The stairs: From carpet to wood

Hey there! 

The stairs are done! I don't like carpet, anywhere but I especially don't like it on the stairs. I just don't like how it looks or what a pain it is to keep clean. I am fine with runners but not full carpet. Aesthetically I prefer wood treads but with our dogs we have to have some sort of cushion so a runner it is.

Here's a before picture. The carpet on the stairs was original to the house. Fourteen years old. Ew. 

We started by removing the carpet and pad from the stairway. Yuck. Ed pulled the carpet/pad and about a million staples. Seriously, every time he thought he had gotten them all he found more!

Ed wanted to cut the top tread to fit before staining because it would butt up to the wood laminate floor upstairs. This way I could stain the back where it would meet the wood laminate, there is a slight difference in height. We chose not to use transitions because we don't care for the way they look and they are a complete pain in the rear to install plus I tend to trip over the darn things.

Instead of replacing the builder treads with oak treads we used Retrotread oak treads. We have replaced the builder treads in another house and ended up covering them with Retrotread after a major fail with installation. Retrotread is so easy to use and they also have Retroriser which we also used in this house. All you have to do is put them over the existing treads or wood and there you have it!

While Ed was working on removal of the old carpet, I got to work painting the Retrorisers with 3 coats of Alabaster from Sherwin Williams to match the trim in the house. Next I put a coat of Minwax wood conditioner on each tread then stained them Armoire Hickory from Sherwin Williams. I did 3 coats of stain and finally 3 coats of polyurethane. I used foam brushes with the conditioner, stain and polyurethane. I think it's quicker and I do a better job of staining with foam brushes.

The only thing that was cut prior to painting or staining was the top tread. Ed cut each riser and tread to fit after they were painted/stained. He purchased a jig for stair treads and risers and that made the task so much easier! We decided not to cut the bullnose off the front of the builder treads and thus cut the treads down. We liked the way they felt having the deeper step for our feet. It has actually made going up and down the stairs so much more comfortable!

This is the jig he used, he put a board between the two pieces above as you can see in the picture below.

Test fitting treads. 

Once he had all of the risers and treads cut he started at the top and worked his way down gluing them into place. He followed the directions and used a non water based urethane that is specifically for wood floors. 

Once the treads and risers were installed Ed needed to do a little caulking and touch up. 

That's it for now. Next post I will show you the finished stairs with runner!

Thanks for stopping by!
Chris

***You can see the stairs with the runner added here. 

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