[insane]

Hi everybody

Well my wife wants the stairs redone. She wants hardwood and we have carpet now. They are actually pretty simple with walls on both sides.
My question is ; Is it better to gut the stairs and stringers and rebuild for the hardwood, or are any of these retro fit stair tread and risers any good.
I only want to do this once and not have problems in 5 years from now. Oh and she wants american cherry.

Thanks for your help
Tim

 

[WilsonRMDL]

Cut off the nosing (probably 2x10 or ply) and put new risers on flush with the top of where the tread was. Put new tread on top, that way the rise of the treads stays the same and you don't have to guy anything ( first and last step will be 3/4" higher than before)

Here's some oak steps I did a few weeks ago that were carpet

 

[The Coastal Craftsman]

Use nustair and spec for 3/8" bottom tread to stay within code and have no trip hazard.

 

[StrongTower]

You could just take out old treads, pad them up 1/2" then install your hardwood treads. That's if you don't want to gut the whole thing, but still stay within code.

 

[EricBrancard]

Gut it and put in a new staircase. Hardwood stringers, treads and risers.

 

[deter]

without knowing (or seeing) what you have to work with, I will default to gut/rebuild

 

[66 Shelby]

If it's your own house, I would replace treads and risers. The pre-fab treads are great because you can prefinish them, so it's less of a mess installing/finishing them (IF you're going over old 5/4 treads. If they're 2x then it's a toss-up because you have to cut off the front). IMO the prefabs aren't nearly as good as solid wood treads. JM2C