Changing stairs from carpet to hardwood

[PaulH99]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] You can't just throw those pictures up without telling us how you did the lighting. Inquiring minds want to know!  [big grin]

 

[Cheese]

[member=44099]Cheese[/member] You can't just throw those pictures up without telling us how you did the lighting. Inquiring minds want to know!  [big grin]

Hey Paul, that was almost 18 years ago and it is painful to remember.  [poke]

Those were at the time individual 5mm LEDs and as you can see from the photos, they have a distinct purple/blue tint which in my present world, would be completely unacceptable. Eighteen years ago proper bining of LEDs was unheard of...thus the purple cast. At the time it was a hell of a lot better than light bulbs.  [tongue]

Even worse, all 15 LEDs needed 2 wires to function properly so within that stainless railing were 30 individual wires which needed to start somewhere that was correct and end somewhere that was correct. That was the tough part. My head still hurts thinking about it. Nowadays we’d build a circuit board for the LEDs and go forth. Easy peasy.

 

[PaulH99]

Wow 18 years ago... You're right that LED technology has come a long way. I remember hand-building circuits with red LEDs back in the 1980's and being thrilled when other colors (green, blue, and white) became available. High lumen output and CRI were unheard of at the time.

If I were to make an illuminated rail like that today, I'd probably go with dimmable LED tape wired into a controller compatible with the Hue ecosystem.

Hmmm... Now I'm getting some ideas for when I re-do our staircase. This just become more complex and more expensive!  [eek]

 

[Cheese]

If I were to make an illuminated rail like that today, I'd probably go with dimmable LED tape wired into a controller compatible with the Hue ecosystem.

I'll check out the Hue ecosystem, I know nothing about it.

I purchased most of the stainless railing parts from Wagner. Terrific people to do business with.  [thumbs up] [thumbs up] [thumbs up]
Definitely three thumbs up.

With the advent of LED tape, I'd probably travel down this path next time.
[attachimg=1]
https://shop.wagnercompanies.com/slotted-top-rail-gr31904

And here is their newest addition, Lumen Rail...could be interesting, but I'll bet it's real spendy. Everything's in 316 stainless.  [doh]
http://www.wagnerarchitectural.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/LumenrailBrochure_FNL1-1.pdf

 

[DeformedTree]

They make rubber stair treads that are designed to go over 2x12 treads.

Maybe not a fine look for a grand staircase, but again not to offend carpet lovers but almost anything looks better than carpet.  The rubber will last forever, and no fall hazard, and has some softness.  And for your case it's an easy retrofit.

 

[Cheese]

They make rubber stair treads that are designed to go over 2x12

Maybe not a fine look for a grand staircase, but again not to offend carpet lovers but almost anything looks better than carpet.  The rubber will last forever, and no fall hazard, and has some softness.  And for your case it's an easy retrofit.

Sorry to offend but unless you’re developing an industrial workplace, the rubber treads are horrific in a typical family environment. Practical yes... but God awful ugly in a normal residence.

I’ll take exception with your statement, “but almost anything looks better than carpet.” and add, except rubber treads.

 

[JimD]

If the existing treads are not dado'd into the skirt boards you can remove and replace them.  But you need the rise to vary no more than 3/8 of an inch over the staircase to meet code.  Rise should also be no more than 7.75 inches.  These are the requirements in my area, yours may be different.  Treads are typically 1 inch and construction lumber 1.5 inches.  So you could be changing the rise of the bottom stair by .5 inches.  If the others are consistent, the only other one that could change is the top. 

If the existing treads are dado'd or the rise if going to vary too much with replacement treads, you can cover them.  I did this two houses ago.  I used 3/8 inch thick flooring, cut off the nosing of the construction lumber treads, glued and nailed on new oak nosings, and filled and painted the low grade plywood risers.  If you go white risers with clear finish treads, you can do a lot of caulking and filing of small cracks without it being noticable.  Clear finish risers and skirts will result in a need for more accuracy.  I cut the nosing off with a circular saw and handsaw.  I did not have have an oscillating saw then, I would do the ends with it now.  It was messy and not terribly easy but we liked the end result.

We had and oak stair case in that house, the next one, and have two in the current house.  We had no problem with slips and falls.  I'm not saying bona high traction isn't a decent idea, just several decades in my houses haven't been problematic.  Handrails have saved us from any falls when somebody looses their balance.  I put normal poly on all these staircases. 

 

[TooManytoys]

I did this about 8 years ago in our raised ranch.  It all depends how your rise and consistency of rise fits into the local codes.  With doing tile on the half way landing and hardwood on the first and second floors things got interesting.  The upper stairway was factory built and with the changes in elevation of the landing and top floor I was able to add treads with 1/4" ply to face the risers after cutting off the original tread noses.

I ended up just building the lower staircase to get all the rises into code.  In hind site, I should have done that with the upper staircase too.  The factory built stair case actually didn't meet code due to the maximum variation, so I had to adjust the height of one thread so everything would be in spec.  I couldn't believe a factory built stair would have that variation, but the inspector said he had seen that in the houses built in our house timeframe.