Stair Progress - No Bull

So, do you remember when I ripped the carpet off of our stairs, oh about three months ago? Well, that's how they've looked that whole time. I think I was a little ambitious with the whole painting the outside of the house thing. Now that we are done, we can return our attention to more exciting projects. If you have learned anything from me remember, don't ever paint your house. It sucks so bad. Just hire someone and send me a thank you note.

 

Ok, on to the stairs. After ripping off the carpet and all those pokey things (tack strips and staples galore) that come with it we were left with some pretty gross steps. They have over spray from when our walls were textured and primer all over them. Since they are going to be covered with beautiful wood I could care less about how they look. What we could not care less about is the fact that they were not level. They all seemed to slope slightly to the left. We also needed to remove the bull nose to the stairs before we can cut and attach the stair skirts. So to address those problems it made sense to completely remove the stair treads.

 

 

We removed every other one so that we still had something to stand on. Once they were up, we took all the old nails out of them and ripped the ends off so they would be flush with the risers. That was the easy part. Putting them back was a different story. I put some shims under the treads before setting the tread in place, then laid our level on top of the stairs and adjusted the shims until things were more level. Once the bubble was centered I just screwed the treads down to keep everything secure. Loose stairs are bad, mmmkay. I was a little surprised at how much crap was under the bottom stair. One bolt, four size D batteries, and a bunch of wood.

 

 

You can see the shims under the stairs a little better here. And if it looks like only some of the noses are cut off, it's just because I ripped off the back on some of the steps. One in particular was missing a sizeable piece in the back.

 

 

Sadly one sad step could not handle the thought of being removed and leveled. He cracked under pressure. Terrible, I know. This was an easy enough fix. We just picked up a 2"x12" board and had the width cut for us at Home Depot. Once we were back home, I measured the depth and riped it down to size just like all the other treads.

 

 

They feel nice and sturdy, although a little shallow for the time being. The next step is to cut stair skirts that run along the sides of the stairs. Those will cover any gaps or damage in the drywall.

 

Ok, now lets hope that it doesn't take another three months until the next step. Are you "working" on anything at this kind of break neck speed?

 

Nikki