Why are people afraid of being nit picky when it's their house and their 6 figures?

I have never heard of the finished stairs being put in before the house has the roof on it. That's like icing a cake before it's even put in the oven!

This is serious - not a nitpick. Nitpicking is worrying about a subfloor or studs getting wet before the roof goes on.

If there is ANY damage from the rain (or worker's boots) to the oak stairs, they get replaced on THE BUILEDER'S dime! It is an idiot that puts anything in the house that can re ruined by water if the roof, exterior walls, and windows (or heavy coverings) are not in.

Are they going to carpet before sheet rocking? Paint before mudding the sheet rock?

Why on earth did they put them in so early?? One hammer dropped and boom, nice nick in your floor. I'd have them removed.

Agreed on all counts - usually you get crappy underlayment / 1x4s or something for stops - NOT the OAK TREADS - these will look like crapola if they are allowed to remain during all the construction. Bad planning / poor timing / new to project management? All of the above?

Let me get the story straight.

Reputable builder doing finish work on stairs before the building is dried in(roof on/sheathing on).

Right?

See the point?

Insist the house be dried in before ANY more work is done. And the stairs completely replaced.

Omgosh, pass the Tums. Did you say reputable builder?

There seems to be a bit of an oxymoron here.

The stair fabricators I've dealt with all had detailers who would remediate light damage--including water stains--that inevitably occurs during construction. Usually power sand off the stairs. If they can't do so and the builder says "tough luck", then is the time to freak out.

As any pro will tell you, every building project encompasses errors and corrections.

They weren't doing finish work before the roof was on they installed the stairs which are prefabricated before the roof was on so the framers could get upstairs to finish framing. They were wrapped in plastic with thick fiberboard tread protectors. A light rain would have been no big deal but this was a huge all day downpour and the water flowed behind the plastic. I agree with others though they should have put temporary cheap pine steps in and put this in after the roof was on and maybe wrapped with ramboard or something. I talked to the foreman he said they will replace them which is fair to me.

They weren't doing finish work before the roof was on they installed the stairs which are prefabricated before the roof was on so the framers could get upstairs to finish framing.

I've been watching our builder's different house builds. In every case before the house was closed in, the subs got upstairs with a large wood ladder and not with prefinished stairs. And once the roof was on, they put in the bones of the staircase but non of the prefinished treads, etc.

I talked to the foreman he said they will replace them which is fair to me.

I'm glad to hear they're doing right by you but there's no reason for them to put them on until they're ready to lay floors, etc. So after drywall, etc.

In my build, the sheetrock is painted, the kitchen cabs are nearly done, and the basement stairs - which will never be fancy oak, if only considering these are basement stairs -- are simply still the temporary stairs to be replaced later.

I talked to the foreman he said they will replace them

Problem solved!

FWIW, I use temporary stairs. Takes a true carpenter less than an hour to knock one together. And since real carpenters are so rare, there are companies that supply pre-built temp. stairs. I generally install the permanent stairs after the services are in but before the drywall.Second floor drywall comes in an upstairs window, so tramping around is reduced.

Final cleaning and detailing is a trade in itself!

We built rough stairs for temporary access, or placed rough treads on the real carriages and replaced them with finish treads later. We went so far as to drag rough stairs from house to house within the same development.

I don't know of any reputable builder that does this.