Routed Stairways.

[chrisrosenb]

 

[Chris Hughes]

Nice Chris.  Advanced router class of 2010 rocks!!!

 

[PaulMarcel]

Very nice project, Chris.  Does all that get stained and finished on-site?  Yes, a silly question most likely, but I don't do this for a living

 

[harry_]

Chris,

[thanks] for the thread. It makes much more sense to me now.

But still, I have never seen it out in the field, maybe it is a regional thing.

Around here the standard practice seems to be attaching a 2x4 on the flat to the side of the 'outside' stringers, flush to the bottom edge, to act as a spacer to the wall. After sheetrock and plaster, there is still plenty of room to drop in the finish board before the treads and risers go in. I have seen others who simply nail this board to the wall after dropping it in. Personally I don't like the either the nail holes or the potentially wavy board it creates. I also don't like the idea of fitting each individual tread and riser to that mess.

What I do is drill a hole for each tread/riser pair in the (outside) stringers. As I work my way up the stairs, I run a screw through that hole to suck the finish board up tight (and straight). Any gaps that I may have are minimal and land between the finish 'stringer' and the wall. Quite easily hidden with base cap.

The last set of stairs that I did (new build), the flooring guy was there and seeing that I didn't have one, asked if I wanted to borrow his tread jig. I asked, "why would I want to jig the stairs when I know how to make every one the same size and fit right?"

The only time I was unable to use this method and thus having to fit each tread/riser was when a more 'contemporary' look was specified. In that case the finish work was a simple eased edge with no base cap, so it needed to be rather tight to the wall. Tight enough for the painters to deal with, that is. [laughing]

Again, thanks for educating me. I hope (or maybe not) that in the future, I get the opportunity to do a set of routed stairs.

 

[woodguy7]

Wow Chris, really nice work.  I love the open look of the cut string.  I think that is much more an American thing as you don't tend to see that method over here so much.  I do prefer the look of the cut string over the routered string.

Woodguy.

 

[Rob-GB]

Very nice stair Chris, may I ask why you did not route the housings for the tread nosing? I love the boxed newels, always wanted to do some and not yet had an appropriate commision.

By the way I just posted a reply for Harry on Woodguy's thread before I opened this post.

Rob.

 

[jmbfestool]

Nice! 

How did you fixed the newel post so they are solid? Cant tell from the picture but one at the top off the first flight of stairs I couldn't see in the pictures if you had a hole or something or have you just put it on top of the tread?

JMB

 

[Deansocial]

Nice! 

How did you fixed the newel post so they are solid? Cant tell from the picture but one at the top off the first flight of stairs I couldn't see in the pictures if you had a hole or something or have you just put it on top of the tread?

JMB

i think they bolt them bown with a really long socket set in the middle of the newel, i may be wrong

 

[Wonderwino]

Nice stair, Chris!  I see you tapered the tread cut to allow a wedge.

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

What's up with the plywood behind that table? [big grin]

very nice, they are just kind of heavy that way though.

 

[Michael_MA]

Hi Chris,

what an impressive project - very well done - looks very nice and !

kind regards, Mike

 

[WarnerConstCo.]

That is one nice set of finished steps Chris.

I like the storage on both sides!!

I only notice the ply wood because I have random pieces of plywood and dry screwed over random holes in my house.

 

[Rob-GB]

Sorry Rob, I missed your post.
This is the way I was taught to do them.
The reasoning was that if the nosing was routed in & the tread shrank, there would be a gap at the nosing.
By doing a stopped dado & notching the nosing there is no gap if the tread moves.

Never found shrinkage to be a problem, on all solid hardwood and softwood stairs I use a dovetailed cutter and Trend baseplate, so the trenching (dado's) are slightly undercut. This allows the treads and risers to be wedged really tight. The wood fibres crush up a little.
I would find notching all the treads a bit of a chore too! [wink] but that's just me.
Nice cabinetry to go with your stair they really complement each other.  [smile]

Rob.

 

[Sparktrician]

That is one fine load of finish work, Chris.  One of these days I may get a staircase to do, and yours will be something to motivate me.  Well done!!! 

[smile]  [smile]  [smile]

 

[Frank Pellow]

In this thread: http://festoolownersgroup.com/member-projects/replacing-basement-stairs-with-the-help-of-my-mft/

I describe how I made a set of "routed" stairs going down to the basement at my daughters (old) house.

 

[ajones]

Frank

thats a novel way to attach the balasters to the string... I doubt they will ever come loose.. [big grin]

 

[Frank Pellow]

Frank

thats a novel way to attach the balasters to the string... I doubt they will ever come loose.. [big grin]

Right you are.  [smile]

Folks, this is what he is talking about: [attachthumb=#1]

 

[jmbfestool]

Frank

thats a novel way to attach the balasters to the string... I doubt they will ever come loose.. [big grin]

Right you are.  [smile]

Folks, this is what he is talking about: [attachthumb=#1]

What you doing then?! Are you going to put another string on the face to cover up the spindles being notched in the string?  Also rebated right through for the treads how are you going to hide that?! Or is that finished?!

JMB

 

[Frank Pellow]

JMB, they are basement stairs, so I didn't think that the notch needed to be covered.  I simply painted everything the same colour and the staircase looks good.  One can see the notches if they look closely, but that doesn't bother anybody, least of all me.

 

[festooltim]

I was also taught to route  my stairs. I never notched the nosing, never had a problem with shrinking. I noticed you centered your balusters with the nosing of the tread, i always centered on the tread itself. When i worked in Cincinnati that's the way stairs where done in that area. Had a chance to do a really nice one for an old neighbor in solid cherry with hand carved railing and post.