The carpet on the stairs was in really bad shape. Rather than re-carpet we decided to cap the stairs with oak. Many plans were considered but we decided to go with an oak tread cap product we purchased from the local Big Box store.
The project starts with collecting the materials. In this case, I brought the Stairtek RetroTread and solid oak (though glued up) risers into the basement for a while. Ideally, they should have all been unwrapped for fully acclimate, but there was a chance we were going to go in a different direction and I wanted to keep the option to return them open. We went with the RetroTread because they were not plywood so they can be sanded and refinished down the road. (6/3/2021)
The first step is to pull off all the carpet on the stairs. That includes tack strips, nails and staples. The carpet was there for over 15 years, so replacement was long over due (6/11/2021)
The nose of each step had to be removed so that is is flush with the existing riser. The new steps has a nose of its own and it needs to cover the new riser without sticking out too far. Rather than measuring each step I made a template to create a line on top of the step so I can cut evenly (actually just a hair shorter than) the riser below the step (6/13/2021)
I initially used my cordless circular saw to cut off the nose, but the wood was surprisingly hard and the saw kept bogging down. I broke out the corded saw and fitted it with a new blade (6/13/2021)
The steps were glued and screwed when we put up the addition. Some of those screws were in the way so I had to move them back a bit. (6/13/2021)
The circular saw couldn't cut all the way to the wall. I used a scroll saw to cut a bit closer to the wall, then cut the middle section off the tread (6/13/2021)
Since the saws can reach all the way to the wall I had to do some manual labor to complete the nose removal. I made sure to sharpen the chisel before hacking away at the edges. In some cases I removed "too much" but in the end it doesn't really matter as long as it doesn't extend past the existing riser (6/13/2021)
It look somewhat longer to clean up all the steps than expected (which in reality is expected since I always underestimate how long things take). (6/13/2021)
The treads are now all cut. The top still has carpet wrapped around the second floor nose - that one doesn't get cut. (6/13/2021)
Here I took a piece if the stair tread and a 3/4" board to see if it would cover up the holes left by removing the noses. As expected, it didn't. I considered trying to patch the holes but ended up deciding to replace all the skirt boards. (9/14/2021)
When I put in the skirt boards as part of the second floor addition I put them in with the intent they stay. I tried to pull them off without damaging the drywall beneath but wasn't particularly successful. I had to do much drywall repair (not my favorite activity). (6/16/2021)
Pulling out the old skirt board from the lower set of stairs was particularly challenging. There wasn't a good edge to pull from. All in all they came out pretty clean but the bottom of one side chipped out some of the adjoining board. (6/16/2021)
The splintered wood was actually in good enough condition to glue back in place. It didn't fit in perfectly but given you would have to be basically down on the floor to see it (6/17/2021)
I used cardboard to make templates of the skirt boards that fit in the lower part of the stairs. I cut and fit the pieces and hot glued them together. (6/18/21)
I used the shadow line on my miter saw to cut accurate lines to ensure a good fit. I had to finish the cuts with a hand saw since the circular blade can't cut all the way back. (6/18/2021)
The long edge and the top and bottom edges had to be shaped carefully since they will be exposed after the steps are in (the bottoms will be covered by the treads and risers). It took quite a bit of work to get them to fit right but it worked out (6/18/2021)
I used the old upper skirt boards as a template for the new board, using cardboard to fill in the variances and the notches from the old stair noses. I ended up with a huge stack of triangular pieces of oak I'd hate to throw away - I'll figure out a project for them (6/18/2021)
The long skirt boards are cut and test fit. There wasn't too much fussing required for these so it went pretty quick.(6/18/2021)
We ended up staining the oak with the same stain we used on the rest of the trim when we built the 2nd floor. We didn't stain the hardwood floors we put in after the addition. Though in retrospect I wish we hadn't stained the railings and skirt boards, we ended staining the new skirt boards to match the railings. (6/21/2021)
We ended up not using stain on the new treads and risers opting to use the same floor poly we used on the floors in the kitchen and family room since it was the right stuff and we had some left over from the previous project. (6/25/2021)