The OP's next response said this, which introduced the topic of light to her original question: "The reason I wanted to go with the open staircase is that it is U-shaped and located in the corner of the structure. It has landings that are bumped out from the structure with windows. I was hoping the open risers would help bing light in to the basement..." I did not say the forum should be a place to congratulate each other on home design and avoid critical design issues. I have no problem with your statements about the codes applicable to winder stairs and your suggestion for the grab bar, which we already have and is a good suggestion. But my stairs are already built and not going to be changed and no one responding to the thread even suggested that they were thinking about building winder stairs, so it served no constructive purpose for you and Sue to go beyond the code issues and give your personal opinions on my stairs other than to make me, the home owner who was criticized for building the winder stairs, to regret posting a picture on this forum, and doing things that discourage homeowners from posting picgtures of their already built/can't be changed homes is not good for the forum, IMO. I did measure the depth of our treads at the wind, and the minimum depth at the wind (at the wall) is 4-1/2", so our code is probably like the code in your area.

Ouch...too many gaps to count. The installer needed to select a different plank for those areas that are gapping. Some boards fit nicely with one another and others don't. Just like building something from Ikea, if the first screw you tried doesn't really work, pick up another one. It will likely work (99% of the time it works beautifully). Factory finished hardwood is the same. The installer should have realized the two pieces weren't really working together and should have grabbed another plank. It would have saved everyone a lot of concerns. I'm sorry you are going through this. Home Depot is notorious for lower quality work. It is sad but it is the truth. In all honesty, this floor is an NWFA Certified Flooring Inspection waiting to happen. If you feel you need an inspection done (because HD isn't standing behind their installation) then you are welcome to visit the website listed below: www.nwfa.org And no...I wouldn't want putty used on a factory finished floor. It is acceptable if this was a site-finished hardwood (where the sand and finish everything in the space) because the poly will hold the putty in place. But a factory finished hardwood is another animal.

Most economical = carpet. After that, a solid finish (wood, cork, vinyl, tile, stone, etc) will require all the extras. Painted stairs will work...with plenty of elbow grease and with the FULL UNDERSTANDING the paint will wear/chip/"patina" inside of a few years. There are ways to lay a runner on the stairs and then trim out the edges of the tread/riser with wood-looking stuff. This will cut the cost in half of what I mention above. The other option is to place the runner and PAINT out the edges....creating a faux-painted-wood look which could be very handsome yet extremely practical. Notice how carpet keeps on coming up again and again? Yah. There's a reason for that. Those are builder grades stairs made for carpet.

Thanks for your comments and I'm sorry for the confusion in my original posting. I should have made clear that the 2nd picture above shows our staircase in the process of being remodeled. It is not the finished remodel. I'll upload some demo and "before" pictures below. I hope they'll help with some of the questions. Here is more background on this project. If anyone reads through this or looks at the photos below and still has structural concerns I would love to hear it along with any reasons for that. This is the last piece of a total townhouse remodel. The staircase has been difficult because of conflicting advice from subcontractors. As you can see in the photos below, the half walls were torn out and replaced with framing for the installation of spindles and handrails. The architect's plan is to replace the carpeting on the original steps and put false treads and risers on the new framing. Those are the black things you see in the pictures (the risers will actually be white but these are just mockups). Our carpenter did have structural concerns with the architect's plan and he backed out of finishing the project for that reason. We brought in a structural engineer. The SE said the new framing was solidly attached to the original treads. He didn't think we needed to put full-width treads under the carpeting for structural reasons. At the time I wasn't thinking about how the steps would look style wise. I was preoccupied with getting the spindles, newels and handrails I wanted. My husband wanted carpeting and I conceded. In hindsight I guess the new carpeting was put down prematurely. We're now finishing the project with a woodworker. Since we have the ok of a structural engineer and the architect confirmed the plan is to code I was hoping the issues about trim and the drywall were the last things to resolve. Thanks for your advice so far on these issues. Unfortunately we cannot start the staircase all over for style purposes only. We would start over for structural reasons if needed. Thanks in advance for wading through all this background.