Staircase renovation - cladding treads and risers

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terby

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Hi, I am planning to renovate my staircase and am interested in cladding the treads with hardwood. One of the methods I have seen for this (mainly on American YT videos which I appreciate may not be applicable to UK staircase construction methods) is to cut the bullnose off the existing tread before gluing the hardwood bullnose tread on top.

Does anyone have experience of this as I'm not sure if cutting off the bullnose, back to where the riser meets the tread will weaken the structure at all, or if there are any other points to consider?

Many thanks

T
 
Interested in this myself - we have a pre-fab staircase, which SWMBO would love to change, and the engineered oak treads look really interesting as a less expensive interim solution.
 
Cutting back to where the riser meets the tread is as you guessed not a good idea, the riser is in a groove in the tread and the whole thing will possibly fall apart. You could cut a bit off it but it’s not an easy job, you are reducing the overhang when you put a false front on the riser so I don’t see really why it’s necessary to cut back on the tread as it will still be the same near enough overhang, I laid proper solid oak random length t and g flooring in my house and I am looking to take it up the stairs as well, I experimented and reduced the thickness of the boards from about 22 to 15 mm (for the stairs) and then glued on a drop piece to cover the original tread I think it will work but I haven’t actually done it yet, I was planning to use 12 mil oak faced MDF for the risers. Best of luck Ian
Edit, my bottom step has a large round return end on it – sorry I can’t think of the name for it, I put some of the MDF through my planer and got it down to about 3 mm thick and was able to take it around the curve, in effect laminating/veneering that riser, I was planning to use contact adhesive to hold it in place.
 
I did my staircase, to get over the thread issue I pinned a temporary piece of 12mm MDF to the riser Then using a flush trim router I trimmed the front of the bull nose off using a saw to get into corners. This left enough meat on the thread to support the housing joint. I then clad each riser with 12mm oak veneerd MDF. I bought engineered oak treads that drop over the top of the step and cover the front joint. I had to make a new bottom step to match.
I also veneerd the strings but ended up painting when I finished the staircase the string looked like they had been clad with sticky backed plastic!
 
Cutting back to where the riser meets the tread is as you guessed not a good idea, the riser is in a groove in the tread and the whole thing will possibly fall apart. You could cut a bit off it but it’s not an easy job, you are reducing the overhang when you put a false front on the riser so I don’t see really why it’s necessary to cut back on the tread as it will still be the same near enough overhang, I laid proper solid oak random length t and g flooring in my house and I am looking to take it up the stairs as well, I experimented and reduced the thickness of the boards from about 22 to 15 mm (for the stairs) and then glued on a drop piece to cover the original tread I think it will work but I haven’t actually done it yet, I was planning to use 12 mil oak faced MDF for the risers. Best of luck Ian
Edit, my bottom step has a large round return end on it – sorry I can’t think of the name for it, I put some of the MDF through my planer and got it down to about 3 mm thick and was able to take it around the curve, in effect laminating/veneering that riser, I was planning to use contact adhesive to hold it in place.

Thanks Cabinetman, that's useful information.
 
I did my staircase, to get over the thread issue I pinned a temporary piece of 12mm MDF to the riser Then using a flush trim router I trimmed the front of the bull nose off using a saw to get into corners. This left enough meat on the thread to support the housing joint. I then clad each riser with 12mm oak veneerd MDF. I bought engineered oak treads that drop over the top of the step and cover the front joint. I had to make a new bottom step to match.
I also veneerd the strings but ended up painting when I finished the staircase the string looked like they had been clad with sticky backed plastic!

Thanks large red, I like the idea of that method, will give it a go!
 
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