Sean Rainaldi
12-18-2010, 9:24 AM
Hi,
I am about ready to finish off my stairway with treads and skirt boards. The stairs are 11 steps into our basement, but not concealed behind a door and are in the front of the house right near the front door, so I want them to look nice. I'm doing the treads out of white oak and most likely will do either oak or hard maple for the skirt board.
The entire stairway is enclosed between two walls, so the skirt boards will be mounted to drywall over studs.
I have not installed my treads yet, right now just have plywood sub treads over my three stringers and I left a wide enough of a gap between the drywall and the stairs to slip in between the skirt boards if I chose to install the skirts first. I plan on gluing up and planing down to 3/4 inch the treads, since I already have the sub treads in 3/4 inch baltic birch plywood, so that should be pretty solid.
I have heard that it is easier to install the skirt board first by sliding it between the stringers and the wall and then put in the treads between the skirts, but cosmetically it looks much nicer if the treads are put in first then the skirt board is notched out and placed on top of the treads instead of sandwiching the treads, in order to better conceal the joint between the skirt board and the treads. Of course it is more time consuming to cut the notches though.
Any thoughts in the two methods?
Also what is the best way to cut my notches if I decide to do the latter...and the best way to cut the tread nosing profile into the skirt?
Thanks for any ideas...
I am about ready to finish off my stairway with treads and skirt boards. The stairs are 11 steps into our basement, but not concealed behind a door and are in the front of the house right near the front door, so I want them to look nice. I'm doing the treads out of white oak and most likely will do either oak or hard maple for the skirt board.
The entire stairway is enclosed between two walls, so the skirt boards will be mounted to drywall over studs.
I have not installed my treads yet, right now just have plywood sub treads over my three stringers and I left a wide enough of a gap between the drywall and the stairs to slip in between the skirt boards if I chose to install the skirts first. I plan on gluing up and planing down to 3/4 inch the treads, since I already have the sub treads in 3/4 inch baltic birch plywood, so that should be pretty solid.
I have heard that it is easier to install the skirt board first by sliding it between the stringers and the wall and then put in the treads between the skirts, but cosmetically it looks much nicer if the treads are put in first then the skirt board is notched out and placed on top of the treads instead of sandwiching the treads, in order to better conceal the joint between the skirt board and the treads. Of course it is more time consuming to cut the notches though.
Any thoughts in the two methods?
Also what is the best way to cut my notches if I decide to do the latter...and the best way to cut the tread nosing profile into the skirt?
Thanks for any ideas...