Okay, who am I
kidding? This may qualify as a big home
improvement as opposed to a small one, but by taking it in small chunks I kept
it from becoming too overwhelming. To
begin with we needed to remove the old, worn and dirty carpet, all of the
padding, tack strip and leftover staples.
I began by taping off the hallway from the living room with a plastic drop
cloth to protect the hard work that had been done in there and corral the
dust. It was a really good plan! It really did help a lot to contain the mess.
I started by
removing the railings and then got to work on that carpet. Once the carpet was removed I found the
treads underneath were made out of 2" X 12" and they were covered in drywall mud and I mean
covered! No bloody wonder we couldn't
keep the carpet clean! When I removed
one of the treads to see what I was dealing with I found even more horror
lurking down below. Tons of construction
debris, even chunks of wood as well as loads of sawdust that had never been
cleaned up. On the bright side, at least
no rodents! I spent a gob of time
cleaning up that mess.
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Check out the crud on those stairs! |
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The kitty is inspecting our work, as usual |
Then I removed all
of the treads. Some were cracked and
split down the middle, some were barely attached and none of them were wide
enough leaving a once inch gap in many places between them and the wall. Not exactly the best quality in craftsmanship
and after nearly 40 years it was obviously failing. I spent Friday evening after work and most of
Saturday on demolition.
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Wine is good incentive when it comes to scraping & sanding 14 risers |
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And then I painted |
After a trip to Home
Depot we were ready to reconstruct the stairs.
My youngest and I planned to cut all new treads, but this time they were
going to be nice wood, appropriately sized and finished so no more carpeted
stairs. They are so hard to vacuum and I
wanted to eliminate that issue altogether.
We took our time and picked out the nicest pieces of wood they had to
offer.
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Two coats and another glass of wine later |
Saturday night I
caught my second wind and painted all of the risers as well as the wall closet
to the stairs with two coats of wall paint.
It was close to midnight by the time I finished and boy, was I beat! But
this was a project I couldn't afford to drag out as we needed to be able to
safely get up and down our stairs in short order. So a couple of long days of work would be
necessary here. I set some of the old
risers on every other step and we were extra careful going up and down. Then we headed off to bed.
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Our cutting & sanding station |
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First treads in place and getting ready to install the next set
You can still see some of the crap under the stairs |
We spent all of
Sunday cutting the new treads and my darling daughter beautifully sanded each
and every one of them. What a
trooper! While she sanded I worked on and
setting the treads. I had to shim some
of the stringers in order to get them all flat and level. It was a long process, but the end result was
definitely worth it. As I finished
setting each of the treads I also trimmed the risers. The purpose was two-fold, no more gaps and it
really added to the design of the stairs.
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The FREE WOOD stash plus leftovers
from other projects |
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Starting the trim work |
All of the trim I
used I had gleaned from the FREE WOOD bin near where I work. Two years of collecting pieces and storing
them in my garage has paid off in ways I'd never imagined it would. And it has saved me a boatload of money. If you've ever priced the cost of trim then
you know what I mean. And it has allowed
me to add more details and make our projects look much nicer too. Thank you FREE WOOD bin!
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I love the new treads |
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All trimmed out and no gaps between
the stairs and the wall! |
Once I got the
treads laid in place we could carefully go up and down the stairs for the time
being while I addressed some other issues, such as the fact that the drywall didn't
meet the stairs in several places, as well as how to handle the landing. It is a bit of a mess.
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This landing was going to need some serious love |
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And the hole in the wall where the drywall was just missing |
Check back tomorrow
to see more of our progress.
Your new stairs look FANTASTIC. You might be the handiest person alive! Where did you learn to do all of this? I'm seriously incredibly impressed, this is beautiful work!!!
ReplyDeleteOh Stephanie, I'm blushing. I grew up in a family of very handy people. My dad was a contractor and we worked with him a lot. You pick up a few things. :)
DeleteYou, my dear, are quite amazing! And what a wonderful way to raise your daughters. Kudos to you. Rose x UK
ReplyDeleteThank you Rose. This has been quite a project but it is coming along nicely. :)
Deletegosh you are so clever at DIY! love the new stairs
ReplyDeleteThanks Jan. I'm super happy with how it is turning out.
DeleteAs always, I'm impressed with the complexity of the jobs you are willing to tackle! Love the way you framed out the risers--it's a really nice detail.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to ask--aren't you setting yourself up for squeaky stairs by having 2-piece treads instead of a single, solid board? I've no doubt the stairs will be serviceable, but frankly? I would not allow a contractor to do it that way--not even if it were under carpeting...
Unfortunately I couldn't get wider wood for this project which was my original intent. But the solid boards that were already there squeaked and I actually think this is going to work out better. Seems much more solid. I'm not worried about it.
DeleteOh My Word! You and your daughters are truly amazing. I love to see what work you tackle. You are better than the "pros" that made these stairs. And they were paid for their lousy work! Congratulations to you and youngest!
ReplyDeleteThank you. Lots of girl power around here! I was more than a little shocked when I saw what was under the carpet. Definitely not quality here by any stretch.
DeleteThat was a mess. But, you cleaned it up.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, yes it was!
Delete