Stairs

[Larry David]

I'm going to rip the carpet off the stairs and I want to replace the carpet with hardwood like I have in my kitchen, which is oak. After I rip up the carpet then what do I do?

I have the tools, miter saw, nail gun and so on. I've never put down hardwood floors before.

[Ken Weaver]

I've never done it, but its my understanding that stairs don't use "flooring" but rather you have to replace the entire tread. In other words if the stair treads under the carpet aren't oak, you would have to replace the entire stair. If that's correct, I think I'd look into doing a refinish job to get the color/texture you want. I may be off base and will defer to someone who knows more than I do on this.

[RayintheUK]

I'm going to rip the carpet off the stairs and I want to replace the carpet with hardwood like I have in my kitchen, which is oak.

Staircases come in a variety of types and designs, but there are two basic differences. One type has the treads (the piece you step on) sitting on top of the stringers (the angled side pieces). Replacing the treads alone may be possible, but if the design also incorporates risers (the vertical pieces between the treads), this may prove to be a problem, as these will usually be inset into the stringers.

The other basic type has both the tread and the riser inset into the stringers, often secured by glue and/or wedges inserted from the underside. Replacement in this type is practically impossible without completely dismantling the stair - which would mean removing it.

I have seen staircases "clad" in hardwood - both treads and risers. It's not that difficult to spot (higher first tread and a contrived transition at the upper landing), but the main problem is the creaking caused by fixing wood over wood.

A picture of the existing stair would assist, preferably with one tread and one riser exposed (carpet lifted) and/or a shot from behind it.

Ray.

[LarryG]

How new is your house, and was the stair flight completely covered by carpet from the outset?

In relatively new, developer-type houses, with stairs covered completely by carpet, the stair's risers and treads are probably pretty rough and ugly underneath -- something just good enough to provide a reasonably smooth substrate for the carpet to go over. You may be looking at a complete rebuild of the treads, risers, and stringers.

OTOH if the house is older, and the carpet was added later, what's beneath may need nothing more than a refinishing job.

If you don't already know what's under the carpet, a little investigation will be needed as a first step.

[Larry David]

I'm glad I asked. I thought I could just rip up the carpet and put oak planks down on whatever is under the carpet, which I assume is probably plywood I guess. I can't rip out the staircase and rebuild it but I hate to just replace the carpet with more carpet. I'm not a big fan of carpet.

[Larry David]

How new is your house, and was the stair flight completely covered by carpet from the outset?

In relatively new, developer-type houses, with stairs covered completely by carpet, the stair's risers and treads are probably pretty rough and ugly underneath -- something just good enough to provide a reasonably smooth substrate for the carpet to go over. You may be looking at a complete rebuild of the treads, risers, and stringers.

OTOH if the house is older, and the carpet was added later, what's beneath may need nothing more than a refinishing job.

If you don't already know what's under the carpet, a little investigation will be needed as a first step.

Larry, the house was built in 1997. Carpet was put down right from the start. I'm sure you are correct regarding to what is beneath the carpet.

[JimD]

You can still do it if you are patient (and your spouse is). I changed a staircase meant for carpet complete with framing member treads to an oak look in our last house but it took significant time. I bought 3/8 inch thick oak flooring from launstein and put it over the existing treads. It makes the rise 3/8 more at the bottom and 3/8 less at the top but this was not noticable to us. At the nosing area of each tread, I ripped the 2x material off flush with the riser of the stair. That is not easy. Then I made an oak nosing which was biscuited, construction glued and face nailed to the 2X tread. I was a bit concerned about the strength but we had no problems. I made an oak cove moulding to go under the modifed tread to cover the joint with the riser.

The other issue I had was the quality of the riser material was pretty sorry. I did a lot of spackling and sanding to get it to look decent.

The final end product helped us sell the house - it looked pretty good to us and the buyers - and it did not cost a lot. It would have been quicker to rip the stairs out and build a new one. I couldn't because all our bedrooms were at the top of the stairs so they could not be gone for even one day. I did every other stair and we could step over my work area during construction.

Jim

[JimD]

I forgot a point. The carpet grade stairs in our current house going to the basement use regular treads of softwood. If that is what your builder did, you might be able to just replace the treads with oak. I put a whitewash effect on the cabinets I made for the basement so I just used the same finish on the softwood treads of the stairs. Works for us. Replacing treads is feasible, IMHO, only if they are open on one side. If they are let into the stringers on both sides, you'd have to rip up the stringers or have a noticable gap on the ends to replace.

Jim