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I’m a huge advocate of anything DIY. Tackling projects yourself is a great way to save (metric) TONS of money, build confidence, and impress the womenfolk.
Since buying our house a couple of years back, we have been gradually updating and remodeling things one room at a time. Progress has been slow but steady, and each project has been a little bigger than the last. My most recent undertaking was a full remodel of our carpeted staircase- this was probably the biggest job I’ve taken on, but also the most rewarding.
A quick background- my house had stairs carpeted with the most hideous 1983 carpet you’ve ever seen and a dated railing. It was old, worn, and collected cat fur like you wouldn’t believe. We’ve been gradually re-doing our house one project at a time, and the time finally came to do something about those awful stairs.
Here’s the before:
I debated pulling up the existing fir treads under the carpet and placing hardwood treads right on the stringers. However, for a bunch of reasons I decided to remove the carpet, cut off the nosings on the existing treads, and install the new treads right on top.
Step 1: Rip and finish the stair treads:
Step 2: Remove the old carpet and cut the nosings
Step 3: Install and prime skirtboards and risers
Step 4: Install treads with construction adhesive and a couple of nails per tread
Step 5: Install newel, ballusters, and railing
Step 6: Enjoy! 
The project took about 3 months of weekends from beginning to end, although I took more than a few weekends off. My costs were under $1,000 for materials- paying a contractor to do the same work would have cost $5,000+, according to the quotes we received.
Are there any other DIYers out there? How do you save money on home maintenance, repairs, and renovations?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Nice job. I have the exact same project ahead of me on two sets of stairs. I hadn’t considered install new treads over the tops of the old treads. I will have to measure and see if this will work. I’m curious - can you buy pre-finished treads? I hate that part.
Thanks for the comment, Mr. TML.
I chose to put new hardwood treads over the existing fir treads for two reasons- first, the span between my stringers was 39 inches, which is okay for 2x lumber (but just barely) but more than I would have liked with 1″ hardwood, and I didn’t want to put in an additional stringer.
Second, I was adding hardwood flooring to the areas at the top and bottom of the stairs. If I had removed the existing treads (1 1/2″) and replaced them with the new ones (1 1/16″), it would have thrown off my rise/run. I could have adjusted for this, but decided it was easier to just install on top of the existing structure.
You can by pre-finished treads, but you may not be able to find anything that matches your existing wood (or at least I couldn’t). I just sucked it up and did the finishing work in my workshop. After a while, I learned to love being high on the fumes :).
Nice job! Very nice! Our project? We built our whole house ourselves. From scratch. It was the ultimate DIY project. Were we nuts? Yes. Would we do it again? Oh yeah …
http://www.lisadesigns.com/slice/
Nice cat. Good thing he (or any other cat) didn’t get in under the stairs while you were orking on them- I’ve heard that can be messy…
You did an AMAZING job on those stairs, and I hope you’re proud of them. I can’t imagine being that handy.
Oh, that can be very, VERY messy!
And thanks for the kind words
Nice stairs… no comments on how they almost took your life due to poor ventilation.
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