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Hello:
I am wondering if you homebuilders can help me with my old staircase. The house is very old (1880). The staircase is in great shape but the treads are very badly worn and have been covered with thin oak strip flooring. The balusters are all in fine shape. The curved bannister is also fine – but the treads are in trouble. Any suggestions? Is removing the treads a problem I shouldn’t tackle?
Mark MacLeod
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Hi Mark,
If you have a layer already on the treads, it will indicate that the stairs have been modified or repaired before.
Check the height of the bottom and top risers. A lot of time, the top or bottom riser will be different than the rest.
It may be that you could easily remove the layer and add a 3/4 oak board tread with a laminated 1 1/4" nosing, instead of trying to remove the entire old tread, they should be rabitted into the stringers.
Gabe
*Mark - It's likely that if you have to remove the original treads, one thing will lead to another. For example, the balusters are usually pinned or dovetailed into the treads, so you may be disturbing/removing them as well (you noted that the railing is in good shape). This is a bit of an assumption on my part because in the late 19th century you sometimes find the balusters on a bottom rail or on an ornamental stringer. It is possible to replace treads one at a time (2-3 balusters at a time) but tedious. As a DIY, start counting balusters/treads, allow a reasonable amount of time and figure out if you really have time/expertise to do this. There is probably a molding under the nosing which may be nailed up into the treads - removing the treads may disturb it some -- make sure you can get matching replacement molding, etc. etc. etc.Jeff
*Mark, Gabe and Jeff have given you good advice if you want to restore things to like-new condition. But I wonder: Will the treads really look THAT bad after the thin oak strips are removed? Unless they look like rats gnawed on them, you might just want to leave them as-is (presuming they are safe). An 1880 home should have about 120 years of character by now, and well-worn stair treads would be acceptable to many of us...Good luck, Steve
*Along the same lines of what Steve just suggested, after removing the oak strips, if the treads appear to be weakened, I wonder of you can sister material to the i underside of the treads to reinforce them while retaining the vintage charm?What are the original treads made of, oak? pine? etc.?
*I agree with Matt and Steve,I'd first remove the new strip flooring and then with a little muscle and a scraper and sandpaper, you might just get down to some nice wood. A house that old should have worn stair treads. A little elbow grease may bring them back to where they should be.......character and all.Good luck,Ed. Williams
*i well-worn stair treads would be acceptable to many of us... Except for children, the elderly, the clumsy (what is that, about 50% of everyone?). Stair treads aren't just cosmetic - they are i functional,too. I'll buy the argument that 120 years of wear is a great aesthetic in many cases, but 'badly worn treads' will eventually lead to falls. Oops, I tripped over the patina ...I assumed from Mark's post that 'bady worn' means just that. Stuff wears out and, in some cases, must be replaced.Mark - How about a better description of the wear? If it is limited to the middle 24" or so of the tread, as typical with old pine treads, you could refinish them and add a runner on the stair to cover the bad portions. Most runners are 25"-27" wide and a good carpet installer can adjust for uneven areas.Jeff
*Jeff, if you're gonna quote me, please include the portion of my post that reads, "(presuming they're safe)". I certainly agree with you that if the nosings are worn off or uneven, some repair is dictated. Possibly adding new nosings would permit preservation of the old treads and eliminate the worst part of the work. Here in Williamsburg, VA, we see stair treads with deeply worn depressions in many of the historic buildings... they've proved reasonably safe for a few million visitors.To be honest, since many of the old buildings here have been "restored" or even rebuilt from scratch, I've always suspected that the wear on the stair treads was artificially generated. One client here wanted the look of worn pine floors, and sprinkled sand on the newly installed and finished floors to grind away the finish in the high traffic areas... Y'know: The "colonial look".Regards, Steve
*Sorry Steve:i well-worn stair treads would be acceptable to many of us ... b (presuming they are safe). Better? My point is that what us healthy, able-bodied athletic types consider safe isn't exactly a national standard.To me, "very badly worn" and "in trouble" means that the treads are probably more than 50% gone (Mark?) at the nosing at which point there begins to be a risk of splitting the nosing off, at least with pine.Jeff
*Im' with you Jeff Clarke.What's wrong with runners or carpeting for that matter?What I hate most is people who pay good money for the "worn look" or the "antique look."If you are preserving a historical building, and wish to keep it 100% authentic looking,(such as Abe Lincolns' log cabin) then OK, go the antique way. But IMHO, too much emphasis is being placed on antiquing everything.My grandfather(who died at age 80) and my grandmother (deceased at 92) always bought NEW things to replace the old, ratty looking stuff. They lovingly took care of anything they bought...they always bought the best that they could afford...and they always tried to keep it looking as new as possible.I bet if most of you were to ask your grandparents, they would probably tell you that they didn't want to display things that were "old" and "second hand" looking; except maybe if it was a certain ancestral heirloom, they would display this because of its personal meaning to them. But tell grandma to keep that old pine floor with the bootscrapes and such instead of allowing her to purchase a new hardwood floor. Or tell her she can't have new kitchen cabinets with the fancy pulls, hinges, and full extension drawer slides because her old "built-ins" look more "lived-in" with their scratches and scars and stuck drawers. Granny would done knock you over the head with her rolling pin!I like new, and I hope you do too!Davo
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Hello:
I am wondering if you homebuilders can help me with my old staircase. The house is very old (1880). The staircase is in great shape but the treads are very badly worn and have been covered with thin oak strip flooring. The balusters are all in fine shape. The curved bannister is also fine - but the treads are in trouble. Any suggestions? Is removing the treads a problem I shouldn't tackle?
Mark MacLeod