An X-acto knife or a razor may work as a substitute for a utility knife, though a utility knife is the best option.
It’s a good idea to wear hard-soled shoes, so you don’t pierce your feet with staples and nails embedded in the carpet.
It’s a good idea to wear hard-soled shoes, so you don’t pierce your feet with staples and nails embedded in the carpet.
If you don’t have a pry bar, you can use the back of a hammer or a flat head screwdriver. However, since pry bars are useful for many steps of replacing your stair treads, it’s worth it to invest in one.
There are a lot of staples in the stairs, so be prepared to spend an hour or more pulling them out. Check under the lip for staples, too.
If you’re sensitive to dust, you may want to wear a dust mask during this step. Even though you’re going to discard the old treads, it will make working with them much easier if they’re clean.
If the step has a wooden molding that sits underneath the top lip of the tread, pry up the molding with a crowbar and remove it completely.
Make sure not to cut through the wood that forms the stringer, which is the wooden frame along the sides of the steps.
If you can’t pry it off, you may not have sliced through all the nails, so run your saw through again.
This will make the process of installing the new treads much more pleasant, since you won’t have to be breathing in dust the whole time.
If you have hardwood floors, you might want to get a matching wood for your stairs, though some people like to have contrasting stairs. You can buy stair treads at home supply stores or online.
Many building codes call for no more than a 0. 375 inches (0. 95 cm) variation in the riser heights.
Each tread is slightly different, so measure each one individually.
Double check your measurements– it’s easy to fix a mark, but not a cut.
Wear leather gloves and eye protection whenever you’re using the table saw, and don’t wear any loose or dangling clothes. Never get your hand close to the blade – there should be at least 6 inches (15 cm) between your hand and the blade at all times. Make sure the blade guard is down and that you know where the stop button is. [14] X Research source Only use a table saw if it has a blade cover or a riving knife to prevent kickback. Turn off the saw when you’re done with the cut.
Measure twice, cut once, is a good rule for woodworking, so double check your measurements.
Remember to keep your hands far away from the blade at all times.
If it doesn’t fit, carefully measure, mark, and cut again to get the right dimensions.
Don’t try to cut costs by using a weaker type of glue, because it won’t hold up. Wipe any glue off the tip of the glue bottle before it dries so that you can easily use it again.
Never put your hand over the tip of the nail gun.
When the bottom ones are done, you can sit or kneel on them to reach the top steps.
Another option is to finish all the stairs at once and avoid using that stairway. Make sure to tell everyone in your household that you just finished the stairs, so they don’t step on it and ruin it.
