Thread: Stair Modification with WIP

I recently did a little modification to an existing set of stairs and thought the exercise may be of interest to some here. I took a few photos before, during & after the works to better explain the process, although some woodworkers may have approached the job a little differently to me. Others may question why I even bothered with the modifications.

As background, we have recently purchased a nice property on 14 acres with an existing 2 storey house. The house itself is in OK condition, although we did find some significant damage to the lower wall frames from white ant activity - but that's another story. The quality of the images below is not great, having just used the iPhone - but you get the idea.

One of the things I didn't like about the house was the configuration of the stairs and their bottom landing position at the front entry. The bottom newel post was situated only 1.0 metre from the double entry doors, and the the post ended up right in the middle of the main door so that when the door is open it virtually closes off half of the stairwell. Not only was it somewhat impractical for accessing the stairs from the living areas of the bottom floor, it just didn't create a very welcoming entry.

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The stair stringers, treads & risers have been constructed from solid Meranti and were carpeted. The newel posts & balusters were also Meranti with a shaped handrail from Western Red Cedar (for some reason). All of the construction was quite sound but very basic, with the house having been built around 35 years ago. We were intending to re-carpet the whole upstairs area and also the stairs but I was determined to improve the general configuration at the bottom before the carpet layers arrived.

I decided to remove the two bottom treads and turn them into bull-nosed winders which are accessible from the side, and to then move the bottom newel post up to the base of the third tread. The process to take out the treads & risers was relatively easy, notwithstanding the fact that all the components (including wedges) had been originally glued into place with PVA. I was also tiling all of the bottom floor of the house, so decided to get that done prior to completion of the stair modification. Luckily, the newel post seemed to have very little glue in the joint to the stringer and came apart fairly easily, leaving a nice neat mortice on the post.

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The first part of the reconstruction was to cut off the outside stringer and recreate the tenon which fits into the newel post at the new position. Great little things those Fein multi-tools. I cut back the handrail plumb-up from the shoulder of the new stringer tenon using my nice sharp Disston panel saw. I then extended the wall stringer to accommodate the new layout of the treads. I used one of the removed treads for the stringer extension and fixed it solidly to the old stringer and the wall frame, having cut out the new tread mortises prior to installing.

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I fixed some solid framing to the concrete/tiled floor using primed 140x35 pine as the straight risers and then shaped the new bottom winder-tread out of a piece of 35mm laminated pine panel purchased for the project. I cut the radius sections for the curved section of the riser out of an off-cut of the pine-panel. I used a double layer of 3mm craftwood to curve around the radius section of the riser, installing & glueing each layer separately. It would have been nice to have a band-saw on site but all of the curved work was just done with a jigsaw.

I could then build the 2nd tread/riser on top of the bottom tread using the same techniques, although the radius of the second bullnose was much tighter and a little more difficult to curve - even with 3mm craftwood. The newel post was then carefully refitted back onto the stringer in it's new position and screw fixed. The new stringer tenon slid perfectly back into the original mortise of the newel post, and I used plenty of adhesive on all joints & intersections to avoid any movement or squeaks. I braced the newel post in position overnight while the glue dried to ensure it was 100% plumb.

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Upon removing the braces & cleaning up adhesive residues etc we were ready for the carpet guy. The end result was a much more pleasing & practical entry, and I think it looks a little classier as well. All in all about 1 1/2 days work and $72 cost for the laminated pine-panel.

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I should add that I'm a builder - carpenter by trade - so these work were perhaps somewhat easier for me than others. Still, maybe it will give some of you a few tips & ideas.