Need Advice on how to complete basement stairs.

Bakuto

Hello,
I have a small house, one story, less than 1000 square feet. It was originally built in 1907 and appears to have gone through many permutations in the meant time. THe basement as a full concrete foundation that is great. I think that at one time there was an exterior door to the basement and then someone added a small addition to make the stairs to the basement part of the interior of the house. Underneathe the stairs as they exist now is exposed dirt and concrete rubble.

My question is what is the proper way to finish or re-do these stairs so that they are enclosed, you cant see any dirt, and air tight? Do I need to try to remove the dirt? Do I just put all the necessary wood over them like in regular stairs? Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

oh'mike

I think that you are talking about putting on risers.----Unfortunately the treads need to be removed to do that.

Kind of a shame the drywall is cut in around the treads.
You may be able to cut the drywall and add a shirt board to fill in the missing drywall--before you add your new risers and recut treads---

---Mike---

tpolk

since you have exposed earth under your steps have you looked into pouring concrete steps right on the ground?

__________________
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Scuba_Dave

The dirt should be sealed with plastic to keep moisture out
You might be able to put plastic down thru the existing treads
You could then put risers across the front

How finished do you want them ?
Is this staying just a basement ?

kwikfishron

You could maybe block between the stringers with a few extra screws coming down from the tread for a fake riser to make the ugly go away, then you could even cover all of that with 1/8” - ¼” pretty plywood. You should be able to kick that.

oh'mike

I was concerned with maintaining the tread width and over hang.
That's why I suggested removing the treads.

Kwikfiskrons Plan would also work--easiest done if he can get under the stairs and work from the back.

Bakuto

Thanks for all the replies!

Actually the walls there are painted concrete, so some of the treads kinda go into the concrete.

There is a large amount of concrete debri on top of the dirt under the stairs. It sounds like first i need to remove all that until there is just dirt and then put a moisture barrier over it. Correct??

Should I just strip them down to the stringers and start over?

As far as how i'd like them to look? I want them to be decent, nothing too fancy, the rest of the house isn't. But they will be stairs going to an unfinished basement. Although someday I would like to finish part of the basement.

oh'mike

If stripping them back to the stringers is an option--great!!

That would be the easiest way to clean out the rubble.

Then adding the risers and treads is a fairly straight forward process.

When installing new treads I like to use a router to round over the leading edge--the sharp edges of a piece of construction lumber get chipped up so easily.

Plus I think it looks better.--Mike---

kwikfishron

Mike’s last post sounds great, if you want to get rid of the debris and get down to the dirt pull the treads. If some of them run under your concrete wall then cut them down the middle and remove them in two pieces. With all of the treads if you can beat them up just a little so you can easily cut the nails with a sawzall do that so they come out clean. Stair Treads are "very fragile" so anything you can do to not beat the hel* out of them is a good thing.

As Mike said You do want to round over the new treads but if you don’t have access to a router or the round over bit you can do the same thing with a little palm sander art.

Gary in WA

If you just add risers without the dirt sealing, they will rot. You will cut off the drying air supply that is keeping them from rotting now. Do they meet current minimum safety code now? http://www.stairways.org/pdf/2006%20...C%20SCREEN.pdf
No. How much time and effort do you want to expend? A "proper" way would be to remove them and pour concrete 2" thick on a vapor barrier over the dirt. Rebuild per code, add a handrail..... Appears the top riser is short......

Be safe, Gary

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oh'mike

GBR--Good catch--I hadn't noticed the top tread--

I just rebuilt three stair cases in a fixer-up special---An inspector was in the house for a kitchen inspection and spotted the home made stairs.

Some people have a hard time with the math involved--

Bakuto

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I know where to start now. Also, Thanks GBR in WA for the link, that helps a lot.