Stair treads again

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Looks like you've got it all under control. Will you post some pics when you're done?

It might be a pretty boring picture............ there are full walls on two sides so it has no "pizazz" whatsoever.
I'm on pocket door and wall trim duty right now, so stairs are on hold so I can stay ahead of the painter so she can get done with her artistry.

I thank you all for your assistance.

 

[JIMMIEM]

It might be a pretty boring picture............ there are full walls on two sides so it has no "pizazz" whatsoever.
I'm on pocket door and wall trim duty right now, so stairs are on hold so I can stay ahead of the painter so she can get done with her artistry.

I thank you all for your assistance.

Brainstorm!!! Painter/artist on the job? Have her poly the stairs for you!!!! Walls on both sides? Skirt boards? Got a stair tread jig?

 

[highup]

Brainstorm!!! Painter/artist on the job? Have her poly the stairs for you!!!! Walls on both sides? Skirt boards? Got a stair tread jig?

She's a one of a kind painter. Home was built in '23 and I blended in cracks and holes in the plaster and also repaired areas sheet rock was patched in. I installed crown molding and reshaped and fixed dings in all of the trim moldings to get it ready for painting.
It was looking pretty nice, but to make it look better, I hooked the homeowner up with this painter/artist. She's been giving the walls a total texture makeover and it's looking fantastic. I'll take some photos when she's done. I think coating the stair treads would be like asking a car painter to do yard work.

Skirt boards are angled and wavy because they were installed behind the side stringers. When the stringers were attached to the walls, the skirt board distorted......... so the treads are getting cut with my jig saw, not a miter saw.
I made a stair jig................ I'll get you photos of it. Very simple, and very accurate.

 

[JIMMIEM]

She's a one of a kind painter. Home was built in '23 and I blended in cracks and holes in the plaster and also repaired areas sheet rock was patched in. I installed crown molding and reshaped and fixed dings in all of the trim moldings to get it ready for painting.
It was looking pretty nice, but to make it look better, I hooked the homeowner up with this painter/artist. She's been giving the walls a total texture makeover and it's looking fantastic. I'll take some photos when she's done. I think coating the stair treads would be like asking a car painter to do yard work.

Skirt boards are angled and wavy because they were installed behind the side stringers. When the stringers were attached to the walls, the skirt board distorted......... so the treads are getting cut with my jig saw, not a miter saw.
I made a stair jig................ I'll get you photos of it. Very simple, and very accurate.

I was going to ask if that was 1823 or 1923 but when I saw sheetrock I figured 1923....but then again wasn't it horse hair plaster then too?
Would the car painter be cutting the grass or hand trimming the rose bushes? I can picture your painter feathering out the poly for a perfect glass-like, run-free, blemish-free surface. Cutting the treads by hand with a jig saw sounds like fun and time consuming if they are that wavy. Hope you have a good jig saw. I have a good miter saw and had a hard time justifying buying a slider just to cut treads and stringers, but boy am I glad I did buy it. I've got a good jig saw and table saw but the slider was really worth having.

 

[Ernesto]

I was going to ask if that was 1823 or 1923 but when I saw sheetrock I figured 1923....but then again wasn't it horse hair plaster then too?
Would the car painter be cutting the grass or hand trimming the rose bushes? I can picture your painter feathering out the poly for a perfect glass-like, run-free, blemish-free surface. Cutting the treads by hand with a jig saw sounds like fun and time consuming if they are that wavy. Hope you have a good jig saw. I have a good miter saw and had a hard time justifying buying a slider just to cut treads and stringers, but boy am I glad I did buy it. I've got a good jig saw and table saw but the slider was really worth having.

Same here, I use the sliding compound miter saw. I'm so glad Nick sold me his Stair Wizard too! Sooo much easier. I can rent it to ya High.

 

[highup]

Same here, I use the sliding compound miter saw. I'm so glad Nick sold me his Stair Wizard too! Sooo much easier. I can rent it to ya High.

Mine was free, and I had it built to my specs.
Does your sliding miter saw cut curves like my jigsaw?

 

[Nick]

Glad to hear you are getting good service out of E. I rarely get a set of steps to do .

 

[highup]

Same here, I use the sliding compound miter saw. I'm so glad Nick sold me his Stair Wizard too! Sooo much easier. I can rent it to ya High.

I introduce to you the StairMeDown 2014.
Had the sheet metal guy cut the metal to width and put a 1 inch bend in it. The metal is cut perfectly square, and fits an inch shy of the stair width.
You center the metal on the tread, then put two small dabs of hot glue on the edges of the metal and place pre-cut strips of Formica snugly against the skirt board. You now have the front, back, and sides patterned out.
Just lift out the guide, place it on the oak tread and score the oak along the edge with a sharp utility knife.
In the last photo, you notice the Formica used on this step is in two pieces....... that side of the skirt had a very slight bow in it, and two strips on that side conformed to the correct shape.
Once the guide is removed from the step, a drizzle of denatured alcohol releases the dabs of hot glue, and you're ready for the next pattern.

The temporary plywood that you see in place is the exact depth of a real tread. I made 3 of these treads to mock up the stairs and check the risers for consistency.
I will re use them as I continue up the stairwell.

I've been redoing a pocked door track that was installed wrong, (yes the sheetrock is in place) and assisting the painter. One of these days, I'll get back on these stairs.
............no, no, really I will. I swear.

 

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The temporary plywood treads are perfectly square. Notice how far out of kilter the skirt is on the left side of the steps. The right side isn't so bad.

 

[Ernesto]

Mine was free, and I had it built to my specs.
Does your sliding miter saw cut curves like my jigsaw?

I used to make my own template outa similar stuff they do for granite tops. Perty easy, but not as fast an easy as the stair wizard. http://www.finehomebuilding.com/item/28257/creating-countertop-templates

Never needed a jig saw for stairs until I did these.

 

[Nick]

They look like fun E.

 

[highup]

Nice work Ernesto. That's a wee bit more than I'd feel comfy with. Did you do the fancy skirt work too? You must have at least one or two days into those.

My reason for the jig saw is because the skirt boards are so uneven. If they were square and parallel on each step, a guy could drop the tread straight down onto the adhesive when installing.
With the ones I am working with, the back measurements are wider than the front measurements, and so the risers are out too. With the jig saw, I can cut the first 1/2 inch of the leading edge at the bull nose perfectly square, then put a little bit of angle and undercut the rest of the tread, on one side at least, so it will drop in easier.
It's slower than a compound for sure, but how do you set a compound saw for 90.125 degrees? A jig and a jig saw does that pretty easy. I'm not concerned about the time it takes. I work for food you know, and the longer it takes the more meals I get.

 

[JIMMIEM]

Nice work Ernesto. That's a wee bit more than I'd feel comfy with. Did you do the fancy skirt work too? You must have at least one or two days into those.

My reason for the jig saw is because the skirt boards are so uneven. If they were square and parallel on each step, a guy could drop the tread straight down onto the adhesive when installing.
With the ones I am working with, the back measurements are wider than the front measurements, and so the risers are out too. With the jig saw, I can cut the first 1/2 inch of the leading edge at the bull nose perfectly square, then put a little bit of angle and undercut the rest of the tread, on one side at least, so it will drop in easier.
It's slower than a compound for sure, but how do you set a compound saw for 90.125 degrees? A jig and a jig saw does that pretty easy. I'm not concerned about the time it takes. I work for food you know, and the longer it takes the more meals I get.

Some miter saws let you easily override the detente...so you could do a cut that is not a perfect 90 degrees. Some of my overrides were so slight that the saw kept slipping back into the detente so I just put a narrow wedge between the board and saw fence to tilt the board to the angle that I needed which was just a whisker past 90 degrees. How's the food?

 

[highup]

Yes, that detente can be a problem. The skirt boards are mdf, and since the old inner stairwell wall is of the plaster/lath era. The skirt boards were installed, then on one side at least, the stringer was lag bolted to the wall, and it pulled the skirt inwards, so it's uneven in places on both a horizontal and vertical plane. For me, it's easier to use a jig saw than mess around with minute adjustments on a chop saw. I've done that wedge thing, but on this stairwell, it just seems to need handcrafted precision, rather than play around with fine tuning individual angles on a $500 chop saw.
Food is really good, but feed dates are not consistent. He's a great BBQer, and has the science down good. He has a nice setup for outdoor food fixin'. I ripped out the lap siding so he could put in some pleated stainless and a custom made hood to control the smoke a little better. The smoke was staining the lap siding, so it just had to go.
The slab on the sink is pretty cool. I thin he called it river bed. The rock colors are great with all that stainless.

 

[JIMMIEM]

Yes, that detente can be a problem. The skirt boards are mdf, and since the old inner stairwell wall is of the plaster/lath era. The skirt boards were installed, then on one side at least, the stringer was lag bolted to the wall, and it pulled the skirt inwards, so it's uneven in places on both a horizontal and vertical plane. For me, it's easier to use a jig saw than mess around with minute adjustments on a chop saw. I've done that wedge thing, but on this stairwell, it just seems to need handcrafted precision, rather than play around with fine tuning individual angles on a $500 chop saw.
Food is really good, but feed dates are not consistent. He's a great BBQer, and has the science down good. He has a nice setup for outdoor food fixin'. I ripped out the lap siding so he could put in some pleated stainless and a custom made hood to control the smoke a little better. The smoke was staining the lap siding, so it just had to go.
The slab on the sink is pretty cool. I thin he called it river bed. The rock colors are great with all that stainless.

If you need some help I'll be glad to work for BBQ. Business must be good if you can afford a $500 chop saw....I got my first one last century and it's held together with rubber tie downs and still works great. I couldn't bear the thought of retiring it so I just got the Sears Slider when it was on sale and it worked just fine for cutting the treads and risers.

 

[highup]

I can't afford a $500 chop saw. I'm using my uncle's Makita cross slide. It can go 45 degrees either direction in both the miter and the compound angle. It's old, but a nice saw.............. but it's h e a v y.
I took a photo of today's burgers on the grill............... but then left the camera at the jobsite. hot and juicy......... yum!

 

[JIMMIEM]

I can't afford a $500 chop saw. I'm using my uncle's Makita cross slide. It can go 45 degrees either direction in both the miter and the compound angle. It's old, but a nice saw.............. but it's h e a v y.
I took a photo of today's burgers on the grill............... but then left the camera at the jobsite. hot and juicy......... yum!

I can't afford a $500 saw either. You'll get a good workout hauling it around and work up your appetite. I don't need to work up my appetite because somebody left the camera at the job site and didn't save a burger for me.

 

[highup]

I can't afford a $500 saw either. You'll get a good workout hauling it around and work up your appetite. I don't need to work up my appetite because somebody left the camera at the job site and didn't save a burger for me.

It was big, and juicy and had all the fixins............. yum.

......and behind the burgers, dinner was in the works.

 

[JIMMIEM]

Hope you're taking your time on this project.

 

[highup]

I am, the food is good.
Treads are all fit. I brought em home to get the stain put on Friday night. I wanted the stain to be plenty dry so I could start coating them with the water based finish Monday.
I will make the end cuts and minor adjustments on the risers one at a time as I proceed.