To match the white oak (which they said was old red oak!) which got only one cost of stain. The living room and upstairs hall and two bedrooms have white oak. They put red oak in dining room, kitchen, pantry, powder room, side and back hallway, breakfast room, library, media room, office, laundry room, huge bathroom and master bedroom. And it's a mess, looks horrible! Our contractor says there is no chatter, no white oak, great finish and refuses to accept any opinion other than from someone he will choose to bring in! I fidget an opinion that the red oak was very low quality.

When they show up to install, I'd talk to the installers about how they lay out the boards to avoid the things you are concerned about. Their answers should give you a clue if they are going to do it correctly or not and an opportunity for input for them to do it the way you want. edit to correct spelling This post was edited by olychick on Sun, Mar 9, 14 at 12:04

Just checking on the cherry. Can't say I'm too fond of oak myself. There are few instances where balustrade removal and replacement work out too well unless you're disassembling the stair re-milling and reassembling it. Even then unless you are talking about a stair that's made out of a rare or exotic lumber that would exceed the cost of the time and labor of doing so It is not often the best practice. I would still use care taking it apart and use it to make something else. How solid are the newels, are they loose surface mount or do they go into the floor? Iron is nice. You can either use a metal rail or wood on top of it. For a long while iron/steel balusters were a bit less expensive than wood but now they are comparable. The wood rail will usually be less expensive than the metal and easier to install. Newel posts can be either as wood newels match the iron quite well. A few of the things I was mentioning about not being correct in the drawings were the balusters and newels. The newel is an Arcways product whose turning is sized for the 30" rail heights of days long gone by. Note the extremely tall base. The balusters are StaiParts Inc. made for the same. The upper turnings don't even come close to matching the rake of the stair which is common for too many stair part manufacturers. Even with the stair and balcony rail set to the highest height in order to use a closer matching baluster combination to make it less noticeable. Arcways however does have some fabulous rails and fittings, checks their small orders for matching, offers cherry as a stock item and will sell directly to homeowners. They also carry iron and steel balusters. I believe OakPoint sells direct and Crown sells through Brosco/Brockway Smith, 84 Lumber and even a few Lowe's locations as well as numerous stair companies. Use the dealer locator on their website. Both have a good selection, have cherry as stock on some of their profiles, good quality and a product line that looks correct for todays codes. "Solid" or one piece treads sound nice but they are not really what you want unless they have relief milling on the underside and even then it's not much of a guarantee against checking or cupping especially if they are only 3/4 thick". How will the 1 1/4"+ overhang hold up? Construction adhesive and a finish nail through the top of the finish isn't going to last too long and will squeak like crazy after a while. A typical tread is 1 1/16" thick and will be made of three to 5 pieces. Cherry treads are most often made "in house" from random width/length material and a good stair shop will cut out any sap wood, match the grain and the leading piece will be well beyond the riser. Engineered treads are also available but like everything they have their pros and cons and I think the cons still outweigh the pros. The open left end should have a return nosing mitered into the front left corner and extend past the next riser by the same distance as the overhang with a scotia below. That is the dark piece I am showing on the edge of the tread in the image above. If you go through your phone book or search for stair companies or stair manufacturers and not stair part manufacturers you should find a few. If you call a stair parts manufacturer they will direct you to someone in your area that they sell to. I was looking for the dimension of the face of riser to face of riser or the run. I'm assuming 7" is the height? Floor to floor height. From the top of the plywood where the upper stair lands to the top of the vinyl on the landing and from the top of the vinyl on the landing to the top of the vinyl(?) in the basement. If the vinyl is flat I would agree with keeping it in place if the glue has failed and it's lifting remove it and in either scenario use a quality felt paper underlayment. Did you already place the order with the millwork shop? How soon do you need to get this done? I really think it would be in your best interest to explore all avenues and plan out the whole project before you buy anything. As Casey noted above it is often cheaper to remove all and replace. It would take you less time to install the two units than it would to even do one single tread.

My concern is the layers of vinyl underneath the hardwood. Hardwood doesn't like sitting on vinyl and vinyl doesn't like sitting on hardwood. The two do NOT like each other. If you think this is a good idea (which it is considered on the technical side of things a horrible approach to this) then you might have to add another layer of subfloor. A nice, fat, thick 1/2" plywood to cover those two layers of vinyl. Now you can go ahead and lay the hardwood. Technically, my suggestion is hideous. It is atrocious. It is so "unprofessional" that I could weep. But if you insist on leaving the vinyl in place, then you need to think of a way to separate the vinyl from the hardwood sitting on top....and one very sure way is with plywood. Again, my suggestion is a travesty. Then again so is laying hardwood over two layers of vinyl. In the flooring world, we 'allow' ONE layer of resistant flooring (like vinyl) to sit underneath another floor. For example: the first layer of vinyl was considered "OK" to lay another layer of vinyl over top. All good. No one in the technical department batted an eye. If a THIRD vinyl floor was proposed (or a laminate, or linoleum, or cork, or hardwood, or tile, or even carpet) it would be a "NOOOOOOOO! STOOOOOP! DON'T DO IT!" type of answer. So I will officially say: No. Stop. Don't do it. There. It has been said. That being said, if you as the homeowner choose to forgo the installation instructions and the "Best Practices" as set out by the National Wood Flooring Association (as homeowners your word is "law" when it comes to things like this), you are welcome to go ahead and lay hardwood over two layers of vinyl. If you do it, I suggest a new layer of plywood to help things along - because you need FLAT. And most "old hardwoods with two layers of vinyl sitting on them" are anything but flat. Good luck. You would be better off remediating the asbestos/vinyl and getting down to bare hardwood. Now a new floor (with the help of a layer of plywood) can go down. Or you remove the original hardwood with the vinyl (this is easier to do than scrape off the vinyl...and easier = cheaper) and start with a new layer of subfloor and go after it like it should be done. But as homeowner your word is "law". If you tell a professional to "just do it", they will say "yes ma'am/sir" and do it. But they will not warranty their work. You will be left holding the bag - and all the pit vipers that lay inside. It's your call.