Hi everyone! So here's what I'm working with . . .






I ordered up a whole bunch of solid pre finished 3,4,5 inch random width 3/4 American Cherry to lay down in a new house I just closed on. I've done the flooring in my entire house I'm moving out of and feel very comfortable with 99% of home DIY tasks. Never done 3/4 solid nail down so this should be a fun project. I've enlisted the help of a friend who does construction full time to get started.
So here's my questions . . . this stair case has me scratching my head how to proceed. As you can see it has carpet and I'll be tearing that out to go with the cherry. There is no stringer board, just treads up to dry wall. I've seen these go either way with adding a stringer or just cut it nice and tight (i think that looks best if done well). Is there any problem with just going tight up against the walls for this wood? Any worries about expansion in such a small section? Face / blind nail it all or use construction adhesive? Would the adhesive mess with expansion and cause buckling down the road?

I didn't end up buying the stair nosing since it was $12 a foot, would end up adding over 1,200 to the project total. What I'm thinking about doing is the "DIY tread cap" idea with a round over bit on my router. I dont know if the 3/4" planks will look good if I just round them over on both sides for the stair nose or if I should rip an inch off and glue / brad nail to the under side so I have a more traditional stair nose. Any tips on refinishing the area I hit with a router to match the factory finish ? Factory finish is aluminum oxide semi gloss.

Looking forward to getting started on this project. Total of 2,200 sq feet but most of it is big open areas. These stairs will probably take me just as long as the rest while trying to keep the cuts just perfect for no / minimal gap.

Any tips/tricks or ideas on the project? Thanks!!!

The steps will look best to go with the traditional look with a one inch thick edge on the projection part that over hangs the riser. Glue a 5/16th inch thick piece about an inch and a quarter wide to the bottom of the "nosing" piece that you will use for each tread. A half round router bit for a half inch radius will make the nosing when used on top and bottom of the front of the nosing. Keep the groove on the back of the nosing piece and glue the nosing with as few brads as necessary to keep the nosing in place. Since you have different widths you can choose the widths that add up to the tread dimension and have less waste. A clear finish, at least two coats, will look OK, one coat gloss and one coat satin should come close to the factory gloss level.This area of the tread will get the most wear, so three coats will be better. If this is too dull, then add some gloss to a final coat of satin. Each tread is such a small area that you will never get cupping. Just scribe fit to the walls, with a slight under cut at each edge to help with the scribe fit. You can glue and then nail through the bottom of the groove as much as you can from the back of each row you install until you can only top-nail the back rows close to the riser. I like to use quarter inch plywood for the risers, because it is already sanded and you coat the whole sheet, then rip to the right height. This saves a lot of time. With a router you can use some of your leftover flooring rips to make a coving scotia to cover any gap at the top of the riser under the tread. In the end you will be able to get the right shine for your finish, with the right coat of satin or satin/ gloss mix. The thicker the finish, the shinier you will have in the end.
The walls probably have a texture so if you get close with your cuts and plan to paint afterward, you can make everything look great.

What are the treads under the carpeting made of? What's the plan for the risers? Keep the stair building code in mind when you do the nosing overhangs. Usually when replacing this carpeting the noses of the existing subtreads are cut off flush with the existing risers. A piece of your 3/4" flooring will be fine with a bullnose on it if you like the look...2 passes with a roundover bit or 1 pass with a bullnose bit. If the flooring is a semi gloss I'd go with a semi gloss on the routed nosings.....depending on the product several coats may be needed....this area will get a lot of foot traffic unless you're planning on adding a stair runner which is always a good idea on polyurethaned stairs. If you're going to install individual flooring boards it might be easier to blind nail....adhesive may get messy when trying to make adjustments. When you get to the nosing maybe use adhesive and counter sunk trim head screws....also make the nosing board at least 3 1/2" wide.

Thanks for the tips and pointers! The flooring under the carpet is solid lumber per the builder, not ply or OSB. I plan to cut the nosing off after removing the carpet and will just go ahead with scribing the boards for a tight fit to the drywall, I think this will look nice and clean without a stair skirt board. I just dont like how the angles of the skirt boards look when you have a double kite winder staircase.
For the risers I'm planing to just use the same 3/4 pre-finished T&G cherry as everything else.

I found a router bit that will do what I want here https://www.amanatool.com/57190-carbide-tipped-corner-rounding-with-ultra-glide-radius-bearing-guide-solid-surface-1-5-8-dia-x-3-4-x-1-2-radius-x-1-2-inch-shank.html

I don't currently have a router table but was thinking about buying/ building one. With that bit I can just chuck it up and do a full round over with my hand held router.

What I was thinking about is since I'm making my own stair nosing why not do something different than the typical 1 inch round over. I was looking at some of the bullnose bits and other profiles. It would be a nice custom touch to do something that you don't see with all the typical store bought pre-made nosings. Any ideas or pictures of alternative nosing profiles you guys have seen or made?

For doing the nosing roundovers you could make a quick router table by attaching your router to a piece of plywood or MDF....being bearing guided you wouldn't even need to make a fence....just a starter pin. Also, make sure the solid lumber subtreads are flat and haven't cupped. For alternate profiles look at the scotia profiles.