I have already got a start on it as I ordered stair parts in late June and began prepping the rough stairs for finish. I have a friend who did high end stair work professionally for a number of years and is now a general contractor, so I asked him over for some beer in exchange for advice. Very worth the time, and a nice opportunity to shoot the bull as well...
So to sort this out better, I created a rough CAD model in my spare time. Here is an overview of the stairs, with only the upper sections fully drawn. I didn't bother with the lower sections as they are basically the same. I also didn't try to put in the "grass" that will be in the panels as it wasn't worth the time in CAD. I just wanted to see how it would lay out and where to put break points, etc.
One of the first things discussed was that I needed an additional guard railing behind the fireplace as the space was over part of the stairs and still accessible somewhat. See below.
So the plan is to add a short section of railing to guard that area like the outline shown below, behind the big brown block that represents the fireplace. Just a simple straight section about 3-1/2' long.
So I got started on that while waiting for stair parts. The first thing I realized was that I really need the feet where the railings mount to the stairs first. With things like this, it generally makes the most sense to batch them all together at once. I counted up 15, so I made 16 to have a spare. I set up and cut parts, then drilled holes, countersunk for the screw heads and then deburred the backsides, so those are ready to go. Should be no need to set that back up again. Now I can focus on making railing frames.
Got that one section made and installed behind the fireplace. This way I could move the handrail over to that side to have something to grab onto temporarily while working on the stairs. I just clamped some wood blocks around it with screws at the top. Very solid
So let's make some stairs! I started with the lower level set as there is outside access on both levels, making it less painful to get around the construction. First stop - the skirt boards (wide trim pieces) on the "closed" side of the stairs - the part against the drywall. This board gets pre-finished after it is cut and fitted before installation. You can see where I pulled out the temporary treads for clearance here.
Next step - the "open" skirt board and then risers (the vertical parts). The open riser is the single most complex part of the whole stair assembly as it needs to be mitered for each riser, and they all have to match up perfectly. Below you see the open skirt in place and all the risers set. The treads you see are still temporary just to allow places to stand/sit to work on it.
Starting work on the finished treads. The treads come with the return molding already installed from the shop. Those are the moldings/nosings that wrap around the edge of the open skirt board
And the first flight all completed and glued/screwed in.
Since every flight goes about the same, I won't duplicate them all, but the next one had one big complication in that the open skirt board had to also cover this big triangle in the stair framing. this required a challenging glue-up of extra wood onto the skirt.
And the first 2 flights completed. The next 3 photos show views of that, after finish is done. Very hard to get good shots of something like this as the space to take a photo is so constrained that it is hard to see it like you can in person.
Next, I worked on the upper 2 flights, once our daughter was back at college (her BR is upstairs, and this is the only access). It would have been best to start from the top as gravity tends to ruin things below you that you have already finished, but that was not workable here, so I just need to be extra careful working on the upper flights.
It took 12 weeks total, start to finish, but all the woodwork for the stairs is now done. I won't deal with touching up paint or anything else until the railings are all complete and I am done banging into things. Here's a couple shots of the upper flights, which are the ones you will see all the time. Railings will be covered in the next post.
