Stair capping, or more precisely a stair encapsulation project, is an interior finish carpentry service we are proud to offer. This interior stair renovation took place at a condo complex in Middletown. We also installed the flooring on the second floor of the townhouse.

In this section you can see the how the project moved through the different stages of construction. With each major phase or ” STEP” I like to include a gallery, as well as some description of the processes and challenges in that particular part of project.

In the first step we remove all the carpeting from the second floor and both sets of stairs. It was quite a lot of carpeting. The trick for easy hauling and removal is to cut the carpeting into 3 foot wide strips and then roll them up and tie them with twine or duct tape.

After removing the carpeting in the first bedroom and the hallway we were able to start laying the new floor.  When the floor was nearly completed in one bedroom we began to remove the carpeting in the second bedroom. This is where we discovered that the subfloor in the bedroom was not to code and was not structurally sound enough for a new flooring installation. Of course this was immediately brought to the client attention, and they quickly agreed once show the issues. That meant we would have to cut and layer in new plywood subfloor and screw it every 6-8 inches to insolate any movement.

Next, each stair required a pair of matched tread and riser. There were 26 stairs, so that equals 52 pieces in total. Every one had to be conditioned, stained, sanded, and stained, and sanded, and stained for a third time. Then each one was coated with poly, twice with super fine grit sanding in between coats. The real challenge was finding space to store all these pieces while they were drying in between coats!

A simple but critical step in the process was to transport all the caps safely from the shop a few miles away. With thousands of dollars in labor and material invested in them, there were no chances being taken. With a slow and careful drive over they arrived safely.

Finally, the cap were finished, and on-site, ready to be installed. In order to begin the installation, the nosing on the existing stairs must be cut back to make the stair square. We used a combination of plunge cuts with the skill saw and finished with the mutli-tool. Then using a special custom made scribing tool, each riser, and then each tread, were cut down to 1/64 in accuracy. They were pined with finish nails and glued with construction adhesive. They look just as good today as the day they were installed over 4 years ago!