Having started the most recent phase of HW flooring in the middle of the living room because of other considerations, I was unable to begin at the top of the stairs. Now as I approach the stairs I have a lot of questions. I realize that a lot of my questions are inter-related and the answers to one or more will affect others. Please see below.


Photo 1 shows where I've removed the old stairnose and shimmed that area up to the level of the subfloor.


Photo 2 shows the old stairnose in place at the proper height of the finished HW.


Photo 3 shows the detail at the bannister/railing post to the right of the stairs.


Photo 4 shows the now too short riser at the top of the stairs.


Photo 5 shows the different dimensions (overall width & overhang) of the old stairnose compared to the current Bruce "matching" stairnose.


Photo 6 shows the space where the last board will need to be fit in to the left of the stairs.

STAIRNOSE: I haven't yet decided on which stairnose to use at the top of the stairs... whether to re-use the old one which already fits and isn't rteally that far off from matching my flooring but would need a groove cut in its back edge to accept the last board's tongue. OR use the new stairnose from Bruce which is darker than the darkest of the different colors of my flooring. OR try to make my own stairnose out of my prefinished HW as was described in a recent post by BuddyJ from Biloxi . The last choice would involve ripping and glueing a 1/4 strip of HW on the bottom of a board and then rounding over a bull nose on the thickened portion of the prefinished board. This newly routed bullnose section would then have to be stained, finished and blended into the prefinished top of the board. Any opinions or advice on this would be welcome!

OVERHANG: As seen in photo 5, my old stairnose is quite a bit larger than the new stairnose from Bruce even though its "footprint" is about an 1/8" smaller than the Bruce stairnose (2-1/4 vs 2-3/8). The difference is in the overhang. The old stairnose overhangs the riser by a full 1-1/4" while the overhang on the new Bruce stairnose is only 11/16". My original 5/4 oak treads all overhang by at least 1-1/2. Was a larger stairnose overhang more popular in years past and now the smaller overhang more in "vogue"? And, I presume, whatever the O/H is at the top of the stairs should carry through on all the stair treads???

RISE PROBLEM: I know my top step will now be 3/4 higher in rise than the rest of the steps. This can be corrected in a variety of ways. Easiest I assume would be to trim the nosing off the existing treads and cover each step and perhaps the risers with HW flooring to even it all back out. Another option I am considering is refinishing and staying with my original solid oak treads. These treads would be easy enough to remove then trim, if necessary, to reduce the existing overhang, sand and refinish.

RISERS: As can be seen in photo 4 the riser is 3/4 short and will not be covered up by any of my stairnose options described above. The trouble is this riser will probably be difficult if not impossible to remove without first removing the banister post if not the entire bannister as some of the attaching finish nails are behind the lower portion of the post. Unless I am forced ny other decisions to do so I would of course prefer to leave the existing bannister/raing in place. I have seen some stairway pictures on this and other sites where quarter round or cove molding was used under a stairnose overhang. Is this what is being covered up in these photos? How about ripping another piece of 3/4 wood 3/4 x 3/4 and inserting it above the short riser to fill in this space. Can that work and look good?

RIPPED BOARD AT STAIRNOSE. Photo 3 shows the width of the ripped board that will fit between the stairnose and the last full course of fl;ooring (about 2" wide). The width of this piece could be increased by trimming some amount off the back of the stairnose decreasing its "footprint". Is one of these options better than the other? The piece that fits here would be ripped to size taking off the groove side of the board and then a new groove cut in the back edge. This method, I think would necessitate that this board be only as wide as the stairnose itself to allow interlocking with the full size pieces or pieces notched or trim to different widths on either side of the staircase.

NAILING: To avoid face nailing as much as possible at the top of the stairs it looks to me that I will need to cut off the notch in the current stairnose at the post to allow me to blind nail or staple the last ripped piece before sliding in the stairnose from the stairside. If I leave the post notch in the stairnose it seems that the stairnose will have to be put in place and fastened first and then try to slide the ripped piece in from the side and then face nail it. Am I missing anything here or is there any other way to handle this?

LAST PIECE TO THE LEFT OF STAIRS. As can be seen in photo 6 this last ripped piece will be cut with a taper of about 1/2 inch difference from one end to another. This is due to the 30 year old toe rail at the left of the stairs being out of square. Short of ripping this out and squaring it all up how will this tapered piece be installed? On the other side of the room, I was able to slide the last ripped piece under the undercut drywall install the last full board and then slide the ripped biece back out to engage the last full board. That obviously won't work here. Must I trim the piece to fit and then cut off the bottom of the groove side of the board and then lower it into place and secure it with glue and face nail or is there any other way?

OVERALL ADVICE: I realize there are a lot of questions here and each decision made will in fact affect if not determine some of the other issues. Whatever course I take, I also realize that the existing staircase shows it's thirty years of wear and tear and will need to be patched up and refinshed to look nice. Considering the overalll situation and all the photos collectively, I would appreciate any and all suggestions related to this stairway.

Thanks to all who take the time to read this long post and offer their opinions and suggestions.
ZT

You have some issues, to be sure.

1) To me, the existing treads and risers appear to be doug fir and not oak. They will not last nor look good, IMO.
2) Since your staircase "rise" is now off by 3/4" at the top of the staircase ( I'm guessing it is because you said so), you might as well redo the staircase. Installing the flooring on it will be the easiest but not "the best". The main reason is you have an unusual prefinished floor type that would be difficult to match using solid oak treads. I prefer using solid treads when feasible but in your case, I cannot see how you are going to get them to match. Refinishing the existing won't match either. Plus, they're not even a hardwood and they're now off by 3/4".
3) You fit the ripped, tapered piece of flooring against the railing base "net". Don't allow a space there. You don't really need it and it would look bad. It will require you to cut a pie shaped piece. We've all had to do it. You can to. Cut off the bottom of the groove and glue and tap into place.
4) Yeah, rip the groove side of the stair nosing back to fit to a full floor board. Then re-groove it so you have a T&G into the floor. That is way more important than it's width and much stronger. Glue the new groove of the stairnose to the tongue of the last floor board with yellow wood glue and bang it home. Use some PL Urethane Premium Construction Adhesive UNDER the stairnose to glue it to your subfloor. Face Nail it every 12" with #8 finish nails. Then putty the holes. Your flooring looks to have lots of "holes" in it already. No one will notice the few puttied at the top of the stairs. Do this AFTER you have installed the new risers, IF you are installing new risers. Because adding risers to the existing will affect the width of the stair nose, got it?

Thanks again for your replies Gary!

When you say, "you might as well redo the staircase" do you mean tear it all out and cut new stringers? Are you suggesting I go with HW covered treads and risers?

With a floor like this I don't think the stairs will ever really match the floor finish unless covered with the same flooring. The railings and spindles don't "match" the finish of the floor either nor the rest of the trim (jambs, casing & baseboards) in the house. How about solid treads close to the finish on the rest of the trim?

As for rise, the top rise is off 3/4 because of the new 3/4 floor I'm installing now. The rest of the rises are all pretty close to each other. Have you ever tried shimming the existing stringers under solid treads to even out the rise?

How much is the current norm for overhanging treads on stairs?

Thanks for any replies! ZT

No.



Yes.





I agree, and that's what I said I thought you should do.





Not uncommon. Ever seen painted balusters and newels, along with painted casings, jambs and doors? The skirts, rails, newels and balusters not matching is far less important than the treads not matching the flooring.



I'm aware of that. Are you aware that now your staircase is out of code? The variance can only be 3/8" maximum. You will need to add 3/8" minimum to all the treads.



I have removed treads and adding furring strips to the notched stringers/horses to get the rise I needed. You could do that IF your treads are not housed into the skirts. I cannot tell by the photos.



On unfinished 3/4" solid stair nosings (sometimes referred to as landing strips ) the standard overhang ( or reveal if you prefer ) is 1&1/4". Many prefinished nosings are not nearly that, as you can see by comparing your old one with your new one. Nor are the prefinished ones as thick at the front.