hardwood stair installation

[rroberson]

I am going to be redoing my stairs from carpet to hardwood treads. I have a friend who did his recently. He removed the old tread and riser completley and installed the new tread and riser directly on the stringers. Turned out good. When I look online how to's it says to just cut the old tread flush with the riser below and install the new tread ontop of the old and also to install new riser against the old one. Which way should I go? I hope I explained this well enough. Kinda confusing.

[HayZee518]

if you install the new tread over the old tread your total thickness will be the combined thickness of the two treads. in my opinion this is UGLY. your friend has the right idea. when you are done you'll have to install a cover of some sort over the external stringer if the outboard side of the stringer is exposed. if your stairway is between two "walls" then you don't hafta worry bout this.

[pushkins]

I'd also be concerned about the last step at the top, it will be a tread thickness less in it's height. treads are anywhere from 3/4" to 1" and that's a lot in step talk, especially a top step. Human brains are simple when it comes to steps, we walk them everyday and our brains expect every step to be the same height.
If it were me I'd be removing the existing treads and risers and replacing them, don't forget to add glue to the stringers when attaching the tread and risers, it will eliminate any potential squeaks.

[rroberson]

Thx, thats the way I was leaning too. It's just weird EVERYTHING I saw online said just go on top. They are all between walls so I think I should be ok on the stringer being exposed. One other question. Is it worth it to buy one of those tread sizers(120$) or should I just get as close as possible on my own and then use some type of caulk/trim if there are any imperfections with the gap between the tread and the wall? The friend I have who did his just got as close as he could and then ran a tiny bit of caulk in there. I don't think I would have noticed if he didn't point it out.

[HayZee518]

have you seen those gizmos used to fit wood around decorative moldings? it looks like a stack of metal leaves that you push into the molding so it makes a profile of the molding so you can use a coping saw to match a flat piece of wood around the molding. I figure you could measure outward from center to each end and use the molding profiler to duplicate the end cuts. then you could almost fit the tread in place.

[OTM Doc]

I have done a few of these conversions to oak treads. I remove the 2X existing tread, cut the depth down to whatever the riser comes to, 9 1/2 - 9 3/4 wide. Run it through a surface planer, then use PL400 adhesive and 3" wood screws to re-attach it to the stringers. Then use more PL400 and 2 1/2 inch finish nails to attach the oak treads to the old tread material. VERY STRONG. Risers are covered with 1/4 " poplar plywood and painted white before oak treads are installed.

[HayZee518]

the riser normally is 7 inches

[angelzurlo]

Check out EZTREAD on the internet. They have treads and risers that are made to fit over your existing staircase. EZTREAD is designed to have little or minimum change to the existing rise.