As I mentioned in the last post, when we got the landings in the middle of the stairs, we got stuck. First off, we needed more tools. This is how we acquired a nail gun, an air compressor, and this nifty $35 tool from Lowe's that turns your circular saw into a table saw. I scored the Workmate off of Craigslist for cheap but wasn't willing to pay for a full-on table saw.
The retrofit treads we'd been using were thinner than standard flooring, so we couldn't put a tread at the front of the landing and line up matching flooring.
The solution? We went to Lumber Liquidators and ordered unfinished oak flooring with its own stair nosing.
We had to sand down the plywood landing, because it had glue and paint and raised spots that had been previously hidden by the carpet.
The nosing is a special piece that has an overhang in the front and a groove in the back for the flooring to fit in. The hubby cut and dry-fitted all the boards first. Measure, measure, measure. Don't be surprised that your walls aren't actually straight.
To secure the boards, he started at the back. Using Bostick's Best (recommended to us by the flooring guys at Lumber Liquidators), he glued each board down. He then shot nails at an angle along the tongue of the boards - shooting them this way means NO nail holes in your flooring!
Next up - sanding! We started with a heavy grit sand paper (60-80) to wear down the variations between board heights, then finished with a fine grit (200) to create a really smooth surface.
As with the treads, we did three coats of stain. Minwax Mahogany above and espresso below to create a warm dark brown.
Once dry, we added new baseboards, filled in nail holes and caulked all the edges.
Ralph surveying the day's work. Tomorrow I'll be touching up the wall paint and painting all the trim white. We didn't have false stringers on our stairs, so we created the look of some by taking half-round molding strips and running it down the length of the steps. We're going to paint the risers, the molding and the triangular space along the steps bright white tomorrow once all construction is complete.
I'm loving how it looks!
And, since I wanted to paint the trim bright white, I will have to paint all the doors and existing trim bright white as well...because apparently they are all a shade of Swiss Coffee...which, when side by side, is definitely NOT bright white. The fun never ends.
We WILL get this done this weekend!!!
See the whole Project:
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