Do Tread on Me
The 120-year-old treads on the stairway to heaven (Flippist World Headquarters)were beyond repair. I had actually thought about replacing them when we first moved in—32 years ago!
As the Wicked Witch of the West once said: "These things must be done delicately…" In this case meaning replacing a couple of treads and their balusters at a time, while keeping the risers and hand rail intact. I was
surprised that the area under the stairs was fairly clean—dusty, to be sure—but contained no 'treasures" unless you consider a Dale Berra baseball card valuable. I varnished the new treads and balusters, and even went so far as to strip the newel post. I still have to replace trim and re-paint the risers: tedious, but easy.
The biggest difference is the stairs don't creak anymore. Now I can creep back into bed without waking the Weaver.
2 Comments:-
Shoshanah Marohn said...
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Professor Batty said...
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Wow, you can fix those? My daughter thinks we should fix our creaky stairs, and I say, "it's impossible." Beautiful work, Batty!
You don't want to go there—it's a heckofa job. The trick is to use a modern hi-strength construction adhesive when laying down the new treads, I wouldn't do it if you old ones aren't broken and look nice.
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