About to, finally after about 6 yrs at it, going to put the stair treads, etc in the house. Obviously getting close to the end. Have a 54 inch wide stairwell. Have 54 inch wide 5/4 oak treads. Now for the fun. Need risers. Stairway is common spec house construction – 4 stringers. Treads will be flush to skirtboards on the ends. Not routed into them.
What can I do for the risers? Don’t want to sink a small fortune in more oak 1X for them. Even more don’t want to spring for the approx $29 each for more treads to hack up for risers. Considering oak veneer plywood, 3/4 inch, but cannot find any w/ the oak veneer thicker than paper. Really want about 1/8 inch veneer.
Any ideas?
Don
The GlassMasterworks – If it scratches, I etch it!
Replies
Painted pine, same colour as skirt boards.
Excellence is its own reward!
piffin's suggestion looks great but if you want it to be an oak finished riser how about using t&g 3/4 oak flooring? with 3&1/4 strips you would only see two seams per riser
Don could veneer 1/4" oak ply on 1/2" CDX...
but, I gotta know, did you make those curved treads? That is sweet set of steps. How, exactly, were they made up?
I go for the painted risers myself. I think it's easier to paint over heel scuffs than to re-clear finish. EliphIno!
Billy, I love how it looks, but it wont pass code. The run is too short and there is no railing. The run is measured from nose to nose, not nose to riser. These dam codes make no sense. But, dont let a stranger walk down the stairs in his socks in the dark who has big feet.
Yeah, that's by my own hand. As many times as I've posted them here, I'm surprised you haven't seen 'em before.
5/4 oak ripped to just over 3/8" and planed to just under. Kept track of grain matching. Formed and glued with Titebond. Housed into side trim.
Looks like Southern Yellow Pine on the floor under yours. This photo shows the rest with the red birch flooring....
Excellence is its own reward!
They are new to me, but then, so are electric miter boxes<G>
The grain matched curved pieces were what caught my eye. OK, a different form for each tread...how did you keep them flat during glue up? Did you run them through a planer after? How the heck did you lay out the skirts to mortice the housings? Simple, yet elegant work blows me away... EliphIno!
For forms, I drew lines on the plywood subfloor. I have some gigs I dreamed up for varying curves. I will have to photograph them to explain how they look and work, but the strips ift between vertical dowels which plug into holes in other pieces. Those other pieces are backed up by plywood that I can screw down to subfloor as radii on the curve I've drawn about every foot or whatever is needed. That way, I just unscrew and move for the next curve. After seating the strips into the form, I use shims to adjust and clamps to secure.
The strips do run off a little so I ran each tread through a 15" planner to flaten it.
I felt like I wanted the skirts dadoed to hold the tension in the curve and keep it all on the same planes. I made the skirts of MDF so it wouldn't move with humidity along the grain.
To dado the housing on the skirts, I cut them to fit the rough frame steps first. Then I took them out and did my finish fitting of the treads (routered the bullnose already). In doing this, I cut the end off of each tread so I had a mirror shape of where that cut intersected the skirt, accounting for depth of dado. I marked and tabled all these end pieces and used them to trace the dado which I free-handed into the skirts.
Then I set everything in for a dry run and shaved here and there. When it all worked, I pulled out and set the treads into construction adhesive and used Gorilla glue at the ends into the housing. nailed the skirts to the wall and weighted down the treads over the weekend.
After that, It was simply running some plys of 1/4" ply for risers and whittling the scotia in.
I used a generous supply of butt-pucker on those steps..
Excellence is its own reward!
Freehand routed the stringers! You've got nerves of laminate<G>
Very nice, unpretensious set of steps. I'll be copying them in my next house.... EliphIno!
OK so I made a saw kerf cut first.
Could be you want to see more...
.
Excellence is its own reward!
Here ya go. I went out to the shop and dug out my form pieces for variable curved forming and photographized them for you. I think if you imagine them screwed to a subfloor or table setup, the pictures are self explanatory. Let's call them Piffin plates. ;).
Excellence is its own reward!
Those stairs are drop dead gorgeous, sweet. What blows me away Piffin, didn't you roof for 15 years prior to, (oh I'll type this carefully), becoming a "builder", or Master of wood, what are you about 103 years old? One question, where's the handrail?
I roofed almost exclusively for near twenty years but one of my very first construction jobs was as helper for a guy who built two cabins and he taught me a lot. Really understood wood and building. Then I read and watch a lot to learn from others.
Got into remodeling because when I moved to Colorado, the roofing weather is piss poor in winter. And everybody wanted me to handle the metal chimney installation penetration thru roof for the wood stoves that became popular in the seventies. That led to pucking up tile work. Tile work got me into bathrooms. One winter, I must have done thirty or fourty bathrooms. By now, I had a store selling wood stoves and eight people on payroll. Then I figured out that kitchens were more profitable than bathrooms or stoves.
I think it was in '81 that interest rates hit 24% though and carrying inventory ruined me. There was a warm winter with nobody selling wood stoves because nobody was buying.
When I started into it, there were 30 or 40 wood stove manufacturers in the country. A year later or so there were 600. When I folded the store, so did 90% of the other specialty wood stove stores in the country and the number of manufactureers went back down to about 75.
I lost 17 grand and was advised to do bankruptcy. I paid every penny I owed anybody within three years tho. I sure learned to hate the sound of a phone ringing 'cause it was a bill collector. Roofing bailed me out because I hit a couiple of real good big jobs.
I got married and moved here where craftsmanship in remo work is appreciated and have picked up design work along the way after being exposed to some world recognixed designers and archies. I had almost done the archy thing in college but dropped out 'cause I couldn't stand sitting still for so many hours in class.
Handrail - Well, I didn't know Larry back then so this is all I was able to cobble together on my own....
Excellence is its own reward!
Alright, alright, now you're just showing off!!! Looks good though!
when I first hi-jacked this thread with the picture showing these steps, I was wishing that I had the same painted riser detail in a photo of regular steps but couldn't find one. I was thinking, "Someone's gonna think I'm just trying to show off."
Oh well
LOL.
Excellence is its own reward!
Pif: Don't sweat the small stuff. I once had an expert tell me that you have 3 seconds to react to a hijacker before you lose control and are a goner. I didn't react, and look what happened! Talk about killing flies w/ a sledge!
But... in the FWIW dept, my wife looked at your photo and decided right then and there that we would have painted pine risers. I think she kinda liked your stairs, too. The only thing that saves me from having to duplicate your design is a reinforced concrete wall that constrains the stairs to a 54 inch wide straight shot to the floor below. Otherwise, I know she'd have me cutting out walls.
Don - the originator of this debacleThe GlassMasterworks - If it scratches, I etch it!
I had almost done the archy thing in college but dropped out 'cause I couldn't stand sitting still for so many hours in class.
So there's hope for me after all???Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, Professionals build the Titanic.
Ah, pictures. Makes my pea brain not have to work so hard, and, your jigs are pretty darned clever, I might add. Do you know anybody who could help you patent them?<G> EliphIno!
Like that huh? Easier to photo than to describe.
I've used them for these treads and a couple of curved porch railings after getting tiored of throwing forms away. I made about thirty or fourty of those with dowels from leftover birch ply and some poplar that was too gnarly for cabinet or trim work. See the wax paper on one? It's the backing paper from Bituthyene..
Excellence is its own reward!
I love it, and, I am definitly downloading it into my MP3 player<G>
Piracy is the the sincerest form of flattery...LOL EliphIno!
That's why we're here - to priate, I mean Flatter one another
;).
Excellence is its own reward!
That sure is a mighty fine set of steps.
Still needs a pile of pillows and a couple of nymphs draped across them tho.
Thanks.
Excellence is its own reward!
Piffin
"Still needs a pile of pillows and a couple of nymphs draped across them tho. "
Well I ask, who couldnt use more of that?
Doug
Piffin: Awesome set of stairs,,,nice....
Thanks guys.
Excellence is its own reward!
I'd go for the plywood.
What difference does the thickness of the vener make?
Can someone be a closet claustrophobic?
I just wonder if my math is right, oak would be $12/riser. If you used oak plywood you would only get 6 risers out of a sht, so about $11/riser for plain sawn. If you want to have panels custom veneered, you can throw those prices right out the window.
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Go to the flooring section, and see if there are any prefinished flooring planks that meets your needs.
Gordon
Ok, stop this right now, you are not going to do risers with flooring, or I am going to laugh my arse off at you!
Let's keep it real, please, I am trying to be nice.
I know, this is a conspiracy to prevent me from getting that people person merit badge. ( deep breaths...)
I understand where you are coming from, everything you do is of the highest quality. No fake stuff. A painted white pine riser is pure and natural, no way would a more durable plastic veneer would do, especially a formica finish. The difference between a wood tread and riser is that one has a bullnose. Did you know contractors are using flooring for treads and homeowners are totally ignorant about it. Is carpeting a no no too? So called carpenters cant understand why I dont like 3/8" plywood for treads. Qtrmeg, we need more like you to raise the standards around here.
" Qtrmeg, we need more like you to raise the standards around here."
How about it Qtrmeg? You too busy raising cain to be able to raise some standards in the same garden? .
Excellence is its own reward!
Do I have to stop goofing around?
And I have nothing to add here, the people that make this site awe me, no kidding.
By all means, keep on. You've had me LMAO tonight.
weeds
every garden's got some..
Excellence is its own reward!
Cool, I am a weed.
Lol, that's about right.
Didn't mean you.
But if you wanna be a dandelion,
Be a dandy Lion.
.
Excellence is its own reward!
i don't know if this product is available to you in your area, but i use "door skins" for
all kinds of situations where a thicker veneer is required. they come 3-0 x 6-8, in oak
and birch. they are about 3/16" thick. i don't know how many plies. usually, they are
glued to a lauan base. i would imagine 3/4" fir ply and a door skin veneer would last
a long time.
good luck rg
Not really following you on the veneer thickness. I would get some 1x pine and veneer your own 1/4" cabinet grade oak ply to it. Cheap and easy.
CCR
If you use pine and veneer 1/4" oak ply to it you still have the same thin veneer that he was worried about in the first place.
I like Piffins idea because the contrast has more appeal to me, but if you want the oak look I think the oak ply is fine, as Q so eloquently stated, don't use the oak flooring.
Doug
Wow, I am eloquent. Shazammmmm.
I figure this to be an all oak system, nice trick to match the treads and risers to the skirts after 6 years, but that question never came up.
Plywood doesn't cost out for this one, the veneer is a moot point.
Way cool solid wood prices right with fake, now choose and fit. (under $200 for solid oak risers, huh?)
Build the damn thing and stop crying about it.
Hey, what do I know, I would look up this Larry guy for any stair job I had, he invented stairs.
I like Piffin's suggestion -- I think the contrast between the painted riser/skirtboard and the wood tread looks very sharp. But is white the best color? Might show heel marks.
That's the standard method around here. heels scuffs don't happen on a properly designed stair with overhanging lip and full layout. This photo shows what they look like on a 8"/8" layout with only an inch of lip. You can't walk on them without driving heel into riser because it's so scary..
Excellence is its own reward!