The finished staircase coming up soon has its treads and risers glued and screwed to the 3-rail carriages, butting to finished skirts on both sides. Skirts first, then the risers and treads. I am not doing it, my trimout sub is.
I’m much more a furniture maker than a housebuilder, thus the subout of the trim and stair work. But I am making most all the builtins in the place, mostly in my shop, where I have a lot of jigs and gages to enable precision cuts and joinery. I have learned the value of these things.
I just ordered one of those stairgage tools from stairtool.com. You may have seen this advertised in FH. The ads have been there in each issue for at least five years now. All-aluminum, cast cleat each end, four clamp knobs. Loosen the knobs, place it at tread position, run the cleats against the skirts, tighten knobs, lift out and mark your tread (or riser).
If he doesn’t want to use it, I guess I am stuck with it. If he agrees to use it, it’s his Christmas present from me.
The on-line how-to pics and text describe cutting with a saw fat of the line, then back cutting the bottom half of the thickness, out about 1-1/2″ shy of the nose. Then belt-sand to the line center, careful now, and try the fit. Sounds pretty easy.
So, you stair fitters out there: how do you do it without one of these gages?
Replies
Mr. Micro: I wedge mortise the treads and risers into 5/4 skirtboards.. wedges are then driven in below the treads and behind the risers. The risers are also pocket screwed and glued to the treads. Absolutely no nails...just screws and all from the inside of the stairs. This wedge mortising is a time tested detail and used to be common 100 years ago.
I use those a lot to fit treads over the framed steps with skirts already in.
My verticle pieces are alwys painted and the treads are usually clear finished. First coats already on.
I use a utility knife to score the cut mark and free hand the cut with my circ saw to that mark. It is only occasionally that I have to back relieve with the belt sander to fit it in.
An important part to making this go right is in the installation of the skirts first. If they are slammed in all askew, the treads will be a nightmare. I make sure the drywall is not gaumy and scrape it true if it is and then I work with shims behind the skirt if need be to have them pretty true to level on the faces.
before that, I have framed the stringers to install with a 1-1/2" space off the wall. That way the SR has passed clean through to bottom and is less likely to be ragged and there is still space to work the skirt in with less effort to get it right.
So, like anything else in this work, prep is half the job. The tool is great though. Mine is the wood one. Got it loaned out right now.
Excellence is its own reward!
I just decided I'll keep the aluminum one I ordered, and use it as a pattern to make a few out of hardwood, signed and dated. I can get the knobs from Ried Tool or Rockler. They will make nice Christmas gifts for some guys I know, including my trim guy who will use the metal one.
Mr. Micro,
I think it's unquestionably best to rout them in and shim and glue them. That's not always the most expedient. Last year I had to rebuild nine sets of finished stairs that were installed in some high end condos.The treads and risers all had to be removed and reinstalled with all the other finishes in place-finish floors,painted walls.In that case I replaced all the treads and risers,glued and blind screwed as much as possible.The skirt boards I scribed over the finished stairs. It had been several years since the last time I had done it so the first two took a little time but the rest went quick and the fits were all tight.One advantage of this method is that when you walk up the steps you're not looking into the joints of treads & risers.There is something satisfying about fitting a skirt over multiple steps and tapping it in place with a hammer and block and see a fit that you couldn't slide a piece of paper into.