Repair Stair Stringer

sunshine54

Hello,

I hired someone to install hardwood flooring on a small set of stairs (5 steps in my home). They did a horrible job, and I ended up ripping out the stair treads and risers that they installed (the kind you get at home depot) and installing prefinished stair treads/risers myself.

The problem is that underneath each stair tread on the left and right stringer, are giant bullnose shaped holes. I'm not sure if it was the contractor or the builder of my house that did it, but now I'm left with these huge holes everywhere. The new stair treads and risers I installed partially cover them, but there's still very noticable holes.

What are my options?

Even though the holes are so big, I tried to fill the holes with miniwax stainable wood filler. Unfortunately the wood filler barely takes any type of stain.

I'd prefer not to replace the stair stringers, since that's probably not in my skill level, unless there's any easy way to do it?

Thanks

sunshine54

Here's a couple of pictures to illustrate my point. The holes have been temporarily patched with wood filler.

Attached Thumbnails

   

titanoman

I'm not sure where you mean these "bull-nose" holes are. Are they across the face of the tread, along the front, or the stringers themselves. You might be surprised how easy the stringers can be cut out with a saws-all then use for a template for your new 2 x 12's. Make sure you use sub-floor glue and screws if you chose this route.