Update Your Carpeted Stairs!
Do you have an ugly staircase with carpet? What's under the carpet? If you're in luck, there's wood underneath that carpet that can be refinished. What if you're not so lucky and the stairs are built out of lumber grade materials like plywood and lumber (probably explains the carpet). There is a fix! You can retread the stairs. Here's the steps you need to follow.
Steps to Update Your Carpeted Stairs
STEP 1 Remove Carpet & Padding
First, remove the carpet along with any carpet tacks or nails holding the carpet down. Remove any padding or tackless strips. Go over the stairs for a final check to make sure it's clear of nails and staples. You'll definitely want them removed before you start any sawing.
At this point, your stairs will look like this. As you can see, these stairs are made of two-by lumber grade material and can't be refinished for a nice look. So onto retreading.
STEP 2 Trim Tread Overhangs
The next step is to remove the overhang on the front and side of the stair treads making them flush with the riser and side edge. You can use a circular saw on the majority of the front edge and some of the side. But the saw will not be able to complete the whole cut since it will get blocked by the wall. You'll need to finish the cut with a hand or reciprocating saw until all the stair tread edges are flush.
Now with the stairs will looking like this with all the edges flush, you're ready to start retreading. You have multiple options for the risers and treads. In my case, I was looking for a low-cost option. I opted to use 1/2" cabinet grade plywood for the risers and solid pine treads. You can go with other choices like solid oak or maple. You can also wrap the exposed edge of the tread with a mitered piece to cover the end grain. Again, I was looking for an economical, good looking solution. The 1" pine treads I used are normally used for applications like basement stairs and are not really intended to be stained and finished. But at less than $10 a tread, this was the solution for me.
STEP 3 Prepare the New Treads
To make the tread have a finished look on the edge, I used my router to round over the end grain edge that's exposed. The edge by the wall is just a straight cut. In the picture below, I'm holding a trim piece up showing how the exposed plywood riser edges will eventually be covered.
STEP 4 Install Risers & Treads
Starting at the top of the staircase, the first riser was installed then the first tread. This was repeated until the last tread at the bottom of the staircase. Then the final riser was installed. To make sure the risers and treads stay in place, I put down beads of Loctite PL Premium Polyurethane Adhesive.
To attach the risers and treads, I used my nail gun with 2 1/2" finish nails.
STEP 5 Fill Nail Holes, Sand, and Finish
After filling the nail holes and sanding the stairs, it's time for finishing. I used a couple scrap pieces to help decide on which stain to use. Initially, I was going to stain and poly the risers but in the end I chose to paint the risers with my wall color. To keep the risers from getting scuffed, I applied three coats of water based poly on them. I used Minwax® Fast-Drying Clear Satin Oil-Based Polyurethane on the treads and platform.
STEP 6 Add Trim
Finally, to cover the exposed edges of the risers and old treads, I added mitered trim pieces for a finished look!