I'm planning to replace our carpeted stairs with some hard maple treads with a clear finish. The risers will be painted white. The bottom 5 treads are open on one end. the remaining 7 treads are between the walls. The existing stairs have some squeaks but nothing terrible. However, I'd really like for there to be no squeaks once I'm done so I'd like to do it right. I just don't know what "right" is....
From my research online I plan to do the following:
1 - Remove the existing treads. The bottom 5 look to be Oak treads or at least the exposed portion on the end is Oak. I'm assuming the upper treads are plywood or particle board.
2 - Check all the riser heights to make sure they are consistent. I may run into an issue on the top stair/landing as I am planning to put down 3/4" maple floor and with the subfloor that may end up to high. My understanding is I can have up to a 3/8" difference in riser. Will that be noticeable? Right now nothing seems out of the ordinary on these steps as far as rise/run. House was built in 1975 so nothing too unusual like really steep rise or short treads.
3 - Check that the stringer notches are level. If they aren't then shim accordingly from the top side. (Drywall is covering the bottom of the stringer)
4 - Place the new maple treads using 3 big blobs of PL Premium on each stringer. Smoosh the PL.
5 - Predrill for a screw on the back of the tread on each stringer. Use a GRK trim head screw as close to the back as possible so it will get covered by the painted riser.
6 - Predrill for a screw on the front of the tread on the outside stringers next to the wall. Use a trim screw and fill with matching putty. (Do I need to put screws on the front edge? I'd rather not but I don't like squeaks more than I don't like small puttied holes)
7 - Do all the treads and then go back and do the painted Risers. Maybe it is easier to do them in order alternating from the bottom up?
8 - I plan to leave the skirt board in place. I do have a stair tread jig I made so I should be able to get pretty close to a good fit.
Does this approach sound OK?
Is there something I'm missing?
Are there some pro-tips to make this easier? Seems pretty straightforward to me but I admit that I don't know what I don't know yet.
Thanks - Mike