Stair Treads, New Construction

[RonB]

We moved into our new house during early March and called the insurance agent to inform her she could convert our coverage from "house under construction" to "hobby house". When the sheetrockers left in December we took all finish and flooring on ourselves.

Issue of the day is stair tread installation from the main floor to the basement. Our stair structure currently consists of four notched stringers topped with 2x12 construction steps that are temporarily screwed to the stringers. No risers. The staircase goes down 1/2 way to the basement and then turns 90 degrees to the bottom with eight steps on each run. Oak flooring, with bull-noses has already been installed at the main and landing levels. The upper run is 42" wide and has sheetrock on both sides; the lower run (which will be done later) is open on one side. We have purchased a set of 1-1/8" oak treads from a local mill.

I always assumed we would:

1) Remove the construction steps and shorten the slightly to allow...... 2) Installation of skirt boards on both sheetrock surfaces (the shortened steps would then be temporarily reinstalled to accommodate working on the staircase). 3) Install the oak treads directly on the construction stringers using construction cement and countersunk/plugged screws. I expect some shimming but our framer appears to have done a pretty good job with the notch consistency. Risers would be nailed

In surfing some web-articles, several (actually most) suggest topping the construction treads with the hardwood treads, after trimming the front edge. I am not sure why I would want to do this.

Any experience out there that would benefit my aging mind? BTW, I WILL NOT be routing the skirts to accommodate the treads and risers. That is beyond my time, skill and patience resources.

Thanks for input.

Ron

BTW - after building a set of four box newels with 60+ pieces each and milling the rail and contrasting balusters from rough cut 8/4 oak, I am beginning to appreciate why stair builders are worth their money!

[Swingman]

RonB wrote: > We moved into our new house during early March and called the > insurance agent to inform her she could convert our coverage from > "house under construction" to "hobby house". When the sheetrockers > left in December we took all finish and flooring on ourselves. >

The rise of the first step, from the FF (finished floor), and the rise of the last step to FF, will dictate what you you do.

You will basically have no choice to stay in code.

If your stairs were framed correctly, with the FF of both the main floor and basement floor taken into account when figuring the rise and run, you would correctly install your 1 1/8" hardwood treads on top of the rough treads.

[Mike O.]

Check the stairs in their current configuration. If all of the rises are good (measuring over the tread) then it was framed for 1 1/2" treads. If you have this scenario you likely won't be able to put the 1 1/8" treads on top.

If the top and bottom are not the same, re-figure as if using 1 1/8" treads to see what you have. If this makes everything correct you will take off the temps and install the 1 1/8" treads. The good news is that the PB stair treads that are used for carpet nowadays are also 1/ 18" so more framers are used to framing for 1

1/8" treads.

Honestly, in a lot of years of installing stairs, I've never seen a framer frame a set of stairs that were set up for 1 1/8" finished treads to be added to the top of 1 1/2" construction treads.

Mike O.