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I want to re-urethane my hand rail, and I am worried that it will make the rest of the stair case look bad.

We recently had hardwood floors laid in the living area of our home. However, the stair banister (leading to the basement) had metal spindles holding it up. How can we get the spindles back onto the new floor?

I have concrete stairs going to my basement. I want to glue solid oak treads and 1/4 inch plywood risers using Bostik glue. What do you think?

I am installing oak treads on my stairs. I will be putting these over the ping treads already in place, that were under the carpet. I have cut the lip off the old tread. I would like to know the best way to mount the new treads. I would prefer not to have to face nail. Can I use a good adhesive? I do not have access to the under side of the stairs.

I’m installing 3/4″ flooring in hallways. There are 2 steps down into the front room. I’m not quite sure how to install the stair nose pieces, one of which will be parallel to the rest of the planks, and one perpendicular. One of my concerns is that beneath the stairnose is drywall, so I think I need to cut out a strip of drywall and install a piece of wood there to make it stronger under the stair nose. I thought about a 1×2, but I’m wondering if I should use 1×4 instead. Do you have any advice as to how I deal with the perpendicular end? I think the stair nose needs to go on last, but I’m concerned about how I make sure the planks end where they need to and that they’re square to the stair nose. Maybe the better question is: how do I start the first strip in the hallway, to make sure the stair nose will tie in correctly when I’m done with the planks?

Our house has engineered hardwood floors, and an open stair case (no risers). We would like to install solid slabs, and add risers. What would you recommend for risers? Is solid slab engineered hardwood (for this application) available?

We are going to have our main floor, oak, sanded and stained a darker color than it currently is. What do we do with the stairs? Leave them the lighter natural color? Or stain them darker to match? Then do we paint the banister a chocolate brown to complete the look?

I am renting a house with hardwood stairs. I have 2 large dogs and they are scratching them up. Is there anything I can put over the stairs without adhesive or anything else? I need something that is not permanent. Floor runners? I do not want to nail anything since I am renting.

I am remodeling my home. In my livingroom, I am installing hardwood flooring (3/4″ Oak), and in the same room a banister to the staircase that is there. Should I put the hardwood down first then put the banister to the ground? Or should I set the banister into the subfloor, laying the hardwood around it? If both are an option to do it properly, which has the most benefit?

We have a brand new maple hardwood, factory stained a dark brown/reddish colour. Our stairs are also maple and stained by the home builder, chestnut brown. The 2 colours don’t match well and we want to find out how to find a better match and restain the stairs.

I am refinishing a staircase that has oak treads. The treads were finished with some sort of clear finish that’s about 60 years old. I sanded and sanded until it felt smooth and then stained three of the treads with an oil based minwax walnut. It couldn’t look worse. Every scratch, mark, and slightly different texture turned black, and the rest hardly changed at all. I was going to flip the treads over, but they are all glued, nailed and shimmed. When I tried to sand them again, the sand paper instantly clogged with hard melted looking varnish chunks. Is there any way I can get this varnish off?

If wood stair risers are sanded too thin when attempting to be restained, can the risers be removed and replaced with new risers?

My entire stairway is stained oak with a carpet runner that I want to eliminate. I am painting the spindles and risers white. I planned to stain the banister and tread a dark walnut or ebony. When I removed the carpet I found that the center of the tread had never been stained. What should I do to get a seamless dark stain on the tread?

I’m installing oak treads on a previously carpeted stairway (3 stairs). Is it the unforgivable sin to screw these down, countersink and plug holes? I’m afraid finishing nails will lift over time. Obviously, I won’t forget the glue.

We are interested in having oak treads installed on our existing (carpeted) staircase, then installing a carpet runner up the middle of the new treads. I obtained two bids. The first company stated that after removing the existing pine tread nosing, they would then mortise the stringers above the existing treads, into which the new oak tread would be installed (they said there would be a small gap in stringer above tread that would need to be caulked/puttied and painted). They said they would install quarter round molding along the back of the tread where it meets bottom of riser. The second company said the they would simply customer cut and fit the new oak tread and that there would be no need for the molding in the back (or puttying on the sides). They did say they would install a piece of molding underneath the new oak nosing (no mention of this by first company). They also said they would install a thin piece of poplar over the existing risers so they could be painted (where they will be exposed on the outsides of the runner) to match the stringers. This second company said they didn’t even know what kind of tool could make the mortise cut into the stringers, which the first company said they would do. Both companies are reputable (first one installed our hardwood floor originally). Any thoughts? Also, since our stringers are currently painted white, do you agree that the risers should be painted to match rather than have oak installed over them?

I have stairs with pickets. I assume from the other questions that I have to take those up and put them back when done. Is it OK to just glue down the hard wood and use no nails, and if not, is it OK to nail in engineered planks? I also assume it would be better to use urethane rather than dry tack, correct? Also, the side of the stairs is exposed. For now I plan on wrapping stair nosing around it also, but that’s a lot of work. Is there something else you recommend I do for the exposed side?

How many carriages are necessary to support a 1″ thick beech or oak tread? I’d like to replace my carpeted stairs. I ripped up a few and found there are only 2 carriages supporting the edges of the treads. Is it necessary to have a third carriage in the centre for the new 1″ tread?

How do I install the laminate around the spindles? Do I notch it? Then continue laminating on the other side of the railing to the dropoff and finish it with bullnose on the edge? Then quarter round the expansion gaps around each spindle and banister?Or can I remove the whole banister, and mount and anchor through the laminate into the sub for each spindle and banister?

We moved into our new home 4 years ago. We recently noticed our oak stair treads are turning dark in some places, and they look very bad all over the finish look, dull and dirty. What would cause this? what can we do?

I am going to install 1 1/16″ oak slab stair treads over top of existing stair treads. How should I attach the slabs? Glue, nails, or both? What kind of glue? What kind of nails? What does one use to cover up the nail heads?