Removing The Old Staircase & Drywall Repairs

Before starting to demolish the old stairs, I laid two large old boards (2" x 12") over the basement stair opening. This made it easy and comfortable to work, and I was able to have a step ladder over these as well.



Removing the old shitty stairs (I don't normally curse, but these were absolutely awful) was probably the worst part of the entire project. It was messy, and none of the steps came off easily because they had been nailed as well as screwed down. The screws were puttied-over and painted so I didn't bother trying to find them. I used heavy prybars and a large crowbar.







I had started the demo late one evening, and I did the other half the following afternoon.



Another thing that made the demo worse was that the contact glue used on the rubber tread sections was still gluey and sticky, and any kind of contact with the glue meant a gross and difficult to remove mess. It was like honey, and the only thing that removed it was lacquer thinner. I was very careful to pile the old pieces carefully, and to completely avoid skin contact.





A lot of the rooms throughout the house (wherever they changed the drywall) have insulation in them. Kind of useless on interior walls, but I suppose it helps block sound a tiny bit, so I've left all of that there (and patched where bits were missing).



About 6 of the 12 old stair "points" broke off during demo.



This was an "exploratory hole" done years ago, but some of the framing will need to be fixed now.







This is the wall that makes up the hallway (where I have the coat hook shelf with clocks on it). This wall was a later addition, which is why the construction is completely different.



This is where I started to notice I had a big problem.



Illustrated below, is the height issue with the stringer. Basically, it needed to drop a good 2 or 3 inches, around the spot where the arrows are pointing. One thing I didn't really calculate earlier was that because of the adjustments, the height of the top stringer step had to land at 10 3/4" down from the finished floor. Again, to recap the math: 10.75 + 2.25 (my 2x10 rough step plus 3/4" hardwood) gives me my final 8 1/2" step.

That said, the nice drywall "angle" that I had done years ago, and that I was pretty sure would have AMPLE clearance was definitely going to have to go.

:(

Bye-bye all that hard work and planning.



At least I got a good shot.



Also note that this was a "controlled demo". All the edges (tape) were cut to minimize the mess, and make re-patching easier.



The stringers had to be notched. I didn't like doing this, but I had no choice, and I did NOT, repeat *N-O-T* want to redo the entire doorway and arch.



Rough fitting seems to work out really well.



On this side, I even had to notch the inside 2x4 a bit.



I am really lucky that the notched area landed in a good area of the steps, otherwise I would have been royally screwed (I would have needed to rebuild the entire basement doorway - AGAIN). The blue line is 3/4" that I removed later on to make the angled ceiling piece (the drywall angle over the basement door) land in a nicer spot.







At this point, everything was good to go, except that now all the drywall was messed up due to the new (correct) location of the stairs. Part of this would be covered with mouldings, but a lot of it wouldn't.





I decided to fix ALL the drywall all in one shot for the best finish. This was a real pain in the butt, and it involved a lot of creative recycling and planning, since I had a very limited stock of drywall (old and new), and I also wanted to fix some of the existing problems on the staircase walls at the same time.

First, I finished the framing for this upper right corner. All the arrows point to new framing pieces. The plywood with pocket hole screws is a good trick for very tricky areas like this.



This is one of the only shots I took from upstairs. I luckily have the other rear staircase I could use during this project.



I believe this was end of day 2.



One of the complicated drywall patch pieces.



Middle of day 3, with most of the drywall done.







I don't normally show the mess, but trust me, there's always a mess.



The last sheet!

Building a Staircase

To anyone who was waiting around for this second post yesterday, apologies, but I got all the photos ready, then got side tracked with other things.

As I mentioned previously, building a staircase is not terribly difficult, but you need basic carpentry skills, basic math, and good common sense and planning skills. The materials and tools needed are pretty basic. I built the majority of this staircase with only a circular saw, a hand saw, and a square equipped with brass stops (these are 5$ for a set). A table saw is also useful for ripping down the plywood and treads.



Calculating stairs is also not too difficult. The main measurements you need are the full height (finished floor, to finished floor), and the full length (the spot where the top ends, and where the foot of the stairs begin). This can be tricky to measure when the stairs are still in place, but if you need to, you can drill a hole in a step for a tape measure, or use a combination of levels and a plumb bob to measure a large zig-zag across the wall to find these measurements.

In my case, the full height (floor to floor) was 110.5", and the total length was 103.5".

The normal "standard" or "code" sizes for residential stairs is a step height of 7.5", and stair treads of 10" width. If you've ever been in an old house, however, measurements like these are completely useless, and you can chuck them right out the window. They serve merely as a guideline for the height of a comfortable staircase. Obviously you don't want steps 10" high, or only 4" wide. To give you an idea of why the standard measurements won't work in my house, my staircase would need to be at least 114-120" long, which would leave me with an upstairs hallway less than a foot wide. Alternatively I'd have to install a "platform step" at the foot of the stairs, but then I wouldn't be able to open my front door properly, and I'd have a step to walk over into the living room across the door frame. A lot of older homes simply had steep and shallow steps, and there isn't a lot you can do to change this depending on the location of your staircase. In my case, the stairs end at a door frame (living room), and into a hallway upstairs, so the length is pretty "fixed".

The existing stairs (rough sizes) worked relatively well, so I used the same divisions. 12 steps, 13 "rises" (basically the thirteenth step is the second floor). This gave me 8 5/8" steps, and 8 1/2" rises. Basically the steps will be one inch taller than "standard", and the final steps (over the 8 5/8" tread) will be around 9" deep (because they overhang a bit), so 1" narrower than standard. These are the exact measurements you use to cut the stringers (the notched boards). It took me a while to figure out how all the different elevation problems/calculations depending on how many "layers" make up the steps and riser boards would work out, but all of that is simply adjusted by shortening the bottom step, and adjusting the length with the depth of the top step.

Hint: Try to get a nice measurement for your step depths. Originally I was aiming for 103" length, but divided by 12 gave me 8.58333333333333" which is a hair over 9/16", while if I just added half an inch (103.5) it gave me exactly 8.625, which is 8 5/8". You can't do much about the height, though. It must be divided exactly by what you have.

Knowing my proper rise/tread sizes, and the amount of steps to cut, I set up my square, and traced these onto one of my stringer boards (a 2" x 10" x 14'). Once you have the first stringer all marked out, transfer the locations of all the points onto your other stringer(s) to make sure they will be exactly the same, then trace out the other stringer(s) with the square.



When everything is traced, you can figure out your adjustments at the top and bottom steps, and you're good to go. In my case, the rough stairs will have 5/8" plywood risers, later capped with 1/2" finished wood, then 1 1/2" (2" x 10") rough steps, later capped with 3/4" thick hardwood steps. This means that the bottom step must be 2 1/4" shorter (1.5 + 0.75), and the top step must be cut back 1 1/8". In my case, the top step was not going to be wide enough to reach the beam properly (it would have been just a skinny 3/4" sliver) so I just cut the top step longer across the top. In most cases, this might land against a wall or another framing member. You can see the top tread here in this photo. Instead of being 8 5/8, it's a little over 10".

Nothing fancy was used to cut the stringers. There are several techniques, including drilling a 1/2" hole in the corners, or using a saw guide, but I just cut all of these freehand (cut up to the corner, then the rest with the hand saw). I have years of experience, so my precision is pretty good. Use whatever setup you feel comfortable with.



After cutting the stringers, several of the "triangles" on one board were severely weakened by a split running through the board. These were knocked free, or spread open, and glued/clamped.



If I had hand-picked these boards, I wouldn't have had this problem, but these materials were ordered and delivered, so I didn't choose them myself. Not a big deal, just an extra few hours to let the glue dry. Once everything is screwed together, this won't be any weaker than if it didn't have the split.



You will end up with a whole bunch of these scrap corner pieces. Luckily for me, this will be great scrap wood for campfire use at my friend's place.



All cut and ready! Note, in this photo, I had the original bottom steps (the three at the front) cut to 7" high, because I was going to lay them down against the sub floor. This took under consideration 3/4" hardwood as the finished floor, so 7" + 1.5" rough step, plus 3/4" hardwood step, minus 3/4" hardwood, gives 7". Later, (for reasons I'll explain again) I removed another 1.5" from the bottom steps, and installed a 2" x 8" board under the first step (which still gives me the 7"). Hopefully this wasn't confusing.

I Shouldn't Be Surprised (Staircase Project)

The new staircase project has turned out to be a much more complicated, time consuming, messy, and backbreaking job than I expected, but as the title of this entry says, I really shouldn't be surprised after having done renovations for YEARS now.

That said, I think I'm on "day 3" of the project, and the bulk of the work is now done. I need to shim and nail-in the staircase "frame" then cut and install the rough steps. Once that's done (probably by tomorrow) I'll just have to install 3 metal braces at the top, and the stairs will be fully functional again.

What made the project such as hassle was that I had to do a lot more demolition and drywall work than I had expected. I also ran into a few small hurdles (due to the way the current stairs were put in, and because of the way the house was built).

At the moment I can't afford to install the finished woodwork on the stairs, but I'll be able to patch all the walls, install the skirt boards (stringers acting as baseboards along the sides), and paint.

I suppose since I'm already taking a break, and I've started writing this, I may as well start writing my "tutorial", but I'll do it in a separate post.

Stairs

I've started to build the new main staircase. Hopefully the rough stairs will be done in the next week, and I'll have photos soon. I'll also go over stair building basics. It may seem daunting, but the process and the calculations aren't very complicated. Basic math, really.

More soon!

Ugh.

So I woke up to this yesterday.

:(

View from my bedroom window.





What sucks is I don't really have any money to do anything about it right now, and it's a bit too high to reach on my crappy rickety ladder without risking death.

Auction

I went to an auction yesterday. The star attraction for me was a stunning French Comtoise longcase clock. I was really hoping I'd be able to take it home. Sadly, I was outbid on it, but I still wanted to share some of the auction items, and my two purchases.

First off, the star of the show, and the only reason that I dragged myself out of bed at 7am on a Saturday, the longcase. This is a French longcase clock along with its original grain-painted case. The clock dates from around 1860-1870, and it was in fairly decent condition.







The case on it was pretty warped, very flimsy, and thin, but I've been told that they are all made this way. It's sort of like a fragile house of cards holding up a 30Lb movement. The grain painting and surface decorations were absolutely wonderful, and in excellent shape. The dial and pendulum were also beautifully painted (in the original paint) and in great shape. These are just thin stamped brass, and they get damaged very easily.

Some of the problems with the clock, however, were not going to be easy fixes. One of the major problems was that the original hinges of the trunk door were broken away. This means that there are chunks of wood missing from the door, and that some of the original hardware is now missing. The way these hinges work was basically just an eye bolt, with "L" shaped bent wires sticking out of the case body. These are very simple hinges, and you can just lift-off the doors if you need to.

Other small issues were that some of the boards on it were severely warped, like the left upper panel shown above. There was also a deep crack through the right side of the case which would have been impossible to repair. The clock also has no key, which is usually a very large crank. You can buy new ones, but old original keys are always much better.

I was willing to pay quite a bit for this clock, but nothing crazy. I had told myself 600$ max, but when it came up for sale, I bid up to 650$, and lost to a bidder who got it for 700$. I was pretty bummed out after that.

The last detail I'll mention about the clock before I move on, is that it was much taller in person than I had expected. I'm 6' tall, and I think the dial bottom was at about my height. The clock was probably a little over 7 feet tall.

At the auction there was also another longcase clock, an Art Deco style German one probably from around 1900-1930.



I wasn't really interested in this one, because I'm not a super big fan of Art Deco, and I don't think I'd like having this huge piece of furniture that I didn't absolutely love. It sold pretty cheap at 130$ to an antiques reseller (I spoke to him later on). It wasn't until after the auction was over that I truly realized how terrible the condition of this clock was. The man who bought it was trying to move it onto a dolly, and the entire top part of it was loose and broken from the rest. You could see screws into the wood that had been added (and that weren't holding it together anymore). I also noticed that the top door hinge had broken right through the wood side of the door and it had been very poorly reglued, and there was also a break in the wood case behind the hood door. On top of all this, I also saw that the two lock plates on the case looked like they were missing, so even though the locks and key were still there, you couldn't keep the doors shut. It also had just general problems visible from the start, like the chipped upper crown, and loose mouldings everywhere. Besides all this, the veneer on this clock was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous. I'm not even sure if it was burled walnut, or some other burled wood, but it was some of the nicest cuts I've seen on any similar clock (which is saying a lot). Even the sides were just as nice as the front (a lot of clocks and veneered furniture use cheaper or plainer veneers on the sides).

There were several other mantle clocks at the sale, but only two were worth photographing. This first one was a mint condition Seth Thomas "Black Mantle Clock". I don't know what model it was, but it had a Seth Thomas label on the back, and the plates were stamped ST, so it was all original. A lot of these clocks have been heavily refinished, so it's always nice to see original ones like this in good shape. I bid on it, but I wasn't willing to go over 100$ on it. Some are selling for much, much less on eBay these days. I think it sold for 120$ or 130$.



Another Art Deco piece. This one was a Perivale Westminster chime clock, from the UK. I'm told that it's not the best brand to look for if you want a Westminster clock. I think it sold for 75$. IT was in very good shape, and it ran, because it started up during the auction and kept ringing during the day. So did the Seth Thomas, actually.



Some of the furniture went for absolutely nothing. A lot of items went for very low prices, while others went for way too much. This gorgeous Victorian settee went for only 50$.



This painted cupboard was one of the few items that actually went for a semi-decent price. The auctioneer started at 1200$, but it ended up selling for only 500$ and no one else bidding. It was a really beautiful piece. From the photo I had thought it might be a fake, but I opened it up to look at it, and it was the real thing.



This was another item that almost had me in tears for what it brought. A gorgeous pine bonnet chest, roughly 1850s, old crackle paint, but rotted/broken front feet (not hard to replace). Dovetailed drawers. Gorgeous piece of furniture. 50$. If I'd have had a truck, or a place to put it, I'd have bought it.



This piece was interesting. There was a bunch of stuff on it, so I couldn't open it to look inside, but it looked a lot like a VERY old Quebec blanket chest. Some of these are as old as the 1700s, but again, it's hard to say for sure. I think it had missing mouldings around the top. It sold for 75$.



The last piece that almost had me crying was this MASSIVE bookcase unit.



According to the auctioneer, one of the people there said they knew where this cabinet came from. Somewhere local and it was either a built-in or from a store display. In either case, the piece was probably close to 10 feet wide, and it had been propped up on an odd looking base. I would have taken that off, and put 6 bun feet under it as a low bookcase cabinet. All it needed was a few new pieces of glass. It sold for only 150$. Just for comparison, it would probably cost 200-400$ just to build a copy of ONE of those doors.

So finally we come to my purchases. I was so bummed that I hadn't managed to buy the clock or anything else (and I wasted the entire day there: 9am-4pm) that when the auction was close to wrapping up, they asked the rest of us if there were any specific items they wanted us to bring up. I had been waiting for 2 specific oil lamps, so I got one of the guys to bring them out.

The first one, and the one I wanted the most, as a black marble 1860s coal oil lamp with a wheel cut font. I had one other bidder against me but I got it for 45$ (less than what I've paid for some of my other lamps).



The other one was this early 1850s flint glass "bulb" or ringed/beehive lamp.



I got it for 30$. Note that the burner and chimney that are on it are NOT original. They are much too "top heavy" for the lamp, since the lamp was meant for whale oil.

Both lamps were FILTHY, especially the black marble one. It still had coal oil in it (which smells like roofing tar), and I think it has never been cleaned. The patina on the brass is some of the heaviest I've ever seen (which is nice - and very difficult to fake, btw). All of the engraving was also deeply embedded with grime.





Both lamps after cleaning, and the short lamp with the correct burner.



I spent about half an hour cleaning this lamp. I did not polish any of the brass on it (because it looks amazing like this), but I did wash it. I actually took the entire lamp apart to clean it. The entire bottom is held together with a bolt in the marble base. I scrubbed all the nooks and crannies in the engravings with Comet and an old toothbrush. The inside was also a bit of a challenge to clean. I had to use the toothbrush, a paintbrush, and my fingers to reach all the spots, but now it's spotlessly clean.



The engravings show up especially well when it's backlit.



The last thing I want to mention, is that the incorrect burner and chimney from the bulb lamp were a perfect fit for my white marble lamp that was missing these parts. I had been looking on eBay for a burner and chimney, but it would have cost a lot more than the 30$ I paid for the bulb lamp, so really, it was almost free.