Hardwood Stairs: planks vs solid treads

4 år siden

We recently had new hardwood floors installed (prefinished 3/4” solid hand scraped hickory https://andersontuftex.com/hardwood/details/colonial-manor-mixed-width-aa050/hobnail-37522). We are going to have the same flooring installed on the floors one floor up, and we are replacing carpet from the connecting stairs with wood. We already have decided on a white painted riser (which will match the existing trim nicely). I have two questions on treads for the stairs:

(1) Planks vs solid treads: we can use our flooring planks and bullnoses (we have enough flooring already and just would need to buy bullnoses) or buy a solid tread for each step, in which case we would need to have it stained to match our flooring. I have read that the latter - a solid tread - is the preference of most in terms of appearance. My question is durability. If we don’t mind the look of the planks with bullnoses, are we sacrificing in terms of durability to go that route? My suspicion is that a solid tread could be more structurally sound and less prone to problems in the long run, but I would love feedback of others on this.

(2) Matching texture of Solid Treads to existing floors: if we go with solid treads, in addition to matching the stain, I would like to achieve the same hand scraped texture that our existing floors have. Are there companies that do this type of work? Our contractor who we’ve used in the past says the treads should just be smooth. I don’t want to go crazy with our spending or make things more complicated than they need to be, but I really like the idea of having the same type of distressed finish on the treads that we have on our floors (and therefore am going back and forth about whether it might be better to just use the prefinished planks with bullnoses...)

Thanks for any feedback others can provide!

Fremhævet svar

PRO

Patricia Colwell Consulting

4 år siden

Solid for sure .

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(10) kommentarer

PRO
G & S Floor Service
4 år siden
Using individual planks for treads, means more movement. Every board will move at a different rate, unless it is glued together. Movement on all six sides. Add a textured surface, it can be a hazardous surface to walk up and down on. Even if, you were to glue the T & G together. The draft angle along the base is not a good surface for gluing. Only the top wear layer can be glued. Which still allows the wood to move.

A solid tread is glued through, there is no movement except along the outer edges. A smooth flat surface won't be a slip hazard. If, you would like some texture, wire brush it.
K R
Forfatter
4 år siden
Super helpful thoughts - thanks very much for sharing them. My sense was that a tread would be better than piecing together floor planks, and your explanation confirms it. Our floors are hickory. I assume our best bet is to find a local person or company who can help us out, in terms of finding hickory treads, matching the stain, and roughing them up a bit to match the texture of our hand scraped floors. Part of what attracted us to the hand scraped texture of the floors was that dings here and there don’t show as prominently as smooth boards would show them. So I’d like to replicate that texture on the stairs too. We have lots of extra boards from the floor that we could provide, for matching purposes, to the person who would do this work for us. Now to find the person... I’m waiting to hear back from the flooring store to see if they have any recommendations.
PRO
HALLETT & Co.
4 år siden
Solid treads 100%. This presumes you can source material and skilled craft people to get the color to blend.
K R
Forfatter
4 år siden
I’m hoping that it’s not going to be too difficult to find the skill and expertise needed to prepare the treads. We’re in the greater Indianapolis area. Is this a unique enough project (preparing stair treads by matching stain and replicating hand scraped texture) that we might struggle to find someone? Quick Google searches suggest to me that many species of wood treads can be purchased online, including treads with various degrees of distressing, but I’d prefer to work more locally so we can see what we’re getting. I’m pretty sure the flooring store, which has a very good reputation locally, will be qualified to do the installation. I need to get back in touch with my contact at the flooring store for thoughts. I might also reach out the man who custom built our kitchen cabinets to see if this is the type of carpentry work he might do (he did a beautiful job on our cabinets).
PRO
Oak & Broad
4 år siden
Always choose a Solid Tread over trying to make treads with pieces of flooring. There is no comparison in terms of longer term durability.
Wide Plank White Oak Wood Floor in Nashville TN with Matching Stair Treads · Mere information
PRO
Select Hardwood Floor Co.
4 år siden
Nosings are for landings... (IMHO)… Full/solid treads are the more professional as well as structurally sound approach
PRO
Oak & Broad
4 år siden
Select Hardwood Floor Co. , is spot on!
PRO
Uptown Floors
4 år siden
General flooring stores will push planks and nosings on stairs as a very slim handful of manufacturers offer matching stair treads. And your average hardwood installer doesn't know how to install solid treads properly.

Depending on where you live there's bound to be somebody that would have a go at matching the distressing. However, I'm sure the cost will be way up there.

For others that may stumble across this discussion in the future, matching treads, vents and other mill work is a specialty. I've handled jobs that included the floor, stairs, baseboard and casings. Need extra stain? No problem. Along with some uncommon items such as knee wall caps and crown molding from time to time.

Matching Stair Treads & Other Mill work
K R
Forfatter
4 år siden
Update: my contact at the flooring store put me in touch with a local company that can take samples of our floor and prepare hickory treads for us that match in stain color and texture. (Uptown Floors is correct - this is not cheap! But I’m glad we have an option if we decide to move forward.) The flooring company would then do the installation (they’re also installing leftover hardwoods in an upstairs hallway of our home).

Here is my new question about all of this: any questions I should ask or things I should consider to ensure that the flooring company knows what it’s doing on the stairway installation? Uptown Floors’ comment that average hardwood installers don’t know how to install treads properly has me a bit concerned - just want to make sure we think this all the way through before embarking on such a big investment!