Thread: Stair Treads?

They all sound good to me, my partner is an architect and she is doing top of the range stairs all the time. Boils down to colour selection mostly. Not though she is usually looking for a minimum tread depth of 250-300 and at least a metre wide if not more.

Grey Gum or Ironbark.
If external stairs, always install with the heart side up. it stops them from cupping.

You can add bloodwood to that as well.

I would not use bluegum as it is not recommended for external use.

I'd give blue gum and blackbutt the flick if it's external, If it's internal, I'd still stear clear of green blue gum, as it has a tendency to come off the saw okay, but get cranky whilst drying - which is okay if you cut extra's for Justin (Justin Case- Just in case)

Thanks for the replies, good advice especially regarding cupping, thanks Glock.

Stairs are external and exposed to the weather.

Sigidi, what would you choose seeing as you're in the same area and familiar with these timbers? Also curious why you'd discount Blackbutt when it's Class 1 durability above ground.

id go with ironbark.

Blue Gum (qld?) can split badly and moves around wile drying,
Grey Gum really bad spliter logs can quater themselves if lefy lying, Tallowood will be good but could be a bit slipery if left unfinished, Blackbutt never had the pleasure,
Ironbark (red) stable highly durable and nice looking,
Bloodwood splits a bit if containing the heart but otherwise good.

Well Sir, you are correct Blackbutt is rated well concerning durability. I have sourced Blackbutt from about an hour from you at Mapelton and used it for my carport posts. Posts in Gal stirrups 5x5", cut them myself as I found the literature which said it would do the required job terrifically. These posts have split so badly that I have no choice but to replace them, can't even bog them and paint em the splits are so bad, in places I have 2" of solid timber left in a 5" post.

Also I am unforgiving, I don't like spending time on somehting which i have to go back and do again. So taking into consideration posts are vertical and don't get so badly hammered by sun and rain as horizontal step treads, personally I'd give Blackbutt a pass and use as per Carls recomends.

Mind you I have tried (and this will shock many of you out there) Cadaghi on my steps at home...

BBT is no good for step treads. It opens up badly.
We only cut Grey Ironbark, Grey Gum, Grey Box or Spotted Gum that gets Tan E treated to H3.

Again, thanks for the good advice. Will give Blackbutt a miss, will heed Sigidi and Glock's advice there.

Thanks for your input too Carl, I'll go the Ironbark.