How to handle this staircase?

[Jack Frederick]

The shown room is the only one that didn’t get worked over in our remodel in ‘13. It has until last week when my wife decided it would be a good idea to take the rattie old w-w carpet off the staircase been left alone. I re-finished the floor in that room a bit over a year ago and now have to get after this staircase. It is old, old VG Fir and well worn as shown. The treads can be popped off as the inboard side is not enclosed. I’m fixing to pop a few treads at a time, take them out to the shop, sand, finish with Dura-Seal and reinstall. VGF wears with a substantial raised grain and this wood certainly has that. Once sanded can I kinda infuse some of the nosing on the treads with epoxy to reinforce them? What do you suggest? I will also sand/finish the facia boards as well. A friend spoke of the way they used to do staircases on Nantucket in the old candle/lamp days where they would speckle the facia with paint to pick it up and distinguish it from the tread in low light situations. My daughter and wife are pushing for a tile facia. They are the absolute immovable objects in my life but I am wondering what you have done or seen that would provide me some options. It is the “wood room” and I’m perfectly willing to leave it as that, but my37E0322C-059B-419B-9036-C8CBD270F24F.jpg8C11A3B8-920E-42A8-8C8B-2440BB392206.jpg girls!

[William Hodge]

I would skip the epoxy. As it wears, you will end up with fine plastic dust floating around your house.later, when the wood moves, the epoxy will shear off in larger shards.

New Vertical Grain Douglas Fir would look great. I have used it on stair treads, usually with a large diameter half round cut on the front. The half round does need to be returned on the open end, requiring a miter. I rough out the miter with a band saw, and carve it to fit the return.

Tiles in the wood room wouldn't be bad at all, if they were made out of wood.

[Bruce King]

We had the factory oak flooring and treads that had a orange tint when we bought the house. We took out the 3/4 flooring and put in 1/4 OSB, foam underlayment and engineered planks. My wife sanded and did this dark stain, white paint on the stairs. How much do you like the wood room? Might be time for an update. The tile on the risers would subtract from the size of the treads and likely put it out of code size.

[Mel Fulks]

There are riser decal type covers in different patterns and colors that are popular now. I think they can be easily removed.
But haven't checked. How old is the house? Is that way open side grand fathered in?

[Mark Wooden]

VG fir makes really attractive treads, especially the older stuff
If you're going to tile the risers, you'll need to widen the treads to compensate; since you're taking them off, add a piece to the back of the tread the thickness of the tile and mastic and a little more to re-cut the nosing profile while your at it. It's hard to see, but it doesn't look like the open end of the treads have a mitered return, which is fine, fir treads around my area often don't and they look just fine.

[Jim Becker]

Personally, I'd not really be attracted to tile risers in a "wood room".

Before the cosmetics, I'll suggest you thoroughly explore and create solutions to make the stairway more stable from below if you have/can get access to that area. Adding blocking and other strengthening will help with that.

As to the exposed faces, replacing with new (but as high quality as you can find) VG D-Fir would eliminate the worn surfaces, but over time, it's going to come back as it would with any kind of wood stairs. It will look different for some period of time, too, because new wood will never look like old wood, no matter what you do to it. If it were me and I were replacing the treds, if the risers were going to remain unpainted/uncovered, I'd replace them, too, so they match the treads. That's certainly a subjective thing, however.

[Jack Frederick]

By CA standards the place is old, showing on maps from 1860. It was the hotel, restaurant, whore-house across the road from the stagecoach station on the way out to the Malakoff Diggins. The open hand-rail is rock solid, doesn’t meet code and is unlikely to change in our ownership. The room really sees very little use other than a couple bookshelves and my wife’s desktop unit. At 72, I’m willing to be happy with it until I’m told I’m not. Thanks for the info on the epoxy, William. I don’t like the tile Idea and will work to squelch it. I see the tile as trying to make it fancy and fancy just will look out of place there in a decidedly rustic wood room. Having to add to all the treads to make that happen will be my out. Thanks. There are no returns on the treads. Jim, I do have access from below but as I’ve told my girls. I’m done with work in attic, crawl and other confined spaces. I will add support from above as I progress up the staircase. I have a bit of vintage vgf I can add to the back of treads as you suggest Mark. On those that have badly eroded nosing that looks to be the best option. Much obliged for the suggestions.

[Eric Schmid]

Personally, I would try to skip the removal and replacement. Instead, I might try to refurbish in place. I have a similar staircase and have worked on others. Old Fir is brittle and the nail heads are countersunk (I assume). You may end up with more damage to the treads and risers than you’re expecting.

It’s a good excuse to pick up a Festool RO 90, if you don’t already have one. 😲

One option to deal with the worn nosing is to install a traditional runner, leaving the edges exposed and giving protection to the soft nosings. It looks like the outer edges are in good enough shape to show. I think a well selected runner with some classic exposed carpet rod would look really nice there.

Love the rustic handrail!

[Jim Dwight]

I've redone several staircases including the two in my current house. In a previous house, I removed carpet from the stairs built of construction lumber, cut off the nosing, put 3/8 oak flooring over the tread and added a oak nosing I made. I filled the crude plywood risers and painted them white. It was a lot of work but it helped us later when we sold that house.

In this house I had to completely rebuild one staircase because it was way out of compliance with code. It had two steps that were 10+ and 11+ inch rise! Fortunately the runs were over 14 inches so there was space to do it right. I bought treads, oak, and put them over new stringers I cut and installed. Risers are softwood boards painted white and have a small dado to receive each tread. It's a nice solid staircase now with consistent rise stairs within current code limits.

My other staircase in this house seems like it is closest to your current situation. It was built fine but needed refinished. I just used my Bosch DEVS1250 sander + my Fein multi-tool with a sanding head to sand the old treads in place. Then they got poly finish and last the risers got painted white. Sometimes I had to sink the finish nails the treads were fastened down with deeper and use a little putty to fill the hole. The sanding was not fun but I would not say it was difficult. I hooked the sander up to a shop vac but the multi tool doesn't have that capability. I was taking dark stain off the oak treads so I had to do more sanding than I would think you will need to. I suggest there is no reason to remove the treads. It will add work and you will damage treads unless you are a lot better at it than I am.

[Jack Frederick]

See this is how it goes. I figured I'd be in for a Domino 500, which I want but have to raise the dough for and now Eric has me into another $500+ for the new sander. Oh how I love woodworking. Point taken on the possible damage to the treads. I haven't thoroughly examined their fastening method but they have been there a long time and haven't moved so you are likely correct. It would just be so much easier to sand and finish standing up. Also being able to pull a few at a time I could use temporary treads and make access to the upstairs simpler. Back east about 25 or so years ago I pulled the whole staircase and we had to use an extension ladder through a window to get upstairs. It was not a fast project. I'm not sure she will have it this time. Should be a fun conversation. "Oh, hey, Honey, do you remember when...?" Eric, I think your idea on a runner makes a lot of sense. Thank you Jim and Eric for the guidance.