Rebuilding the Tripp Stairs

(in less than a week)

Here's a picture of the original stairs, which is typically called a "box stair" It has 11 treads and 12 risers.

The interesting thing about these stairs is that a tread was added on top of the original worn treads.

July 3rd... We bought new pine treads and wood for the risers at Home Depot in Sioux Falls.

July 4th... started ripping out the stairs.
Here's Vlad removing the top tread, revealing the original tread beneath.
There was at least 20 nails in each top tread, so it wasn't easy getting them apart.

Here's what the stringers look like

Now it's time to make a new layout and straighten out the pitch and risers.
We tested 2 layouts, one, which would eliminate a tread, but the step up of 9.5 inches was too steep.
So we went with the original layout of an 8 inch stepup.

July 5th....Routering the stringers for a snug tread and riser fit and we won't need nails.

No more stairs, even the ladder won't reach upstairs, so we haven't been up there for about 3 days.

New tread test in the routered stringer. He decided to make the risers slanted to give more foot room,
because even with the corrections, the pitch is still steep.

Refinishing the landing so it matches the stairs

Here's pretty much what it looked like under the carpet except worse.

After much scrubbing and scraping, I bought some paint stripper, and here's how it looks after sanding it today.

So today... Friday July 6th, Vlad is finishing the routering for the risers and treads, sanding the stringers,
cutting the risers and then we will be putting the stairs in and make sure the layout is correct.

The stringers are finished and Vlad screws them back in the stairwell.

Front view of the slant of the riser below the tread

Vlad makes and glues shims to the treads to add more strength.

Our new stairs going in! We will stain and laquer them when finished.

Vlad stands on tread #8, three more to go!

Nice Job Vlad!

We bought some Early American stain, but the stairs turned out darker than we wanted,
at least they match the trim upstairs. Here's the stairs stained and laquered.

He also added a rail. Apparently all these years
people have been going up and down these steps without using a rail, amazing.

And the landing turned out good too!

They look so nice, I decided to do the upstairs hallway

When it's finished it will look just like the stairs and landing, stay tuned for the progress!

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