Preparing wood for Staircase rebuild

[Brian Kent]

I want to buy some kiln dried lumber as soon as I can afford it, and let it acclimate at home for several months before I rebuild my staircases. No time-limits on this so I want to pay cash (not credit), let the boards set for the right amount of time, and do the whole thing right.

So I'm checking with all of you experienced folks to see if I need to do anything differently.

Stringers - 2" x 12" Douglass Fir S4S (not "green") from Home Depot or local lumber store.

Base support for treads and risers - 2" Douglass fir from same source.

We have a huge area of our living room and landing covered with "Brazilian Cherry" flavored Pergo, so the stairs will be covered with Brazilian Cherry lumber.

Risers - 4/4 Brazilian Cherry.

Treads - 4/4 Brazilian Cherry. Possibly double thick at the nose.

I was really surprised to learn that I can get 4/4 Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba) for $4.68 / B.F. rough cut. from Reel Lumber (local, so no shipping).

Am I on the right track?

Thank in advance.

Brian

[Brian Kent]

I'm on my way. I'll start saving and buying and acclimating.

[Richard Wolf]

I know I have said this in the past, but I will regress. On the east coast most staircases are factory built as a single unit and installed that way. I realize in other places, people rough frame a staircase and then trim it out, as you are planning on doing.

Some things of concern; "kiln Dried" framing lumber is not dried to 6 to 12 percent, more like 20 to 30 percent so you can expect some movement while drying. Treads are usually 5/4 or 1 1/32 finished so if you could find some BC in that size it would work out better for you.

You don't have any lumber listed for you skirt boards or stringers, are they going to be BC also?

Be careful with all the BC, floors, stringers, risers, treads and I assume your railing system may be BC also. All the same wood start to look overwhelming sometimes, and you may need a contrast like painted balusters and maybe painted risers.

Good luck with your project, we want pictures.

Richard

[Brian Kent]

The stringers will be hidden - construction lumber.

I hear you with the all-the-same wood problem. I'll have white balusters. I may have white painted handrails (which is what I have now) and possible white risers.

Currently we have BC Pergo covered stairs. Since we are not trying to save that material I could try painting the current risers and see what it looks like.

[Trevor Remster]

You will need to put a nosing profile on the front of your treads, and a return on any open ends. It will probably be cheaper for you to just order the brazilian cherry tread blanks from a millwork supplier. They will be 1" to 1-1/8" thick, already nosed, and with the returns installed. You will just have to specify length and whether one end is open, or both ends are open. If you choose to go this route, remember that the manufacturer includes the width of the return in the total length. This means that a 48" open end one side tread will only have 47" available from skirtboard-to-skirtboard. I just order 6" longer than I need to give me some wiggle room. If you haven't worked with this stuff before, it's kinda nasty. Very pitchy. I get a runny nose, and so do most of the others I know that work with it often. Just my 2 cents.