Our Most Ambitious Stair Project Yet

 

 

 

My husband is an incredible woodworker.  He can make just about anything!  He's put oak stairs in two of our last three houses and walnut stairs in this house.  Recently a good friend asked us to help her with her stairs.  She lives in a 100 year old house that she is redoing room by room.  Last year we helped her put in a mudroom.  This project again provided tight spaces for three adults, but we can honestly say, we're all still very good friends!  :)

 

She wanted the stairs made out of hickory to match what she's planning to use on her first floor.  It's the first time my husband has worked with the wood.  It's sure a beautiful wood!

 

 

 

We thought we had a true 'before' picture of the stairs with carpet on them, but none of us can locate the picture.  Instead, we have these, after she ripped out all of the carpet.  We are guessing by the way they came out, that they built the original stairs elsewhere and put in the whole set as one piece. 

 

 

 

 

 

After we removed all of the old stairs and old stuff that they were built with, there was only a center 2x4 with little 1x6's nailed to that.  Talk about being Billy Goats climbing up those 14 steps! Here she is cutting off the old nails that were put in from the other side.  Good balancing act!

 

 

We added three new stringers, then secured them to the walls, the center support and down to the floor at the bottom.

 

 

Several weeks of cutting, sanding, gluing, staining the hickory at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once we had all three stringers in, we started from the bottom building the frame for each step.  We had to be very careful to make sure everything was level, even, etc.  After we built all of the support steps, we glued down the hickory.  We'd put one stair in, then the riser, then he'd precisely measure for the next stair, and on and on...

 

The first 13 stairs are in!

 

 

The landing is now securely built, ready for the hickory.

 

 

 

She wanted a similar landing to the one he made for our house.  Lots and lots of cutting, gluing and screwing the boards together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

The last four stairs were a bit out of square, etc., but that was fixed.

 

 

 

 

Woohoo!  The last tread is put in place.

 

 

And the project is about done!  She still needs to caulk the risers and touch up the drywall, but the bulk of the project is complete and she's thrilled!

 

 

Thanks for your visit!

 

Pam

 

 

 

I am linking to the following parties:

 

 

  Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Tweak it Tuesday at Cozy Little House 

 

 

 

New Stairs to the Mancave

We recently took carpet out of the Mancave and laid acacia hardwood. See it HERE. It turned out so nice.  The next step was redoing the stairs up to that room.  We have walnut throughout our main living, so we decided to make the new stairs out of walnut. Both woods are fairly close in looks, but we wanted to make sure that the stairs matched the main living area as closely as possible. 


 

 

 

The stairs have a landing in the middle.  My husband came up with this ingenious solution to make the landing look good from both directions.

 

 

Here's how he did it:

 

Lots of specific cuts.

 

Filler was applied to all of the wood so it would fill in any cracks (haha--hence the name FILLER!)  :)  But also to keep the stain consistent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the before.  Not bad carpet, but we didn't want to have wood on both floors, then carpet in the middle...



Pieces of walnut glued up.

 



 

Filler applied to everything.

 

 

 

 

All of the carpet, staples, pad, etc removed.

 



 

All of the bullnose had to be cut off of the old stair treads.  It was SO messy in our entire house!! 

 

 

 

My husband made up this jig so that all of the angles would be cut perfectly.

 

 

 

 

The first step was the hardest as it had the edges sticking out.  It had to be perfect!

 

All of the stair treads and risers were put on.  Liquid Nails was used to hold the stairs down.  The weights stayed on overnight to adhere the glue to the bases.

 

 

 

The edges were put on the bottom stair and finished it off nicely.

This project took about four weekends.  It is so nice to have the stairs done and have the house clean again!

 

Thank you for your visit.

 

Pam

 

 

 

 

 

I am linking to the following parties:

 

 

 



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  Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life