oak stairtreads alternative
justadumbcarpenter
| Posted in Construction Techniques on
Hello all,
I’ve got a customer desperate to remove the carpeting from their foyer stairs and have oak treads put in. The stairs are pre-built units with pine treads so it would mean major surgery to pull them out and install new oak staircases. Instead, I am considering trying to cover the existing pine treads with oak veneer and polyurethaning the heck out of it. Has anyone tried this, or have any advice?
Replies
You'll wind up defecting the height of the bottom and top tread. This may or maynot be an issue depending on the thickness of the oak. You could demo just these two, install a full tread and veneer the others.
I don't think applying a 3/8" veneer would be a problem. You could cover the risers after the treads using them to further insure that the tread won't cup, adding a nice bullnose to it all.
Both woods are going to move. Others here might know better than me but you might consider solid attachment at the front while floating over the tread to be held down by the riser. Any movement, shrinkage or expansion might be contained under a 3/8" riser.
Just A Guy With A Hammer
Edited 9/27/2006 11:13 am by jagwah
Thanks jagwah and Frankie
I should clarify the situation. The treads( there are 12 or 13 of them) are not open on the ends and dont have spindles plugged into them, but of course have overhanging bullnoses on the edge. The veneer Im talking about is 1/16 thick and would wrap around the round-over bullnose and be adhered to the tread. The height change would be minimal. Its the wear factor i would be concerned about most.
The treads are not readily removable since the staircase was factory built.
3-m has veneer with a peel stick back. It requires you to have a paintend or sealed surface which sounds like you have.
As to wear you just have to look at whats there to see how that will be an issue. You could avoid the main points of wear by removing the bullnose,if possible, and applying an oak one instead of wrapping the veneer around.
It's gonna wear but with a good poly coat and attentive maintenance you might get good use out of your labors.
"The treads are not readily removable since the staircase was factory built."Please explain. I figure once you decipher how one tread was assembled, you'll be able to remove the rest of the treads with ease.As for gluing down 1/16" veneer, (paper backed?) I am not sure it will be as easy as you may think. But give it a try and you can always do the tread replacement if it doesn't work out.Frankie
Experiment with the placing of the ingredients on the plate. Try the mozzarella on the left, the tomato in the middle, the avocado on the right. Have fun. Then decide it goes tomato, mozzarella, avocado. Anything else looks stupid.
Richard E. Grant as Simon Marchmont - Posh Nosh
I've built a few stairs but never ran into your situation. Sounds to me like a PITA kind of job. Maybe better to stay away from it but that's just my opinion.
Brian
Pittsburgh, PA
How many steps are we talking about? 2? 5? 17? Are there any spindles?
I would carefully remove the existing treads and lay down new oaks which I had prefinished. Fit the treads, glue and nail (discreetly) and apply final coat of finish.
The effort, time and frustrations in doing it any other way will be wasted.
Frankie
Experiment with the placing of the ingredients on the plate. Try the mozzarella on the left, the tomato in the middle, the avocado on the right. Have fun. Then decide it goes tomato, mozzarella, avocado. Anything else looks stupid.
Richard E. Grant as Simon Marchmont - Posh Nosh
Welcome to Breaktime.
Look into Stan Fosters threads.
Those treads are "dadoed" into the carriage. Veneer will not hold up.
Rip the whole carriage out and rebuild.
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