Hi,

Installing 5/4 oak treads in an enclosed stair case. 50 year old doug fir skirt boards on either side of the stair case. I use my tread jig to get my width and cut angles. I mark and make my cuts according to the jig, but when I go to dry fit the tread it never just slides right in. I ALWAYS have to fight with it! Part of the issues is that all of the treads have been wider in the back than they are in the front FOR SOME REASON... Also the skirts are tall, about 10" or so, because of that I think they flex in and out a little as they go which I think is why this is such a nightmare trying to squeeze in the treads. Even though the tread might fit nice and perfectly snug when it finally lays down, getting it squeezed in and down to the sub tread is super difficult and actually causing a bit of damage to the skirts now. I know how to use the Jig, so i'm pretty sure it's not my cuts. I'm almost positive that it's just because the skirt is old and has cupped a little here, bowed a little there, just enough to make tight margins hard to work with.

HELP!

The only other options I've considered is cutting out the skirt on one side, laying my treads and then replacing the skirt. The problem with that though is that my sub treads were built on top of the skirt (Skirt is sandwiched between the sub structure and the wall) so i literally have to use a multi tool and cut out the skirt around each tread and riser to free it up... total hassle.

Any advice / tips / tricks would be greatly appreciated!

Undercut the end of the tread....just take off the edge a bit so you can tip it into position. Just do this to the part of the tread that sits on the sub-tread....don't cut the part that overhangs the riser. Jig saw works well for this.

Solid tip, thank you

Chamfer bit will work too. You may have to take additional cuts depending on how out of square the skirts are. Also, you may have to do a bit of sanding or filing the end(s) of the treads. Go slow and sneak up on the fit.