Piffin: thanks for the photo of your sweeping stair case a few weeks ago. We decided to follow your advice. Stained oak step treads, white painted pine risers. Treads installed yesterday. Really looks great w/ even the crappily primed & sanded white risers. Can’t wait to see it finished.
Not at all pleased w/ the way stairs are installed here. Do not use routed skirt boards. Just run at least 3 stringers then nail treads & risers to same. Make treads & risers a force fit. I at least had the treads screwed to the stringers w/ countersunk heads. Prior to installation, son & I went down stringers, leveling them w/ yelllow pine horizontal trimmers to make sure all stringer faces were in plane. Guess what – they weren’t. Left stringer was at least 1/2 inch lower than other three. (4 stringers – 54 inch wide case.) This also gave me a good, solid, dense piece of true cross grain for the 2 1/2 inch deck screws to sink into. (Woulda used shreetrock screws, but there is some maniac on this website who would have pitched a hissy-fit.) I can at least rest at night, knowing that my stair treads are level and flat.
Thanks for your counsel.
Don