Our first major project in the new house was upgrading our existing stair from blue carpet to wood flooring, something that will much better match our future aesthetic throughout. This was quite the undertaking, Kam and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we started the project. We’ll briefly walk through the steps we took and of course include details on all of the products we used to complete the upgrade.
We first started the project with the obvious – removing the existing carpet. We had previously peaked under the carpet to see what we were working with underneath and to no surprise we did not have finish treads or risers.
With no finish treads or risers, this meant we’d be installing a new finish layer on top of the existing. Before we get to that, we needed to square off the existing treads. As is, they had about a 1″ overhang, but we wanted our new finish layer to be the only overhang you’d see, so we would trim up the existing sub-treads. In order to do this, we felt most comfortable using our jig saw to notch in 1″ increments and then followed up with a hammer and chisel to chip off the overhang.
Once that was done, we could start to think about getting all of the new material and begin fitting it to size. A quick disclaimer though – because we know we are ultimately painting our entire stair, mixing and matching wood species of our new material did not matter to us. If you’re staining, it’s much more important for a consistent look. For the new finish materials we used these treads and these risers from Home Depot.
At the stair landings, things get more complicated, so for that area we used sheets of 3/4″ sanded plywood with this landing tread, this way all of the stairs have the same nosing and profile. At the landing we also opted to use 1×6 pine boards cut to size to act as our baseboard, which we coordinated with the skirts on each end.
As for the tools we needed to get all of our material fit and cut to size, we utilized our table saw, mitre saw, and circular saw. We only needed the circular saw to cut our angled landing pieces, so if you do not have an angled landing like us you probably won’t need one.
Once we got all of the material cut, we dry fit the entire stair. I really like doing this because one, it is great to see all of the progress you’ve made and two, it ensures you’ve got all of the pieces done and they fit correctly.
For installation, we opted to use Loctite PL Premium as our adhesive. We applied very liberal amounts of adhesive to the backside of the treads / risers and once in place we lightly tapped a mallet across each of the pieces to ensure adhesion. Lastly, we used our brad nailer with 2 nails on each end of the tread or riser. Because we needed to continue to walk up and down our stairs while the adhesive cured, we installed the treads on every other stair and waited 24 hours before installing the second half. Once every piece of the new stair was installed, we filled all of the nail holes with wood putty and caulked any gaps with DAP Alex Flexible Caulk.
Although this project was a ton of work, it was totally worth it. We’re so happy with the finished product and its a cost-effective impact you can make in your house. If we would have finished the stair with the new engineered hardwood we’re planning to use it would have been thousands more with this method. Stay tuned for an additional blog post on what we used to paint the entire stair and of course, a full foyer reveal!
Shop all of the products used for this stair project:
