Luis continues building the stairs — riser, tread, riser, tread. This is craft. This is skill. And artistry. And passion. Luis pulled out his phone, scrolled through photos of his work to show Steven an octogon he built from six different species of wood, alternating colors into light and dark-banded orbits, gluing everything up, then assembling it into a large insert that was inlaid into a larger wood floor. This is the expertise and experience he brings to building the stairs at Emerald Hill.
By early afternoon, he’s about halfway up the staircase. He expects to finish cutting wood tomorrow, then start sanding and applying polyurethane.
A detail of how the riser and tread meet — squared edges, with a 1/4-inch overhang for the tread.A second shot to detail the overhang.A third detail shot — 45-degree cuts to frame the squared nosing around the first stair up to the landing.It takes a lot of tools to build stairs — which is one reason Luis commands the house this week, with all the other trades distanced from the stairwell.Luis closely checks the fit of a riser …He rasps away paint from the subfloor tread, because wood glue will not adhere to paint …Trims away the raw and uneven end of a plank of hickory that is to become a tread …Test fits the 1/4-inch reveal of the tread over the riser …Applies glue to the subfloor tread …Drops the hickory tread into the glue …Rechecks the reveal to seat the tread …Taps the end of the tread to seat the plank tight against the skirt board along the wall …Nails down the tread ..Outside, Luis trims a narrow strip of hickory from a tread that is being used to fill gaps between the tread and the riser … for this, he’s working on a slightly larger, slightly more powerful Dewalt table saw, not his lightweight Black & Decker …He taps the strip of hickory into position, test fitting it …During the test fit, he marked the wood to length. Here at the chop saw, he cuts the shim to proper size …Applies glue between the back of the tread and the subfloor riser …Taps the shim down into the slot and glue …And nails the shim tightly against the tread.
Repeat as necessary, riser and tread, riser and tread …
