Question on new stair treads installation

[Kevin Murdock]

Hey All,

I've started the process of tearing up my old stairs treads and replacing them with hardwood treads.

The stairs were covered in carpeting down the center 28" wide with 4" stained pine "accents" on each side. I've removed the carpeting, the side accent pieces, and the particle board risers.

Attached below is a photo of the stairs in their current condition.

The basic structure of the treads are simply two 2x4's laying on their side, one in the front and one in the back with 1/2 inch plywood on top. You can see this best on the top tread in the photo from underneath. The net thickness of the treads is 2" (1.5" of 2x4 and 0.5" of plywood)

Don't be fooled by the shadows on the side, the stain marks show the hight of the decorative 4" endcaps. The majority of the tread hight was the top of the plywood plus whatever the thickness of the carpeting was (there was no padding). The stairs feel "right" walking up them now as shown, there is no odd step at the landing. So basically my intent is to maintain the current hight marked by the top of the plywood.

My plan is to install 1" thick solid hardwood treads. This leaves me with a 1" gap in thickness/height when I remove whats there as I plan to maintain the current tread high.

So what's the best thing to do? I'm guessing adding 1" thick shims the same width of the stringers, but I'd greatly appreciate the experience and input of folks who've come across this issue before.

My main concern is that adding 1" thick booster shims will create another seam/gap that may squeak, and possibly weaken the structure too much?

Comments and suggestions greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
-Kevin

[Dan Friedrichs]

I wouldn't go on "feel" - actually measure the height of each step, and make sure the rises are all no more than 3/8" difference. Make sure that once you add the tread, the top and bottom steps will have the correct rises.

If you find that you need to add some thickness to each step to get the rises equivalent, shims would work. Just make sure to slop tons of PL400 subfloor adhesive over every single surface, and use lots of good-quality screws, and you shouldn't have any squeak problems.

Also - the risers will add a good deal of stiffness to the treads. Set them so the riser sits on top of the tread below it, then the tread above it can be supported by it.

[Mark Norman]

I would be concerned 1" hardwood might not be stiff enough and may feel 'bouncy' when decending the stairs. In the case if the 2x's the riser likely provided added stiffness as well. I would glue up 'shims' to the bottom of each tread as well as glue up an added 1 x 2 piece of hardwood to the nose of each one for added stiffness. How do they feel now that the riser has been removed?

[Richard Wolf]

I think you should remove the ply and 2x4's. Find some 1" plywood and make sub treads. Use PL construction adhesive and screws to hold them in place. Then you can add your hardwood treads with more PL and 16ga. nails.

Richard

[Eric Larsen]

And also plan on nothing being square when it comes to your stairs. Nothing. (Mine took me THREE MONTHS. I damned near lost my marbles over all the tricky cuts. It's like crown molding that you walk on. Search out my thread on the subject.)

Have a very good protractor in hand when attempting stairs. Measure every single angle. Front to back. Side to side. Measure it 10 times.

Each rise and tread ended up getting a detailed drawing, showing the various measurements and angles.

(My biggest problem is that I had exactly enough wood to make the stairs. I could not miss a single cut. They all had to be perfect. That's what you get when you buy flooring at closeout.)

[Richard Wolf]

As far as treads fitting well, you need a template like this;
http://www.collinstool.com/base.php?page=collins_tread_gauge_ends.htm
You can make one of your own design, but it will save you a lot of time cutting treads.

Richard

[Dan Friedrichs]

Richard,

That's a really neat tool! That looks much more efficient than how I've done it...

[Kevin Murdock]

Thanks all for your replies so far.

Seems like PL construction adhesive is recommended a lot for stair work. Is it so strong that when used liberally on stringers it does more holding than the nails/screws?

Richard, thanks for your response. Making the plywood sub treads, do you mean make them them full-size, same as the hardwood tread and sandwich them together with PL and nails?

Dan, thanks for the heads up on keeping the high constant. I'll keep that in check.

Erick, I'll check out your previous thread for pointers.

Mark, 1" is industry standard... so it shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks,
-Kevin

[Don Jarvie]

Depending on your tools you could make your own treads. Get some 3/4 oak and plane them to 1/2 inch and just replace the plywood with the tread. You can make the round over for the front with your router.

You could also get 3/4 oak and not plane them. The bottom step will be 1/4 higher and the top and 1/4 lower. If you have some scraps of 1/4 ply you can try it outand see if the 1/4 is a big difference.