How can I repair treads on an open staircase which have been cut off flush on the ends?

Question

I've bought a Victorian house that the previous owner, in their infinite wisdom, boarded up the main staircase.

I've removed the boards to reveal the original spindles, and it seems they have trimmed the treads to fit the boards over flush. As a result, some repair work needs to be done. I've done loads of searching, but in all the cases where people have restored boarded up staircases, they have been of the closed stringer variety (no damage to the treads).

What is the best way to proceed with this? Can the treads be saved, or would they need to be replaced?

Answer 1

What appears* to have happened, is that someone removed the finish carpentry that dressed the end grain of the stair treads and also sealed up the rough joints where the spindles meet. There also appears to have been a thin portion of 'mini crown' that went underneath each tread side. This would have been the easiest and quickest mess-up to perform, and since people are inclined to do the easiest thing... that is my guess.

If the treads are excessively worn on top and at the nose, you may wish to either hire a carpenter to replace them with fresh material or just choose to embrace the project yourself. If this house is to be a project of love, then buy a decent compound miter saw and learn to drive and sink finish nails by hand.

If this is a house that is intended to be a temporary place to stay (less than five years), then install some high-traffic carpet over the stairs and be done. Older houses like this will have many things that need attention, like plumbing/electrical, leaky roofs, foundation problems, wood eating pests... You must pick your battles.

* my eyes are old.

Answer 2

Use a contour gauge to reproduce the profile of the stair edge as shown here:

Or see if you can find identical trim to just build it out.

Reproduce the edge shape and extend the treads from where they end, continuing out over the spindles, then 45-degree mitered and continuing along the side of the tread to cover up the exposed board ends.

I suspect this is how it was built originally, I don’t think much if anything has been sawn off.

Look at neighbors’ homes to see how their stairs were built.

Look at, and ask your question on, Facebook Group Historic Home Renovations (and many similar groups) for further advice.

Then ... start stripping. Just keep stripping, just keep stripping.

Answer 3

Just to round up my myriad comments into its own answer.

To me, it looks as though all the previous 'remodellers' did was to remove the decorative end-cap mouldings. They didn't damage the actual treads, though one of the lower ones has damage to the nose, likely unrelated. Fortunately, the mouldings are not structural in any real way.
This leaves the balusters to flap in the breeze a bit. Structurally, they just need tacking back into place with a couple of judiciously-placed nails [into the treads], then they're trapped in place by the new mouldings.

The original end mouldings will likely have been factory made, each as a single piece, for rapid fitting on site. An L-shaped piece, router-cut on three sides. Push into place & nail on. Note there are no visible nail holes in the baluster or stringer fronts, which adds weight to this theory. Also note that the moulding fixings are into the tread ends, not to the stringer or balusters, so they float correctly with the treads under load.

I don't know of anyone that makes that L-shape any more - though you never know. [Though I have always lived in Victorian houses, they've all just coincidentally had closed stringers.]
The modern equivalent would be to get some bullnose-type moulding & mitre cut three pieces to make up the L-shape.

You could also perhaps get away with this used to fix the damaged tread front. Screwed & glued properly it should stand up to the traffic.

For somewhere to start on finding the right moulding, try https://richardburbidge.com/shop/mouldings [rather than B&Q's limited selection;)