Rebuilding stairs

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Summer, what do they look like from underneath the stairs. If they have slots morticed in for the plywood boards to go into, I don't see a reason why you can not cap them. You will want to put in a landing area (about 3' x 3') at the top and bottom of the stairs to make up for the difference that the new treads make to the height of the steps. One nice thing about this is that you can prefinish the tread boards and install them with nails and construction adhesive. You will never have a squeek. Having the same height for every step is really critical for safety and comfort in using your steps. It's amazing how you feel a step that is slightly off every time you use the stairs.

If you have stairs that are just nailed together and the stringers are also plywood, you may be able to do the same thing but you will have to also install cleats with screws for more nailing area. There is no problem at all doing this with solid 2"x material or two thicknesses of 1"x glued together for the stringers.

Again, prefinish all that you can. Where I can do this, I apply 3 coats of oil based poly over the preformed tread pieces that you get from a home center or make myself. Red or white oak makes great, long-lasting treads and you can use painted pine risers in many "more traditional" settings.

One area where you might have problems is with the hand rail and it's spindles and posts. The hand rail height requirements can be pretty tight and there are many different ways that these can be installed. If you have stairs that have handrails that take up more than the length of a few steps, you probably will want to get the help of someone with experience in installing newel posts and rails. This can get tricky are they are important safety and code issues. Handrail post spacing on a "new" installation can be a code issue also, so deal with someone that is knowledgeable about your code requirements on this.

Henry in MI