Need 2nd Opinion On Exterior Stair Trim Issue

jordanski

Hi guys,

I've got a quandery and need someone who really knows their wood stock to give me a 2nd opinion on some stairs I need to finish soon.

I built some nice custom stairs on a huge covered porch rebuild (the porch footprint is about 30'x9', the stairs are just under 10' wide and about 7-8 treads I think) real nice - 4 tricked out posts, pitched roof, beadboard ceiling with 1/4 round and a big beam facing the street, custom cedar railing, all new cedar bevel siding and Windsor One pine trim, already done painting - 4 color scheme, clean work...

so everything is done except the main porch floor (currently just tar papered will be 1x4" painted TNG fir w/ a bullnose wrap and trimming out the stair treads and risers...

my question is regarding the materials for the stairs... keep in mind I'm in seattle so everything stays wet for 6 months out of the year at least...

also, long story short the money left to finish is finite so on this one remaining materials fundage is limited...

I normally use Windsor One for all my ext. trim, it's a finger-jointed pine board, super sharp edges, 9 out of 10 are as straight as a piece of MDF and the factory pre-prime is the only one I've ever seen that is good to go right off the truck, the rub is the stuff is spendy and only comes in 8' and 16' lengths. as i mentioned my stairs are just under 10' wide, which leaves a lot of costly waste and I wouldn't have a use for extra 6' per board as all the other carpentry is done...

but the lumber yard has finger-jointed dimensional cedar in 10' lengths much cheaper, do ya think cedar would be too soft for the risers? The house is a drop-in center for teens (think: army boots) and will see a ton of foot traffic and rain. using cedar would save me some dough but I can't find anyone who can say one way or another. also, the stairs sit behind a concrete walk and will get a lot of splatter so for the bottom riser I will use a pvc board...

for the treads I'll be using a x4 stock painted on all four sides with cabot color stain and primer and one coat of color stain on the cut tops of the stringers (which is an extra step you need to do here if you're using two boards for each tread)

one question regarding the porch floor, my hardwood floor install exp. is just one oak kitchen floor at my house, I plan to rent the cleat nailer and sander... so, for a roughly 28'x7' tng fir floor that is getting fill, sand, primer, and paint what kind of sander do I want to rent for the main body of the floor? I will be using pretty good stock, btw... I don't want something that will take off a huge amount of stock as I will have to sand underneath a railing by hand on 3 sides on the perimeter, just want to get it smooth

any help from one of you jedi masters?
thanks in advance
jordan

wink

here in new england we've used cedar as risers. but we don't stay wet that long. as far as the army boots, not sure anything is going to stay looking good for long,