Mike Murray
04-20-2007, 1:24 PM
Thanks to everyone who helped with suggestions and advice. This has been one of my more ambitious projects. I'm strictly a hobbyist, teaching myself woodworking one project at a time... a process which has been greatly accelerated by discovery of this forum and all the great people here willing to share their knowledge and experience.
Here's a picture shortly after I removed the berber carpet:
62855
I was surprised to find the 2X treads and risers in very good shape... relatively flat, square, solid, and well-installed. So I decided to install the new treads and risers directly on top of these. I compensated for the change in rise at the top and bottom by removing a few of the 2X treads and planing them down to carefully-planned dimensions. The result is no more than 1/4" variation in rise after installation of the new treads.
I used solid maple treads and 1/4" maple ply for the risers. Here's a shot of the 5/4 hard maple stacked in the shop:
62853
And here's a picture after glue-up and milling the treads. Final thickness is a little over 1". These are 48" long and 12.25" wide after glue-up, so my 12.5" Delta lunchbox got the workout of its life. I had to remove the smallest possible increment of material with each pass, and had to let the motor cool down after every tread. (maybe there's a 3HP 15" planer in my future?)
62854
Here's a couple more shots, the first is halfway through installation, and the second is the finished product.
62852 62851
A few notes on installation... I wanted really clean, tight joints where the treads and risers meet (no trim). So I pre-attached the risers to the back edge of the treads (glue and lots of brads) and installed the two as a "unit" working from the top down. I also ripped a 1/4"X1/4" groove in the underside of each tread behind the bullnose to receive the top edge of the riser. I'm very pleased with how that worked out. The treads/risers are attached to the 2X substrate using LOTS of PL construction adhesive (I counted 28 empty 10oz tubes). I did quite a bit of experimenting to determine the right amount to get a nice even spread with no squeeze-out. This allowed me to compensate for some gaps and slight out-of-level situations. I shot 8 finish nails into each piece to hold in place until the adhesive sets up. It took several days for the adhesive to fully dry, but they are solid as a rock, not even a hint of movement or squeaking.
Finish... The task (assigned by LOML) was to match some engineered wood flooring that we recently installed in parts of the house including at the landing/hall at the top of the stairs. The flooring is a medium/dark brown maple with a reddish-orange undertone and black distress marks. "No problem", I said boldly. I'll spare you the nitty-gritty details, but after several weeks (yes, weeks) of experimentation, I finally worked out a regiment involving two dyes, a pigment stain, two toner coats, countless seal coats of shellac, and finally 6 or 7 (I lost count) coats of Varathane WB floor finish, with light hand sanding between each. The final step was some light sanding and steel wool to match the satin finish of the eng floor. The result is incredibly close; LOML is quite pleased. Oh, somewhere in the middle of that I did the distressing using a big hammer and a swingset chain with some nuts and bolts attached for variation. I colored the distress marks using mainly a fine-tip black sharpie, with a lot of help from the kids.
Thanks again for all the help, and thanks for looking.
Mike
Here's a picture shortly after I removed the berber carpet:
62855
I was surprised to find the 2X treads and risers in very good shape... relatively flat, square, solid, and well-installed. So I decided to install the new treads and risers directly on top of these. I compensated for the change in rise at the top and bottom by removing a few of the 2X treads and planing them down to carefully-planned dimensions. The result is no more than 1/4" variation in rise after installation of the new treads.
I used solid maple treads and 1/4" maple ply for the risers. Here's a shot of the 5/4 hard maple stacked in the shop:
62853
And here's a picture after glue-up and milling the treads. Final thickness is a little over 1". These are 48" long and 12.25" wide after glue-up, so my 12.5" Delta lunchbox got the workout of its life. I had to remove the smallest possible increment of material with each pass, and had to let the motor cool down after every tread. (maybe there's a 3HP 15" planer in my future?)
62854
Here's a couple more shots, the first is halfway through installation, and the second is the finished product.
62852 62851
A few notes on installation... I wanted really clean, tight joints where the treads and risers meet (no trim). So I pre-attached the risers to the back edge of the treads (glue and lots of brads) and installed the two as a "unit" working from the top down. I also ripped a 1/4"X1/4" groove in the underside of each tread behind the bullnose to receive the top edge of the riser. I'm very pleased with how that worked out. The treads/risers are attached to the 2X substrate using LOTS of PL construction adhesive (I counted 28 empty 10oz tubes). I did quite a bit of experimenting to determine the right amount to get a nice even spread with no squeeze-out. This allowed me to compensate for some gaps and slight out-of-level situations. I shot 8 finish nails into each piece to hold in place until the adhesive sets up. It took several days for the adhesive to fully dry, but they are solid as a rock, not even a hint of movement or squeaking.
Finish... The task (assigned by LOML) was to match some engineered wood flooring that we recently installed in parts of the house including at the landing/hall at the top of the stairs. The flooring is a medium/dark brown maple with a reddish-orange undertone and black distress marks. "No problem", I said boldly. I'll spare you the nitty-gritty details, but after several weeks (yes, weeks) of experimentation, I finally worked out a regiment involving two dyes, a pigment stain, two toner coats, countless seal coats of shellac, and finally 6 or 7 (I lost count) coats of Varathane WB floor finish, with light hand sanding between each. The final step was some light sanding and steel wool to match the satin finish of the eng floor. The result is incredibly close; LOML is quite pleased. Oh, somewhere in the middle of that I did the distressing using a big hammer and a swingset chain with some nuts and bolts attached for variation. I colored the distress marks using mainly a fine-tip black sharpie, with a lot of help from the kids.
Thanks again for all the help, and thanks for looking.
Mike