Matthias I think you do a great job, and showing in the end that not every project end up 100% perfect only makes me like your videos even more -. We all screw up a little sometimes and showing it in public is unfortunately almost non existing in todays world. I enjoy your videos very much please keep them comming.
I am studying electrical engineering and i dont know anything about woodwork but i watched all of your videos. I found them really interesting. I just love the way you think and paying attention to every detail. Can't wait your next video.
@Matthiaswandel It's actually a pocket of air in the glue from filling the tube that gets pressurized when you pump it. The pressurized air continues to push glue out after you release the tension from the gun. It drives me crazy - seems like half the tube can pump out after each use.
great job. Love the end admission of the professionals being worth the dollar! very transparent. If you had a stair bevel you would have nailed this 100% with your already extremely honed attention to detail.
Looks good. I used a standard tread and ripped 1/4 oak plywood for the stringers and risers. So put risers and stringers (I did the stringers too) on first so you can squeeze the tread in tight. Then just put a piece of cove or something to hide any gap from the top of the riser to the tread, I'm not a carpenter and I was able to knock-out 14 steps in an evening. I'm sure there's a hundred different ways. Your friends must love you for taking care of this
You take great pride in your work. Even though you like your work to be perfect and the things you're are not happy about in the end are barely noticeable.
I love your approach to general diy, the guys who do the treads at $120 per step don't take care in making things look perfect and probably wouldn't have ripped down the back of the risers just so it's less overhang, great job Matthias
I am a professional painter, and one of the cheapest, but most effective discoveries has been the DRIPLESS caulking gun. It has a rubber bushing between the plunger and rachet assembly, it allows almost all the pressure to be released when the handle is depressed. For dap (alex plus) it eliminates the drip. For thicker materials, like PL, it is greatly reduced. In W.Canada, get them at paint stores, general paint or Cloverdale, for like 8 bucks. I'd never go back to the old guns after using one!
Hey…I had a friend that bought a new house and then installed Maple flooring. She wanted the existing staircase done up in Maple as well (the original staircase was meant to be carpeted and was very rough although it was new). The builder wanted a lot of money to do Maple steps! I cut the bullnose off the old steps first, made a pattern of the stringer and laminated it first with Maple plywood, then did the treads and risers the same way you did without shimming anything. The risers were 1/4" Maple plywood. I made the treads out of solid Maple with a bullnose. It was a lot of work but came out great!
I've professionally installed these and hardwood on stairs the only tips I might give you is to allow the glue to stand open for a few minutes before applying the treads and risers. In the past I've had troubles with the glue curing if I skipped this. Also we tend to us a couple of playing card shims between pieces to keep a small space otherwise they can develop squeaks. Great job though just a couple of tricks I've learned along the way.
Adding the extra treads made the risers all even. They had carpet on them before, so they were already adjusted for being a bit lower on the bottom step and taller on the top.
WOW! So many good & not so good comments, but all are great to help you as a home owner do some deep thinking on having your stair treads exposed. Why even consider doing this if it does not knock your socks off! Some folks go with hardwood flooring added to the existing stair that looks like flooring on top of the stair, but most of us want it to look like a real professional built staircase when it's done! As for the cost on a stair like this that is between two skirt-boards runs approx. $120 per rise depending on choice of materials. Things that push the cost up from one staircase to the next is; Do we have to remove some or all the existing treads so that we can maintain the proper riser height to meet code? Do the existing stairs squeak now, & what to do? Do we have to remove molding off of the skirt or rake wall cap to get the treads to fit nice & tight? AND, of course, if the owner wants to help..... we double the price, lol. Stair Guy
Stairs are actually a 2 step process performed by 2 completely different carpenters. A frame carpenter 'roughs in' a set of steps during the framing phase, later a trim carpenter covers that rough frame with finish grade materials. A1: The riser covers the nails he used on the back of the treads. A2: If you look close at the stairs in the video you can see that the old finish grade material has been removed. A3: He donated his time as a gift, I'm sure they were as honored as I would be.
Yes, I know this, but no, it doesn't stop the leakage. The piston in the tube doesn't move back, so it doesn't take off all the pressure. The old ratcheting caulking guns are a little better in that the pressure gets taken off automatically.
The last two were shot with a Nikon Coolpix S8200 - the video quality on that one is quite good, and it only cost me $250. Although the workshop scenes were shot earlier with an older Coolpix S6200, which is cheaper ($150) but not as good. More important than the camera is having good lighting.
Matthias... Any wood worker knows when they finish they notice the flaws! Doubt i would have noticed it. The couple was probably thrilled! Good job for stepping up and taking the challenge. For the 1st time i give you mad props!
Please don't get me wrong, the job you do looks great when finished, but as I say just seems a hard way of going about it. Keep up the good work, as your videos obviously inspire people to take on their own projects, which i'm all in favour of.
MrTarfu you are wrong about that!!! if you do a job for someone you do it to the best of your ability whether free or top dollar. I've been a contractor for over 30 years and that is how I do it in my humble opinion.
Even if a mate does offer to do something for free you still insist on paying them. They probably have kids and a mortgage. If you can't afford it then you wait or do without luxuries. People are just not prepared to pay for quality these days.
The stairs had carpet on them before, so putting these treads on just replaced the thickness of the carpet. I remember not having to make any adjustments for the bottom risers, sow with the new treads, they are all even. They were uneven after the carpet was removed.
Not sure if you know this, but you can press the little handle on the back of the adhesive gun to take of the pressure so it doesn't leak when you lay it down between uses.
I found profiled treads or front edge beading to be quite expensive... replaced my carpeted stairs with round profile cedar planks instead... had to build out the stairs, as the steps were neither consistent nor sufficiently deep enough... got rushed thru the job, so have also those gaps you pointed out at the end... thinking of putting moulding - at least in the middle of the steps on top of the gap between flats & risers
our build code only allows for 1/4 inch difference between risers from top to bottom so that type of modification would be against building codes because of the difference in riser height
I stand corrected LOL Just dont tell my daughter she has been after me for years to do hers. now if we could come up with an easy way to cover that ugly 2X12 I was surprised that a man of your ingenuity didn't make a jig to measure and copy the angle of the treads it a whole lot easier than making a band saw LOL
Very nice job. We are always our own worst critic when it comes to gaps and other minor errors. It looks great to me. I sell this product at my real job, and it's nice to see it being installed. Thanks for posting.
Retro fit sells a riser that is 1/4" thick primed. I installed a set of these and it turned out great! You could also just use 1/4" plywood as well instead of 3/4" risers.
+mircea motrescu my brother recommended *TopFineWoodworking .Com* for the best woodworking plans and I couldnt agree more after getting it. Tons of amazing plans for sheds in there ======>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Great job! Been doing that for years s and its very difficult to find a stairwell built that true and straight ....u usually have to measure and cut each board individually...u were pretty lucky!
The risers should not be fitted down onto the top surface of the threads. With foot traffic bearing down on those threads a gap is going to appear along all those joints.
Hey Matthias ! You did a more than excellent job ! You're be surprised at the way I've seen jobs come out that professionals supposedly did ! Don't beat yourself up man ! You can go work for a stair company now if you wanted too ! Lol ! Great job man !
Just a little tip for those who hate it when their mechanical caulking gun drips and oozes after use: Just press on the catch that engages the piston rod to release the pressure on the cartridge and the cartridge tip will no longer drip and ooze its contents everywhere. I took me years to figure that out! :-)
I was told to install the riser first, all the way down to the step, THEN fix the step in place. And not the step with the riser coming over it like you seem to be doing. Supposedly this prevents the step from moving out when the weight of someone stepping down the stair pushes the steps outward.
I work in flooring and we install a lot of stairs. mellkiades, yes you are correct. Risers should be installed first. Exactly to the step. Then, when the tread is installed, everything looks beautiful. You don't want to be there all month long putting in a flight of stairs.
I've done my share of "recapped" stairs. They do tend to be a lot of work, and are pretty expensive (we usually send at least 2 guys on install, which is 90$/hour). We also usually need to saw-off the existing bull-nose edge on the fronts of each existing step, which adds to the work/time involved.
Thanks Matthias, your vids are always informative and entertaining. I like how you learn and experiment as you go...thanks for sharing, keep up the good work.
+ matthias wandel a beautiful job! those gaps were barely noticeable, and id be super happy to have something like this in my house. you did really well!
The reason he ended up with the gaps on the sides was because he cut square, which he mentioned in the video. They make a tool for measuring the treads so you get the correct angles, and a perfect fit. But the reality is they're made out of wood, all wood, even engineered wood moves. He did an acceptable job even at a professional level.
My old stairs had carpeting on them. I removed and painted them but they look awful and some squeak badly. Will putting treads and risers over existing treads silence and make them feel more solid or should I remove and put on new from scratch? The existing wood seems like cheaper lumber. Thanks in advance.
Actually, they were NOT the same height when I started, and now they are even. The steps were a bit lower to compensate for the carpet that was on them before.
In my experience the usual fee in Canada for doing work at your friends house is a case of Beer. The payment is usually made in instalments as the work progresses; so you would receive and consume 6 to 8 beers per hour, for instance. If it is your own house, I would advise doing all the precision work in the first hour. Its all about equivalent exchange here in Canada: all parties to the project, including of course the project, get hammered.
Old comment I know, however it would be a 3/4" increase from the base floor to the first step, and a 3/4" decrease from the top step and the top floor. All the other steps would remain at an equal distance.
Good video... the problem with doing this kind of work is that houses are not "square" and if you want really nice results, you have to pretty much measure and cut each tread and riser separately. Same thing with builtins... Thanks again for the video.
I charge $150 a step. That's cutting them to fit with absolutely no gaps! Not saying you did a horrible job but they make tools ("Stair Wizard") for that. It sets the angles of the runners, lock it in at trace it on the tread. But doing the job free for a friend I like the way you did it lol!
You get rid of the gap by installing the complete riser and then the header. The header should be pushed back against the riser and not the other way around like he did. And also please start at the top of the staircase and work yourself down. DallasCityOfChampions
I am sorry but not everyone is rich. So a DIY is perfect, insteed of paying over £1500 for stairs to be refurbished, his ideea is perfect, spending arround £200. Carpet will fit perfect after this and gaps will not be visible. I bought one house and did everything myself in it, saving until now £30000 of labouring costs. They are charging ridiculous amount of money for easy things. One guy asked £2000 to replace roof gutters this just for labour, another one asking £5000 for complete refurbish a small bathroom. Cheers
I always cut the nosing off the old step,this way the new thread cover`s the riser and reaches the back of the step your installing.Your job looks really good,now you can sand and stain those steps.LOL.Then your friends will really love you.
Interesting video, thanks for sharing. Just about to do the same type of dressing up the old stairs. However, I will first modify one side of the close staircase to be an one side open tread staircase.
$120 is cheap, they are more expensive pre finished, it's amazing the amount of work that goes into this. I have to point out that the nosing still extends past the stringer board. It may have been better to just remove the original nosing?
the stairs he is dealing with here have a slight incline on them and there is no nosing. he would have probably made a lot more work for himself if he did. There are a few mistakes hes making and the stairs themselves will probably be notably looser than the professionally installed ones but he humbly admits at the end of the video the pros know what they're doing. Just a few things i noticed is that he uses nowhere near enough glue, the backs of the steps shouldn't have been cut shorter as they're false caps which almost certainly have a 9.25 inch coverage space thats code in most places. the risers should go on before the steps and the stair should go into the riser because of the inconsistent shape of the original spruce hes covering(reason for gap he points out). Most of the work on this stair case would have been in the staining and finishing which is time sensitive i personally would have had them cut in and installed in about 2 hours.
I don't mean to Pine here, but there were a couple extra steps in your stair construction that you probably could have skipped: I know I wood have been all strung out with stress if I took those extra steps, but clearly you were able to rise to the occasion. All in all, you've got some kickin' good steps there: your extra steps were the Cherry on top. This vid should help me to Spruce up my own place, and you have shown me the job doesn't have to be a Beech: no wonder your vid is so Poplar.
Phill Saska yea, I noticed that as well, but I believe he only called them threads the first time he said it. he said it correctly after that. besides, he's Canadian, idk, but maybe they pronounce it differently there. I know people from the UK call bushings "bushes".
either use a 1/4 in riser or run the ones that came with the kit through a thickness planer down to 1/4 in, beveling the back has caused you a lot of other work by having to nail on beveled packers & fillet strips etc
Being a carpenter I would take the old steps off before putting the new ones on. Also they make a special scribe for steps if they're not exactly square and they rarely are because the skirt boards are never plum. Also adding material might mess up the building code.
aside from learning that treads might/should have been cut on site, wouldn't you also end up with a 3/4 higher step at the bottom? (I see you resolved the dilemma on the top stairs by having a whole new floor).
@Matthiaswandel Oh they actually scribed the stringer to the steps? usually the stringer goes on first its much easier to fit individual boards than one long one. Here in America building code each step must be at least 8 1/4 wide and be no more than 1/4 error. Aren't you losing width by adding on top?
Except it will still drip. Because the piston has friction in the cylinder, which keeps up some pressure. Very irritating with caulking. With the glue, I didn't care so much.
Question 2. Also since you were applying your treads over existing treads how did you address the part of the code that says: "The greatest riser height within any flight of stairs shall not exceed the smallest by more than 3/8 inch" In other words is you first riser the same height ±3/8" as the top riser?
Dual sliding T-bevel. I made my own but it's the only way to get perfect tread fits. The skirt board is never flat on the wall, or square to the stringers and steps.
Now that the stairs have been in use for a while. Do the occupants find it awkward that the bottom riser is 19mm taller then the rest and the top riser is 19mm shorter then the rest? That usually causes a tripping hazard.
also. they shim the stringers so that the risers and treads are air tight plus every riser sits perfectly plumb and every tread is dead level.. they have to shim because rarely are the stringers cut perfectly
What's that yellow pneumatic hose which you used with the nailer made of? I'm searching for a replacement to my really stiff and unpleasant PCV transparent reinforced hose. Is it made out of polyurethane by any chance?
Beautiful work, but I had to cringe when you walked around the table saw and PULLED the stock through to finish the cut. I've had far to many years getting drilled into my head that you NEVER pull material through a table saw. It's way to easy to force a cut out of square that way.
Matthias I think you do a great job, and showing in the end that not every project end up 100% perfect only makes me like your videos even more -. We all screw up a little sometimes and showing it in public is unfortunately almost non existing in todays world. I enjoy your videos very much please keep them comming.
Matthias, you are a friggin' artisan when it comes to woodworking... you made your father proud, bless his soul.
I am studying electrical engineering and i dont know anything about woodwork but i watched all of your videos. I found them really interesting. I just love the way you think and paying attention to every detail. Can't wait your next video.
@Matthiaswandel It's actually a pocket of air in the glue from filling the tube that gets pressurized when you pump it. The pressurized air continues to push glue out after you release the tension from the gun. It drives me crazy - seems like half the tube can pump out after each use.
great job. Love the end admission of the professionals being worth the dollar! very transparent. If you had a stair bevel you would have nailed this 100% with your already extremely honed attention to detail.
You summed it up at the end about the amount of work needed to do this type of job and that it won't be inexpensive to have someone do it for you.
Looks good. I used a standard tread and ripped 1/4 oak plywood for the stringers and risers. So put risers and stringers (I did the stringers too) on first so you can squeeze the tread in tight. Then just put a piece of cove or something to hide any gap from the top of the riser to the tread, I'm not a carpenter and I was able to knock-out 14 steps in an evening. I'm sure there's a hundred different ways. Your friends must love you for taking care of this
What you said at the end was funny.... It shows you are sincere thanks.
You take great pride in your work. Even though you like your work to be perfect and the things you're are not happy about in the end are barely noticeable.
I love your approach to general diy, the guys who do the treads at $120 per step don't take care in making things look perfect and probably wouldn't have ripped down the back of the risers just so it's less overhang, great job Matthias
I am a professional painter, and one of the cheapest, but most effective discoveries has been the DRIPLESS caulking gun. It has a rubber bushing between the plunger and rachet assembly, it allows almost all the pressure to be released when the handle is depressed. For dap (alex plus) it eliminates the drip. For thicker materials, like PL, it is greatly reduced. In W.Canada, get them at paint stores, general paint or Cloverdale, for like 8 bucks. I'd never go back to the old guns after using one!
Hey…I had a friend that bought a new house and then installed Maple flooring. She wanted the existing staircase done up in Maple as well (the original staircase was meant to be carpeted and was very rough although it was new). The builder wanted a lot of money to do Maple steps! I cut the bullnose off the old steps first, made a pattern of the stringer and laminated it first with Maple plywood, then did the treads and risers the same way you did without shimming anything. The risers were 1/4" Maple plywood. I made the treads out of solid Maple with a bullnose. It was a lot of work but came out great!
if you were doing this for someone else you would probably charge the same as the builder wanted.
I've professionally installed these and hardwood on stairs the only tips I might give you is to allow the glue to stand open for a few minutes before applying the treads and risers. In the past I've had troubles with the glue curing if I skipped this. Also we tend to us a couple of playing card shims between pieces to keep a small space otherwise they can develop squeaks. Great job though just a couple of tricks I've learned along the way.
Adding the extra treads made the risers all even. They had carpet on them before, so they were already adjusted for being a bit lower on the bottom step and taller on the top.
Should have asked your buddy John to help. He has great construction skills.
Regardless of what method he used, he did a nice job! There are new products out there that make things more secure. Better glues, etc.
What a pain in the rear this would be. Matthias, your friends and family have a very valuable person in their life.
WOW! So many good & not so good comments, but all are great to help you as a home owner do some deep thinking on having your stair treads exposed.
Why even consider doing this if it does not knock your socks off!
Some folks go with hardwood flooring added to the existing stair that looks like flooring on top of the stair, but most of us want it to look like a real professional built staircase when it's done!
As for the cost on a stair like this that is between two skirt-boards runs approx. $120 per rise depending on choice of materials.
Things that push the cost up from one staircase to the next is;
Do we have to remove some or all the existing treads so that we can maintain the proper riser height to meet code?
Do the existing stairs squeak now, & what to do?
Do we have to remove molding off of the skirt or rake wall cap to get the treads to fit nice & tight?
AND, of course, if the owner wants to help..... we double the price, lol. Stair Guy
Stairs are actually a 2 step process performed by 2 completely different carpenters. A frame carpenter 'roughs in' a set of steps during the framing phase, later a trim carpenter covers that rough frame with finish grade materials.
A1: The riser covers the nails he used on the back of the treads.
A2: If you look close at the stairs in the video you can see that the old finish grade material has been removed.
A3: He donated his time as a gift, I'm sure they were as honored as I would be.
Always amazed when I see professionals at work with wood - you guys make it look so easy!
The risers and treads on these stairs were mortised into the stringers, so to replace the treads and risers means replacing the whole stairs.
Yes, I know this, but no, it doesn't stop the leakage. The piston in the tube doesn't move back, so it doesn't take off all the pressure. The old ratcheting caulking guns are a little better in that the pressure gets taken off automatically.
The last two were shot with a Nikon Coolpix S8200 - the video quality on that one is quite good, and it only cost me $250. Although the workshop scenes were shot earlier with an older Coolpix S6200, which is cheaper ($150) but not as good. More important than the camera is having good lighting.
Matthias... Any wood worker knows when they finish they notice the flaws! Doubt i would have noticed it. The couple was probably thrilled! Good job for stepping up and taking the challenge. For the 1st time i give you mad props!
Please don't get me wrong, the job you do looks great when finished, but as I say just seems a hard way of going about it. Keep up the good work, as your videos obviously inspire people to take on their own projects, which i'm all in favour of.
Sometimes you just like watching someone who knows what they are doing, doing the things they know.
Alexander Borsi but he clearly didn't know what he was doing on this project.
mark schiavone he knew what he was doing. Free work to help out some friends. It doesn't have to be perfect.
MrTarfu you are wrong about that!!! if you do a job for someone you do it to the best of your ability whether free or top dollar. I've been a contractor for over 30 years and that is how I do it in my humble opinion.
@demetri kavoukas "we are did you hit the stairs from" *WTF does that even mean?*
That last line was him regretting that he'd say he'd do it free of charge.
he said he'd*
😂🤣😂
Even if a mate does offer to do something for free you still insist on paying them. They probably have kids and a mortgage. If you can't afford it then you wait or do without luxuries. People are just not prepared to pay for quality these days.
The stairs had carpet on them before, so putting these treads on just replaced the thickness of the carpet. I remember not having to make any adjustments for the bottom risers, sow with the new treads, they are all even. They were uneven after the carpet was removed.
Not sure if you know this, but you can press the little handle on the back of the adhesive gun to take of the pressure so it doesn't leak when you lay it down between uses.
At 6:23 my wife hated you....planing onto the piece of carpet... :) Don't worry. You're in good company. Good inspiration for getting our stairs done.
I found profiled treads or front edge beading to be quite expensive... replaced my carpeted stairs with round profile cedar planks instead... had to build out the stairs, as the steps were neither consistent nor sufficiently deep enough... got rushed thru the job, so have also those gaps you pointed out at the end... thinking of putting moulding - at least in the middle of the steps on top of the gap between flats & risers
our build code only allows for 1/4 inch difference between risers from top to bottom so that type of modification would be against building codes because of the difference in riser height
+Howard Moore It puts it back in spec, makes up for the missing carpet
I stand corrected LOL Just dont tell my daughter she has been after me for years to do hers. now if we could come up with an easy way to cover that ugly 2X12 I was surprised that a man of your ingenuity didn't make a jig to measure and copy the angle of the treads it a whole lot easier than making a band saw LOL
Very nice job. We are always our own worst critic when it comes to gaps and other minor errors. It looks great to me.
I sell this product at my real job, and it's nice to see it being installed. Thanks for posting.
It does, but it wasn't really noticeable walking up and down the steps.
Retro fit sells a riser that is 1/4" thick primed. I installed a set of these and it turned out great! You could also just use 1/4" plywood as well instead of 3/4" risers.
Nice work , accurately and ingenuity .
+mircea motrescu my brother recommended *TopFineWoodworking .Com* for the best woodworking plans and I couldnt agree more after getting it. Tons of amazing plans for sheds in there
======>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I love all your videos, but the ones dealing with air/rotation/motion are the best
Great job! Been doing that for years s and its very difficult to find a stairwell built that true and straight ....u usually have to measure and cut each board individually...u were pretty lucky!
Excellent job! I wish contractors could all do this quality of work.
forget the accuracy, this is a very good job!!
The risers should not be fitted down onto the top surface of the threads.
With foot traffic bearing down on those threads a gap is going to appear along all those joints.
So nice to know you make house calls. I'm looking for someone to clean my gutters this spring.
This is a very pleasant to guy to watch and learn from gentle soul ✌🏿️man your Awsome!!!,,
why dont just take thinner boards for your risers, like 6mm plywood instead of 18 ?
Lord Samaels that would be too easy
Lord Samaels thats my problem with this method..it would put my first step over 8 inches..im very anal about stuff and i just cant live with that
Exactly what I was thinking, & I don't know very much about it.
It just makes sense.
possibly the thicker risers are to cover up the gap between the base riser and the finish treads
Hey Matthias ! You did a more than excellent job ! You're be surprised at the way I've seen jobs come out that professionals supposedly did ! Don't beat yourself up man ! You can go work for a stair company now if you wanted too ! Lol ! Great job man !
Wow !! You are amazing at what you do ! You are incredibly smart !
Just a little tip for those who hate it when their mechanical caulking gun drips and oozes after use: Just press on the catch that engages the piston rod to release the pressure on the cartridge and the cartridge tip will no longer drip and ooze its contents everywhere. I took me years to figure that out! :-)
They look pretty good. One concern would be the air gaps behind the risers, i would worry about that making the steps overly loud.
Might as well use the risers that came with the tread and riser kits. And beveling thin stock wouldn't really work.
I was told to install the riser first, all the way down to the step, THEN fix the step in place. And not the step with the riser coming over it like you seem to be doing. Supposedly this prevents the step from moving out when the weight of someone stepping down the stair pushes the steps outward.
I work in flooring and we install a lot of stairs. mellkiades, yes you are correct. Risers should be installed first. Exactly to the step. Then, when the tread is installed, everything looks beautiful. You don't want to be there all month long putting in a flight of stairs.
Also, after removing carpet, you have to cut the overhanging lip off. No ifs ands or buts.
Correct, if there is a overhang lip. Look at the steps please.
It hadn't occurred to me that this work would cause back problems in some.
I've done my share of "recapped" stairs. They do tend to be a lot of work, and are pretty expensive (we usually send at least 2 guys on install, which is 90$/hour). We also usually need to saw-off the existing bull-nose edge on the fronts of each existing step, which adds to the work/time involved.
I watch all of your videos. I have learned a lot from them
Dennis ..
PS you humble me....
Thanks Matthias, your vids are always informative and entertaining. I like how you learn and experiment as you go...thanks for sharing, keep up the good work.
I don't speak english but i think that this videos are more ingenious thanks for give your ideas and knowledge
use thin pieces of wood as shim, and lots of construction adhesive.
Hard work to be done correctly. Well done, Great video!
+ matthias wandel
a beautiful job! those gaps were barely noticeable, and id be super happy to have something like this in my house. you did really well!
Luci Venom paddle stairrs
The reason he ended up with the gaps on the sides was because he cut square, which he mentioned in the video. They make a tool for measuring the treads so you get the correct angles, and a perfect fit. But the reality is they're made out of wood, all wood, even engineered wood moves. He did an acceptable job even at a professional level.
My old stairs had carpeting on them. I removed and painted them but they look awful and some squeak badly. Will putting treads and risers over existing treads silence and make them feel more solid or should I remove and put on new from scratch? The existing wood seems like cheaper lumber. Thanks in advance.
Actually, they were NOT the same height when I started, and now they are even. The steps were a bit lower to compensate for the carpet that was on them before.
Awesome job Matthias, they look great.
trreb
hi mathias, dank dir weiss ich jetzt wie treppen erneuert werden können, ich mag deine videos, sind alle super erklärt und verständlich. Danke
In my experience the usual fee in Canada for doing work at your friends house is a case of Beer. The payment is usually made in instalments as the work progresses; so you would receive and consume 6 to 8 beers per hour, for instance. If it is your own house, I would advise doing all the precision work in the first hour. Its all about equivalent exchange here in Canada: all parties to the project, including of course the project, get hammered.
7:02 would it not be a good idea to have a slight gap either side so when you repaint the staircase you can mask the area off better?
I didn't buy that nail gun. Dumpster dived it.
Pretty happy with how it works.
Why is your friend’s name *POO*
Old comment I know, however it would be a 3/4" increase from the base floor to the first step, and a 3/4" decrease from the top step and the top floor. All the other steps would remain at an equal distance.
admitting that you screwed up is why I subscribed!! I thought that it's impossible that these risers and treads were square to the skirt boards.
Could you make a quick video on how to make that feather board?
Good video... the problem with doing this kind of work is that houses are not "square" and if you want really nice results, you have to pretty much measure and cut each tread and riser separately. Same thing with builtins... Thanks again for the video.
I charge $150 a step. That's cutting them to fit with absolutely no gaps! Not saying you did a horrible job but they make tools ("Stair Wizard") for that. It sets the angles of the runners, lock it in at trace it on the tread. But doing the job free for a friend I like the way you did it lol!
You get rid of the gap by installing the complete riser and then the header. The header should be pushed back against the riser and not the other way around like he did. And also please start at the top of the staircase and work yourself down.
DallasCityOfChampions
I think the point was to avoid paying over $100 per step. And if that was done for my house I'd be delighted with his work.
I am sorry but not everyone is rich. So a DIY is perfect, insteed of paying over £1500 for stairs to be refurbished, his ideea is perfect, spending arround £200. Carpet will fit perfect after this and gaps will not be visible. I bought one house and did everything myself in it, saving until now £30000 of labouring costs. They are charging ridiculous amount of money for easy things. One guy asked £2000 to replace roof gutters this just for labour, another one asking £5000 for complete refurbish a small bathroom. Cheers
Very nice job, you're good at what you do.
Those must be really good friends if you do all that work for them. :)
I always cut the nosing off the old step,this way the new thread cover`s the riser and reaches the back of the step your installing.Your job looks really good,now you can sand and stain those steps.LOL.Then your friends will really love you.
Nice job, stairs are difficult and lots of work.
Interesting video, thanks for sharing. Just about to do the same type of dressing up the old stairs. However, I will first modify one side of the close staircase to be an one side open tread staircase.
$120 is cheap, they are more expensive pre finished, it's amazing the amount of work that goes into this. I have to point out that the nosing still extends past the stringer board. It may have been better to just remove the original nosing?
the stairs he is dealing with here have a slight incline on them and there is no nosing. he would have probably made a lot more work for himself if he did. There are a few mistakes hes making and the stairs themselves will probably be notably looser than the professionally installed ones but he humbly admits at the end of the video the pros know what they're doing. Just a few things i noticed is that he uses nowhere near enough glue, the backs of the steps shouldn't have been cut shorter as they're false caps which almost certainly have a 9.25 inch coverage space thats code in most places. the risers should go on before the steps and the stair should go into the riser because of the inconsistent shape of the original spruce hes covering(reason for gap he points out). Most of the work on this stair case would have been in the staining and finishing which is time sensitive i personally would have had them cut in and installed in about 2 hours.
@@barsark254 q
They look great. Good job.
I don't mean to Pine here, but there were a couple extra steps in your stair construction that you probably could have skipped: I know I wood have been all strung out with stress if I took those extra steps, but clearly you were able to rise to the occasion. All in all, you've got some kickin' good steps there: your extra steps were the Cherry on top. This vid should help me to Spruce up my own place, and you have shown me the job doesn't have to be a Beech: no wonder your vid is so Poplar.
+Mattias Wandel You need your own network show.
with tread cut offs you can use as scribe to check each side off tread
That's a matter of personal taste. Thankfully, these stairs did not get stained.
As finish carpenter and stair builder for 35 years, I never installed threads. I always put up TREADS! My seamstress wife used the threads.
Phill Saska yea, I noticed that as well, but I believe he only called them threads the first time he said it. he said it correctly after that. besides, he's Canadian, idk, but maybe they pronounce it differently there. I know people from the UK call bushings "bushes".
rocket man Actually, he is German but lives in Canada..
either use a 1/4 in riser or run the ones that came with the kit through a thickness planer down to 1/4 in, beveling the back has caused you a lot of other work by having to nail on beveled packers & fillet strips etc
What a difference, looks great!
Being a carpenter I would take the old steps off before putting the new ones on. Also they make a special scribe for steps if they're not exactly square and they rarely are because the skirt boards are never plum. Also adding material might mess up the building code.
aside from learning that treads might/should have been cut on site, wouldn't you also end up with a 3/4 higher step at the bottom? (I see you resolved the dilemma on the top stairs by having a whole new floor).
I have absolutely interest in carpeting and i still watch his videos :O
what a great friend! you did a great job!!!
Matthias is like the Canadian MacGyver. Great job!
@Matthiaswandel Oh they actually scribed the stringer to the steps? usually the stringer goes on first its much easier to fit individual boards than one long one. Here in America building code each step must be at least 8 1/4 wide and be no more than 1/4 error. Aren't you losing width by adding on top?
Except it will still drip. Because the piston has friction in the cylinder, which keeps up some pressure. Very irritating with caulking. With the glue, I didn't care so much.
You can't use your sawdust and glue technique to fill in all those gaps?
Question 2. Also since you were applying your treads over existing treads how did you address the part of the code that says: "The greatest riser height within any flight of stairs shall not exceed the smallest by more than 3/8 inch" In other words is you first riser the same height ±3/8" as the top riser?
Dual sliding T-bevel. I made my own but it's the only way to get perfect tread fits. The skirt board is never flat on the wall, or square to the stringers and steps.
How you fill those gaps in the sides
Now that the stairs have been in use for a while. Do the occupants find it awkward that the bottom riser is 19mm taller then the rest and the top riser is 19mm shorter then the rest? That usually causes a tripping hazard.
also. they shim the stringers so that the risers and treads are air tight plus every riser sits perfectly plumb and every tread is dead level.. they have to shim because rarely are the stringers cut perfectly
Is this common in the us and canada? Not in the uk for sure.
What's that yellow pneumatic hose which you used with the nailer made of? I'm searching for a replacement to my really stiff and unpleasant PCV transparent reinforced hose. Is it made out of polyurethane by any chance?
FrozenHaxor polyurethane is better than pvc for indoors, poly can even fit under closed entry doors which is a big advantage.
Beautiful work, but I had to cringe when you walked around the table saw and PULLED the stock through to finish the cut. I've had far to many years getting drilled into my head that you NEVER pull material through a table saw. It's way to easy to force a cut out of square that way.
Exactly my thoughts....bad for many scenarios
It also looked like there was a nasty burn mark on the material, albeit on the hidden side.
I love ALL your videos, man. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm.
Yo dog, I heard you like stairs...
On a more serious note, you're a master of your craft.