Skitrboard for stairway suggestions

[Sean Rainaldi]

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...

[Chip Lindley]

Yes, it's much easier to cut a stair tread to length between two "skirt boards" (inner strings OR stringers) than to cut out a faux stringer to fit exactly on top of the treads and risers. I had the same situation you face--stairwell between two walls. I opted for adding the stringers made of 1/4" oak ply laminated to 5/8" OSB and capped with solid oak moulding. I felt it would have been impossible to achieve a very good fitting joint at the stair tread and riser edges otherwise. Here's a pic:

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[Sean Rainaldi]

OK THANKS!

How did you do your nosing on your treads? Just glue up a 1" wide strip to the tongue and groove?

[Dave Zellers]

I always preferred (back when I did stairs in the 80's) to install the skirt first as you have described between the sheetrock and the stringer, but just tack it in place. Then as you install the treads and risers from the bottom up*, shim the skirts over tight to the treads and risers. Then trim the top of the skirt as Chip shows in his pic. If the stair stringers were blocked out from the wall with 2x4's as it sounds like, it should give the look of a 1" thick skirt board which gives the stairs a beefier look which I think works really well for stairs.

*don't forget to nail or screw from behind the riser into the back of the tread between the stringers. Ideally, the tread notches into the riser with a 1/4" tongue (rabbit) at the top and is glued with the same construction adhesive you're using between the stringers and treads and risers. Make the tread rabbit 1/16" shorter than the groove for a glue space. Rock solid.

[David Thompson 27577]

All of the stair builders that are part of the Break Time Classic forum (at Delphi forums -- most are refugees from the disaster at Fine Homebuilding's forum implosion) would suggest using a rather simply built tread-guage.

They use a couple of flat sticks (maybe 1/4" X 2") that can slide along one-another, so the guage can be made longer or shorter. And it can be locked to a specific length with a butterfly nut.

At the right end of the right stick is a triangle of some thin stock. The triangle is about as large on each side as your stair tread is wide from front to back. Same thing on the left end of the left stick

These triangles can be loosened and tightened to the sticks (more butterflys). One point of each triangle points to the middle of the sticks, and a flat side of each triangle can then be slid up against the skirtboard.

Let me say that again, cuz it's the really important part of this jig.

One point of each triangle points to the middle of the sticks, and a flat side of each triangle can then be slid up against the skirtboard.

Then you tighten the triangles to the sticks, and the sticks to each other. Voila -- a perfect tread template, that allows for variations in the stringers, the sub-treads, the skirts, etc.

Use that to mark each tread for final cutting. (Of course, reset the jig for each tread -- that's the advantage.)


I am a bit concerned that you've decided to use 3/4 stock for the treads. I hope that the point where the nosing is glued on, does not become a weakness. Most treads are 5/4 (finished thickness = 1"), with 5/4 noses. But of course, white oak is incredibly strong. Get the glue joints tight, and you'll be OK.

[Dave Zellers]

I think 3/4" treads are fine, especially if you interlock them with the riser at the back and make sure you have full contact at the front with the riser below it, but I really agree about attached noses. I would never do that unless I absolutely had to. Put at least a 3/8" tongue on the nose and liberally glue every surface that touches. The nose is under a lot of stress.