A wider angle picture would help to see the issues. I do a lot of stairs with oak treads and white riser to tie it all together with what's there in white.You sure don't want white treads.

Something like this:

Thank you. Here's a wider picture. See my problem?? The white part that the rails are attached to is different than the stair part....

That sounds like a big and expensive job. Maybe I'm wrong? Any Ideas on average price of something like that? P.S. I think those white bits the balusters are attached to might be mdf.

The correct way to do it would be to remove all of the ballisters and put in full length treads.Really the only way it would look correct.

If you just have the one run of stairs (straight up with no turns to an additional run of stairs, I'd probably budget $800-$1000. But, I'm not a tradesperson, just a homeowner.

I would have never done it that way but it looks like they cut the treads just to accept the carpet.Probaly put a piece of osb or 3/4 ply under to lay the carpet over.It would be very hard to make anything work without pulling the remainder of the treads and ballusters.

Will not be cheap or easy but I don't see any other way and you will be very happy with the end results.

If you have any diy skills or are like minded you may do the demo yourself and get a pro in to do the finish work?

"looks like they cut the treads just to accept the carpet"

Butchery! And the treads may not meet Code now due to the reduced depth.

I *think* this is the original stair setup with the original carpet. The house is less than 10 years old. My guess is they did it this way to save money - where I can pull up the carpet, I can see that the treads underneath are subfloor material (I googled, I think it's called "strandboard").

<sigh> We may just have to recarpet and throw all new treads, etc, on the list. Unfortunately, there's a few other things on that list that are a little farther up.

I would gladly do some of the demo, but apart from ripping up the carpet, I'm not sure what I could do on this one!

Isabelyw:

It may be possible to remove the carpet, the Oriented Strand Board (OSB), drive any fasteners through the balusters with a nail set and/or cut them flush with the treads with a Japanese pull saw it they are doweled. Now the tread below the balusters can be removed without removing the handrail and balusters and a new full length tread slid into place. I wouldn't do this for less than several thousand dollars.

I'd probably go for simplest/cleanest: slice the balusters in half, toss them along with the partial treads, and put in all new stained wood treads with wrought iron balusters. You can reuse the holes in the banister for the new balusters, and just drill new ones in the new treads. Then you've got an updated look for the whole shabang.

Salvaging/piecing together some solution will be way more work and more time.

P.S. when we redid our stairs (carpet to wood), the materials were around $1000. We DIY-ed the work.

FWIW, I think the new treads on my staircase -- unfinished oak -- were about $75 each . . . So, I'm guessing I have over $1200-1800 in materials for oak treads, oak balusters, oak handrail, etc . . . My new stair treads were part of a much larger project, so I haven't pulled out the costs, but, I'd estimate $3000-5000 at least to hire someone to redo the stairs.

I would guess you'd need to replace the entire treads, and, thus, probably your balusters and handrail . . ., so, yes, live with the carpet until you can't stand it.

A cheap alternative to oak treads, if you can DIY the labor and want cheap materials . . . is to use pine stair treads and stain them. I did that for our basement stairs (java gel stain by general finishes), and I love it. White risers. Black stained treads. Is dinged and banged up thoroughly from heavy use of just a few months, but the stain is durable, so, it just looks banged up, but the stain doesn't wear away. I *hate* carpet (it's all, all, all gone!! Woohoo!), but I wasn't going to pay $$ for basement stairs . . . so the stained pine was a good compromise for me. (I wouldn't want to pay labor costs to stain/finish pine treads . . . as the labor is such a huge part of the cost . . . I had my GC lay down the treads - quick and easy -- and then I did the finish work.)

I'll second the stained pine recommendation. We pulled icky carpet off our basement stairs, and had them professionally finished. They are just builder-grade pine stairs, but to me they look a million times better stained/painted than they did with carpet on them. Stained pine is never going to be mistaken for a $10,000 custom oak staircase...but again, to me it does look better than carpet. I'm relatively careful with our stairs and so far the only scratches/dings are surface scratches from the dog's nails.

isabelyw - I know it hasn't been long, but did you come up with anything? I have the same issue. My carpet looks similar to yours too. I saw oak stair treads a lowes a while back. They weren't cheap but looked nice. I think once stair treads are in place then that gap we're both seeing where the carpet meets the wood area will be fine. The treads should be flush or even with the side area (sorry I don't know all the correct terms). LOL

I want to remove the carpet and stain the staircase darker to match my floors. I have seen some good stuff on Pinterest with stair makeovers - it gives me hope.

Anyway, let us know if you've come up with anything.