Replacement staircase.

[GB]

I'm still impressed.

[GB]

Our neighbour has a magnificent boundary oak in his garden. Say three hundred years old, at a guess. At those prices, the wood in it is worth tens of thousands of pounds. Fortunately, it's subject to a TPO.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim Lamb writes

Assessing the Oak stock this afternoon. I have plenty of Oak scantling sawn about 95mm square. I have a few knot free timbers 180x95mm. With an awful lot of gluing and timber matching, I could copy the farmhouse stair but with a half riser to meet BR.

Is there a best glue for Oak and does it work below 10 deg. C?

Pictures to follow..

[Tim Lamb]

A few of those here. 2 to 3 hundred years. Every now and then one falls over so I cut the limbs up for firewood and get the trunks converted. 1" per year for air drying so I am running out of time:-)

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim Lamb writes

And the picture... I am new to imgbb so please bear with me..

[Dave Liquorice]

Proper ones? With tapered slots and wedges to hold the risers and treads in place in the stringers?

So hardly a valid comparision to a cost that includes labour.

"Costing your time" is a curious one. If SWMBO'd doesn't think a task is "worth while" she'll use "... and have you included the cost of your time?". Then she'll nag me to say cut/split the accumulated wood pile into bits suitable for the woodburner, because it's free...

[John Rumm]

I would expect so - although glue alone might do the job in a decent depth rebate its slightly sub optimal since the grain directions don't match.

Basically you have to fit all the treads and risers to one string, then apply the other - creating the finished stair in one hit.

(the traditional way you can hang both strings and then fit each tread and riser in place as you go. A traditional wedged construction is not designed to be "seen" from the underside directly - it would normally have a covering)

One I did ages ago:

and a more recent one:

Easy enough if your boards are reasonably straight and not twisted, and you have access to a thickness planer... more of a pain with a hand held device.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , John Rumm writes

Hmm.. bit more than a long day in either of those:-)

Routing is not my favourite job. I couldn't afford the trend 1/2" router so bought the Erbaur. Works OK apart from the one thing you need to be silk slick. The plunge slide jams! No lubricant tried so far has helped. Just about useable if I remember to load the left hand side first....

Delivery on a manufactured Oak stair is about 3 weeks so I can mull a decision over for a long time yet.

[John Rumm]

The pool ones were about three half days... (mainly because I had to glue up the strings from smaller timbers). I can't remember how long the house ones were - I seem to recall it was about three days (excluding balustrade) but that did include having to remake the strings when we worked out the architect could not count, and there should have been 3 steps and not 12! (those were more complicated though since they had a kite and winders at both top and bottom.

(Titting about with the banisters was probably another day and a half since I was also replacing the run along the landing to match).

Yup not ideal...

[tabbypurr]

If necessary stairs can be built without routers. One way:

Another is to use 2 strips of wood bonded together in lieu of each one, one with the necessary areas sawn out, the other not.

The open riser style shown is quick to built, and of course can be closed.

NT

[Tim Lamb]

I'm OK with a fully supporting template but struggle following a shape where the shoe is resting on one side. The real answer is not to buy cheap tools!

Umm.. looking at the open riser style of the farmhouse stair, I doubt my ability to accurately cut 100mm wide timber in what will be a visible area. Some sort of *clamp on guide* ?