We’ve all had the experience of walking down a staircase covered in worn-out carpet, with each step sloping down just enough to make it feel uncomfortable and questionably safe. Our company, The Carpenter Pros, specializes in transforming these staircases, replacing the old carpeted treads with hardwood treads that are solid and level. In most of the homes we work on, there is only one set of stairs—often going up to the more private, bedroom areas of the home—so we need to do the job quickly and efficiently with minimal mess and disruption.
Demo and Prep Work
The job always begins with tearing out the old carpet and pad, which includes removing any tacks, staples, and pesky tack strips. In most cases, the original treads and risers for the carpeted stairs are just made from 3/4-inch underlayment, and we take off the treads and remove any remaining fasteners. The risers come off next; we pull any nails from those too.
Because these staircases are often the only access that the homeowners have to the upper floor, we need to provide temporary stairs, especially if the job will take more than a single day. So we scrape off any old adhesive from the horizontal part of the stringers and screw the risers back on as temporary treads. That way, both the remodeling crew and the homeowners have a good, temporary way to access the second floor.
Stringer Shrinkage
The majority of stairs that we remodel have stringers or carriages made from dimensional lumber. That lumber is usually still solid and strong, but the nature of wood means that there is more shrinkage near the points of the stringer, which is why many of these stairs end up sloping downward. When we remodel a staircase, we do our best to compensate for that shrinkage by shimming the treads up level.
We also check the rise and run of the steps to determine if they need to be adjusted. It is important that the stairs feel even and comfortable to the people using them.
Off-Site Finishing
For tread material, we use solid oak, prefinished with stain and polyurethane off-site to minimize the mess and smell for the homeowners. Generally, we use 1-by stock for the risers, but occasionally we use 3/4-inch finish-grade plywood that I prime and paint off-site.
Before starting, we make sure that all the materials we will need are on site. Then we are ready to remodel the stairs, which usually takes our crew of two less than two days.
Photos by Morris Ridenour
