Will the Real Stair Treads Please Stand Up

The steel staircase was one of the most complex parts of the house.  Not because the design is terribly complex, but because of the fabricator.  Most of the tradesmen we used who worked on the house were obvious, hard working craftsmen.  To that end, in many cases we tried to not over specify details about how we wanted stuff done.  We called it "artist's choice".  We let the people who know their trades best make decisions, and predominantly we either got exceptional form-follows-funtion choices, which seems in keeping with the modern theme, or we got finished details way cooler than what we would have thought of.  However, there was one exception and that was the person we hired to weld the stair case.  Huge disaster both emotionally and financially.  Apparently when you tell a professional artist that they can use "artist's choice" that gives them license to dabble and no show for work for days or even weeks.  But I digress.

We knew the finished staircase would be steel and I had sort of convinced my Uncle Tom and his Family in Kentucky to build wood treads for it.  Tom and his Family are serious woodworkers and Tom always seems to have a line on old growth lumber.  Tom agreed to make treads for us and after 1one tree that didn't work out, he happened upon a White Oak tree he thought could make treads.

Here is Tom rough-cutting the wood for the treads on site:

I had originally hoped to use single solid slabs for the treads, but Tom talked me out of it.  Even with proper kiln drying, Tom thought they would likely crack.  Instead of slabs, Tom decided (see: Artist's Choice) it would be best to assemble the treads from 4 or more pieces each, then glue, plane and finish them.

Fast forward a few weeks and eventually the finished treads arrive in Charleston.  They were unfinished at that time, Tom left it to me to finish as I saw fit.  Here they are laid out in the detached garage...

These are actually the B sides.  Tom made sure to use the largest and most flawless pieces of wood for the A sides.

Even the B sides are gorgeous.  Really nice grains and character.

So, I set off to finish them.  I don't have any experience finishing wood floors so I was slow and cautious.  I set the dehumidifier to max and let the wood acclimate for a few days.  

I decided that rather than guess with stains or try to match the oak that is on the house floors now, I would just clear coat the treads.  The product I chose was the same one the hardwood floor guys used on the house.  Bona Traffic.  It is actually a 2-part poly, and it cost about $120 per gallon. 

I cleaned the treads really well and then put one light coat onto the B side and onto the 4 edges.  The first coat went on well, but after about 30 minutes of drying time, it was basically invisible.  It completely soaked into the wood and disappeared!! (I think this is actually a good thing).  I have subsequently learned that the folks at Bona know this will happen and as much as they want you to spend $120 per gallon on their stuff, they actually sell a product called Bona Seal for about $41 per gallon that you can use for your first coat.  Next time, I will try it.  I ended up using about 1.5 gallons of Bona Traffic for the treads, hopefully the last half gallon is enough for the landings.

Here is a tread after the second coat (I sanded with 220 grit paper between the first and second coats).  I really love the knots and character.

The coating and sanding continued.  The B sides and the 4 edges all got 3 coats.  First 220 grit paper, then 400 grit between the second and third coat.

I put 4 coats onto the A sides.

After the last coat had cured 48 hours, I polished each tread.  I have a lot of experience polishing cars, and finishing the treads was no different.  I polished all 6 sides of each of them.

Partial stack of the finished product:

So on to installing them....

Here are a few "before" shots with the temporary treads.  Halloween decorations by Rachel!

The steel was left raw with a hand waxed finish.  I really like the look of raw steel.  But, most, if not just about all of the welds looked poor and sloppy.  We decided the paint all of the steel satin black.  Next few images show the aluminum square bar removed, in the process of getting ready for paint.  (All of this work is happening in between coats of Bona on the new treads!)

I guess if you don't have an engineering degree, you might think this bolt pattern in the steel is a good idea.  Definitely not what I would pick.

Treads removed:

As I was doing this work, I used Led Zeppelin's "Coda" album for the soundtrack.  Seems fitting in this case.

Once all the treads were removed, I spent a day prepping, masking, and painting.  Here is the finished result:

Satin black is an easy sheen to overlook.  I always want to use flat paint, but flat never looks as good as it does in my mind when it's done.  Plus it shows fingerprints.  Semi-gloss is too shiny/bling for me.  Satin is half way in between and just right.

So, without further adieu, here are the final treads, fully installed:

This is my favorite view of the staircase.  Rachel points out that they look equally good from outside standing on the road, too.

I set the run on each stair to 11".  The steel plates appear to be either misallocated or poorly located.  I have no idea what the welder was thinking.  In hindsight, maybe I should have done detail drawings for him.  If he had a specific plan for locating the treads, I could not figure it out.  Now, with 11 inch runs, the treads and consistent and very comfortable to walk on.

I shimmed each stair so they are perfectly level.  The steel plates, sadly, were not level in most cases.

You will notice the 2 landings are still made from builder's 2x12s.  Uncle Tom is still working on those and they will be installed at a later date!!

The treads are gorgeous.  Each one is an heirloom-quality piece of furniture.  I am sure I have not done them justice here, you need to see them to believe them!!  We are forever grateful to Tom and his family for helping us.

Up next: leather wrapped handrails!

Some updates from Around the Outside of the Haus

Took some time last week to take some updated pictures around the outside of the Haus.  The landscaping has really matured and become quite healthy and we've finished a lot of exterior projects and details that really make the house look "done" finally.

View from the street.  The large trees in the front yard are doing great.  We had a scare with several of them this spring, we think they needed more water than what we gave them over the winter.  That won't happen again!

We originally planted the umbrella grass (papyrus) in front of the atrium near the front door.  It was too big for that spot.  So, we moved it here near the fenceline.  It's doing great here.

The rain tank and rainwater collection system is installed and working (hard, every day!).  People ask us if (a) "is that a grain elevator?" or (b) "do you brew beer in that?".  The state of SC did give us a 25% tax credit on all of the drip and rain water harvesting equipment we bought!

The cypress exterior siding will need some additional finishing next spring.  Luckily there isn't much of it to do!

View looking down the driveway.  The permeable pavers have proven a good choice.  They are fairly "organic".  A few have cracked and they aren't sitting poured-concrete-perfect, but they are much more interesting and much smarter than a huge, stupid slab of driveway.  The dwarf mondo grass median has been a challenge for less-than-careful drivers who come to visit.

I found a break in the sprinkler line that was preventing the palmettos and this bamboo from getting water.  After fixing it and finding the right fertilizer for the bamboo, everyone is doing well and growing nicely.

We finished the edge of the driveway with a black plastic retainer to hold the mulch in place.  Works well and looks nice.

The mailbox continues to be one of our favorite design features of the house.  The mailman has told us it's the nicest box in Mount Pleasant.

The homemade cast concrete water feature keeps working like a champ too.  Originally we added bleach to the water and tried to keep the algae from growing on it.  We noticed however the bees in the backyard like to get some of their water here, so we stopped the bleach and stopped worrying about it.

The planters integrated into the front porch grow perennials most of the year, but we added these hot pepper plants we got for free late in the summer.  They actually have produced a lot of peppers, and they look nice too.

This is a Japanese Butterfly Maple planted near the rain tank.  It's one of our most beautiful trees on the lot.  The bark is green.  Should grow to 7 or 9 feet tall, someday.

The hosta garden struggled a little this year, but gets stronger all the time.  Some of these hostas were moved from Ohio, and those were moved again from Seattle.  They have been in the family a long time!

The banana tress is great, but it will need to move this winter.  It is huge.  If you go back in the blog you can see how small it started out.... maybe 3 feet tall as a single stalk.  It has produced actual bananas this year, and they are edible and tasty!

General view of the pond.  Fish and water plants are happy, the sound from the waterfall is great and you can hear it inside the whole house with the windows open.

Pond from above looking down from screened in porch.  The Graceful Bamboo continues to grow and will grow in all of the rest of its leaves next year, making a huge barrier between us and these neighbors.

This is the Coral Bark Japanese Maple near the pond.  Bananas need to move to give it more space.  Some day it will be quite large and hopefully shade the pond.  The bark is bright, coral red!

Some of the fish.  They are really hard to photograph.  We originally started with 14 fish, we counted about a dozen new babies since they started out.

One of the day-blooming lilies in the upper pond.

The shade garden.  We planted a bunch of hibiscus in the back near the fence after hearing about how much bees like hibiscus.

There is a small "baby" pond back in the vegetable garden.  We needed extra soil for the last raised planter, so we had a huge hole in the ground.  Why not make a small pond?  It is 4x8 and 2 feet deep. It has a flexible liner and an all-in-one German pump and filter system.  We are growing lilies in it, but you can't see them here.  At least 2 frogs immediately took up residence here, which is awesome.  We assume they eat the mosquitoes and other insects that try to drink the water!  Eventually there will be some sort of metal humanoid sculpture here when we get around to working on it.  Every garden needs a scarecrow, right?

Bees are happy.  We harvested about 110 pounds of honey from the hive this year.  If we could fit another hive on the lot, we'd get one for sure!  We are convinced the bees helped all of the plants grow this summer.  We'd like to take credit for being green thumbs, but it's too much coincidence to think new gardeners did as well as we did!

Our interpretation of what a modern bird feeder pole is!  All parts from McMaster Carr.

A rare glimpse inside the detached garage.  Art on the walls made it look great.  Still lots more to do inside here.

An artsy pic of the Trex louvers and the outdoor shower.  We love the horsetail reed, but it does like to get out and multiply whenever it gets a chance.

View of the upper bedroom windows.  Need to get a huge ladder so we can clean those!

The backyard from the back porch.  Artificial grass has been great.

Took this shot to show the porch ceiling.  Originally, it was coated with clear Seal-o-Flex.  It gathered mildew, and worse, it attracted woodpeckers.  I recoated it with 2 coats of Modern Masters Masterclear Supreme in satin finish.  This product went on thick like Elmer's glue.  Produced a great finish and deterred the woodpecker completely from pecking on the outside.  We originally wanted hardwood flooring for the ceiling, but cost won this battle.  This is "close enough" to the look we wanted and we're happy with it.

We will work on better fish pics next year!