Wood under carpet on stairs

last year

What is this wood under the carpet on my stairs? The riser seems to be some sort of particle board but the tread seems to be more like a solid wood. Could I rip up the carpet, sand and paint the stairs, and nail down a carpet runner? I would use a contractor, not do it myself.

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Comments (6)

Beverly
last year
last modified: last year
I see some significant gouges to the wood treads. You really cannot make this determination without ripping off all the carpet. You don't know what you might find two stairs up or two stairs down. There might be more scrap lumber under the carpeting.

What do you plan to do about the apparent gap between the staircase and the wall??????? That's a very big hurdle.

Risers and treads are usually connected to the wood stringer. See below.

It will be labor intensive to sand the stairs so they can receive primer and paint.
ilikefriday
last year
last modified: last year
I did this several years ago as a diy. I agree with Beverly. It depends on the condition of the wood. The most labor intensive parts were sanding the wood and cutting the trim to fill the gap between the staircase and the wall. Overall it was a cheap, easy, and impactful project but that was diy. I'm not sure of the expense when hiring a contractor.
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Sigrid
last year
Yes, I see gouges, too. They are close enough to the edge that they'd show if you did a runner, not wall to wall on your stairs. I decided to remove my runner and discovered underneath it was a mishmash of different paints, stain, nail holes, and so on. Add to this, it took over an hour to remove the runner from one stair. Getting those furring strips (the nail thing on the left) up is a giant pain. I gave up, because it was a ton of work and it was clear I needed a new runner because my stairs were not going to look good without a runner or an awful lot of rehab.

Based on my experience, I'd quit now and just get the rug replaced, as is. But, before you want to go on, take some more of the rug off and see. In addition, is your house old enough that the paint might have lead?
apple_pie_order
last year
The chipping white paint looks like old oil-based paint. I'd start with a lead paint test kit (good call from Sigrid).

https://www.amazon.com/Lead-Test-Kit-Instant-Swabs/dp/B0CZ8K3C6D . Only $10.
PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
last year
Show us the whole staircase I have no idea from those pics to me it looks like any old stuff they had leftover to do the stairs since they were going to be covered with carpet.
PRO
HALLETT & Co.
last year
The steps are plywood- zoom in you can see the layers. You could spend a lot of time with filler and trim to get them paintable. They were always designed to be carpeted so have really low expectations of the build quality. This might be the rare time when lvp stair wraps would make sense.