sorry! :) Still, those steps are really ugly compared with the other part of the house, you know.About adding the risers, we shouldn't be worried about adding more weight to the existing stairs, should we?Also, if you have any other thoughts relating to our project, please drop me a line here, I'd really appreciate it.Thanks again for all your help,Binh
*Mr. Ribler,I wouldn't worry about the extra weight. I would like to see the tread project out past the face of the riser just for looks and safty.If you're worried about the weight, why not enclose the bottom half of the stairs with a small storage closet underneath? That gives you all the support you need and enclosed storage also.Just an idea.Good luck,Ed.
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Hi all,
In our new (but used) house, the stairs going down to the basement look so awful. The steps are so filthy, no protective finish, don't have the risers either, and have those giant nail heads shown so clearly.
We've been considering the followings:
- clean the steps and sand them throughly, then put on 3 coats of polyurethane,
- then we thought it would be easier to do a better job if we remove the steps then do the clean/sand/finish process on the floor instead of on the stairs since that area is kind of dark too. However, for this option, we are concerning about removing the nails from the steps, could it damage the steps and/or cause the steps to be loose after being re-attached.
Another matter is: we'd like to add the risers to make the stairs look more finished. Has anyone heard of any rules that such addition needs to be approved for safety reason, because that'll add more weight to the existing stair?
I'm sorry for being lengthy and thanks very much in advance for any inputs!