Stair Treads

[Sean Troy]

Hi all, My wife would like oak stair treads and get rid of the carpet. Can I make my own with 4/4 lumber and round over the front top and bottom to make my own bull nose. Will the 4/4 thickness work ok?

[Peter Quinn]

This depends on how the stair case is made and what is under them. I make a lot of stair treads at work and 1 1/16" finished thickness is more typical of a 36"+ width stair case with a three stringers. I think these are structural, or unsupported except by the stringers themselves (I say I think because while I do make a lot of stair parts I do not install them). I use fairly flat 5/4" material and just plane to 1 1/16", no need to flatten them as long as they are not warped and there typically isn't room to flatten anyway. We do make some 3/4" treads, and I understand there is blocking or some substrate across the stringers for added support. I would think a 4/4" tread assuming 7/8" or less finished thickness unsupported would prove a bit springy. If there is carpet there must be a substrate, so the issue becomes simply adding 3/4" to this will change your rise (perhaps moving you out of code limits) on the first and last step, and you may have issues at the top depending on what is there and how you are handling the transition? You may also have an issue if the current substrate projects past the risers to form a bit of an over hang, you won't want to see this in the finished stair case, so that might require some messy flush trimming or other adjustments.

For the bull nose we usually use a cutter 1/16"-1/8" larger in diameter than the finished thickness of the tread to create a bit of a thumbnail effect, not a true half round. Its a bit stronger and gives the foot more support when descending.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Home Depot stocks them for less than you would pay for just the wood.

[Sean Troy]

Substrate is flush with the top of the riser or you could say the top of the riser is flush with the substrate. Would that make the 4/4 an ok choice then. The top of the stairs will be solid oak hardwood where there is just carpet now once I do that hallway. That's what got my wife wanting to do the stairs.

[Sean Troy]

Home Depot stocks them for less than you would pay for just the wood.
They 30.00 a tread here at the Blue or Orange. It would be cheaper using nice cherry than buying the treads at a store.

[Chip Lindley]

3/4" thick stock should be fine for replacing carpet-covered stairs. The stair structure is already built to handle it's load. The oak treads are only for looks. A thicker 1-1/16" bullnose can be glued and brad-nailed to the edge of each 3/4" thick tread, then rounded over.

You may need to make templates to cut each tread end exactly to match the stringer if not perfectly square. This is the time-consuming part. But the end result is well worth it.

Edit: The height between new 3/4" oak flooring upstairs and the 3/4" oak treads will remain the same. But, height of the bottom tread above existing floor will increase a bit--the difference between carpet thickness and 3/4" oak tread. Probably not enough to notice. And, use plenty of construction adhesive beneath the oak treads to avoid squeaks and creaks later.

[johnny means]

I am taking a break from the exact same project right now. I don't know what your stairs are like now, but in my case it was a lot bigger project than I originally thought. I figured that installing risers and treads right over the existing structure would be fine. Not the case. I had to cut the overhanging bullnoses off of each stair. This involved cutting close to flush to the riser with a circular saw after which using a Ryoba, I cut the last couple of inches to the stringer. This left a short length of dado, where the tread sat, empty. This void happens to be below where the new tread would be and had to be bondoed and sanded flush. After all this, I am finally able to cut and install the treads and risers.

I used bamboo treads from a flooring supplier and they are 4/4. My original treads are also 4/4.

BTW believe me i racked my mind for weeks trying to figure out the easiest way to do this. Unfortunately, my stairs were not designed for anything but carpet. Hopefully, yours are not like this. Good luck.

[Rich Engelhardt]

They 30.00 a tread here at the Blue or Orange. It would be cheaper using nice cherry than buying the treads at a store.
Menards had them on sale a while back for (42" long) for $9.99.
I gobbled up about 20 of them..

[Peter Quinn]

3/4" thick stock should be fine for replacing carpet-covered stairs. The stair structure is already built to handle it's load. The oak treads are only for looks. A thicker 1-1/16" bullnose can be glued and brad-nailed to the edge of each 3/4" thick tread, then rounded over.

I'm a little more awake today, and thinking when we make 3/4" treads or nosings (basically a 3/4" floor board with a 1 1/16" bull nose to transition from landing with hardwood flooring to stair case) we glue a strip to one face at the leading edge that is 5/16" thick, 1 1/4" wide, then bullnose the 1 1/16" thickness. This gives a "proper" look, a place to run a cove between riser and tread, and covers the joint between riser and tread. It makes it look like you have 5/4 treads with a 1 1/4" over hang, the joint disappears in the bottom of the bullnose and is much stronger than a nailed on nosing. If hardwood flooring is being added to the floor at the top of the stairs, then the rise you experience goes up by 3/4" equally except for that first step, but that shouldn't be much of a problem. So 3/4" treads should be fine on that staircase, but look at building up that leading edge for a traditional look. Its easy to glue them up in pairs so each acts as the others cauls and takes less clamps.

[Sean Troy]

I am taking a break from the exact same project right now. I don't know what your stairs are like now, but in my case it was a lot bigger project than I originally thought. I figured that installing risers and treads right over the existing structure would be fine. Not the case. I had to cut the overhanging bullnoses off of each stair. This involved cutting close to flush to the riser with a circular saw after which using a Ryoba, I cut the last couple of inches to the stringer. This left a short length of dado, where the tread sat, empty. This void happens to be below where the new tread would be and had to be bondoed and sanded flush. After all this, I am finally able to cut and install the treads and risers.

I used bamboo treads from a flooring supplier and they are 4/4. My original treads are also 4/4.

BTW believe me i racked my mind for weeks trying to figure out the easiest way to do this. Unfortunately, my stairs were not designed for anything but carpet. Hopefully, yours are not like this. Good luck.

Could you have used a Router and flush trim bit? Then a dovetail saw or something for the ends?

[Mark Bolton]

I think it was already touched on, and assuming if your getting rid of carpet on the stairs you are likely doing so as well on the landings at the top and bottom.

To the point, just remember that your riser height is going to grow on the first step as you are adding 3/4" of height to all the treads. While this may not sound like much it actually is a very substantial change in a single riser. The IBC calls out:

"The tolerance between the largest and smallest riser height or between the largest and smallest tread depth shall not exceed 0.375" in any flight of stairs."

You would be very surprised how much of a "surprise" a change of 1/2" in any riser height will be especially if it is the first or the last. You may likely find people tripping or stumbling down the last stair especially people who dont live in your home (as they will not be use to it).

If you are going to have a substantial change your best bet would be to find a way to spread this change out over 3 or so treads. While it would be a bit of a pain you could simply form a very wide rabbet on the bottom side of the bottom 3-4 treads making them a bit thinner where they land on the existing stair.

If you are in fact going to make your own treads and they arent going to be out of a single piece of wide material this would be much easier as you could simply plane the boards making up the rear of the tread thinner having a rabbet in only the front piece.

Mark