Thanks for the explanation. he's doing all the work himself now instead of hiring specialized people for the job, I think he's out of money. it's so wrong especially when I told him that he's supposed to put in the risers before tread.

at this point I really need to move in to the new house by November.

any ideas for what I can do to remediate? I don't think he has the skill so I am going to ask a carpenter. but it's all glued and nailed in so I don't know if I can pry the risers and skirtboard out anymore...ughhhh.... I'm sure it will pass inspection. the railing people are installing the railings in a few days but this will all screw into the tread. so maybe I can remove the risers and skirtboard later to redo after passing inspection.

I also watched some videos and I asked him about the 45 degree miter cuts too.... of course he made it seem like I didn't know anything and the internet is full of stupid advices. blehhhh

Sindy, hard to say from here without knowing all the dimensions of riser heights, what finish flooring is going in, etc. Also there shouldn't be the top tread, you should have 13 treads and top landing, that can mess up the railing at the top.

Like I said before, I would call a stair company and have them come out and take a look and see what can be done with what you have. They can get prefinished wood veneer and wrap everything up, the material is thin and it might work out good and they can get the grain on it run in vertical and horizontal direction.

It beats me why they didn't order a set of already made steps from the get go, especially when they don't know what they doing.

Good luck.

I'd Bondo all the gaps, contact cement wood veneer over the skirt boards and risers, and finish. Which must be done before the railings.

You should not touch this. If you do, you void his responsibility. I know it is frustrating but this needs fixed before railing. Also, i would check with local city to see if there are mechanic leans on your property if you don’t think he is paying his subs. All liens must be paid before you can close. Good luck.

Flo: The pictures are of "his responsibility". I've seen enough.

+ 1 for bondo and veneer. We had a similar result for our staircase, but in our case, we did the work, so I expected less than perfect work. I called 5 different specialty trim people out to do our work, only 2 showed up to look at it and I got a total of zero quotes. No one wanted our job for reasons I have no idea. We were willing to pay good money to get it right. This was one of the places in our house we didn't want to skimp because it's the first thing you see when you walk in the house. A nice staircase looks nice. A bad staircase looks worse than bad. But alas, we did the work ourselves because we had no choice. We did get our risers to come out even with our skirt board, so I guess our starting point was slightly better, but we still have places where there are seams. We finally had painters out last week to make it look good. They bondo'd all seams and they are almost unnoticeable now. There is one spot where it looks bad and I can't unsee it. Our house was fully custom and details like this are noticeable. You definitely want to spend some money and get this right.

Nothing to add but I love the word "janky". Never heard that before and adding to my vocabulary immediately.

Gthigpen said

“A nice staircase looks nice. A bad staircase looks worse than bad. “

You are so right. Omgosh I wish I had pics of our first staircase. We tore it out and had it rebuilt after living there about ten years. It was downright dangerous as well as ugly. Falls constantly. Our builder told us he could make beautiful Newell post and save money. We said fine. We were so naive. He used 4X4s sharpened to a point on top as the Newell post. Head slap.

Sheepla...yes, immediately adding Janky to my vocabulary as well! My teen sons will laugh at their old mama but the better to embarrass them with....

my contractor's name starts with J so we call him Janky J****. oh well... :

he ended up sanding the risers flush with the end grain of the skirtboard, then said that I don't need to cover up the end grain. I'm so annoyed.

Sindy - ask him how he plans to hide the seam where the riser meets the skirt? Caulk won't cut it.

he doesn't think it's necessary!

"he doesn't think it's necessary!"

Does he think it is necessary to be paid for his work?

I'm gonna have to finish this myself because he's gonna mess it up. I had a solution to use wood to fill over the end grain but he ended up sanding the crap out of the stairs and making it worse. can I just Bondo the seams and end grain? if not I'll cover it with some trim.

now he's trying to say that I'm too picky because I want the kitchen pendants actually re-centered exactly over the island instead of being off center.

he sprayed white paint all over a painted black door because he didn't bother to protect the finished door.

the electricity in the garage doesn't work. he didn't test it before he covered up the walls and painted.

he doesn't read any instruction manuals or directions because he thinks everything is the same process.

he's just not very smart and it's costing him money and time. I can list thousands of such occurrences. drawers that open into door trim etc. light switches behind doors. gaps in pocket doors. concrete not poured at the correct size or depth needing patching and rebar. no control or movement joints where there should be. he loves to brag about his skills and tell me I have no clue what I'm doing. ugh. the only reason we are using him now is that he eventually corrects his janky mistakes after the 3rd attempt, and the sad fact that there's nobody available due to there being at least a few construction projects on every single street. it's a crazy market.

sorry I'm just venting momentarily....

I'm just trying to get over the small things and move in otherwise I'm gonna be homeless.

A good friend of mine, who is also a custom builder and remodeler, says that "the worst thing that ever happened to the building industry is caulk." It is used to make up for the lack of thoughtful planning and skilled execution that typify a true craftsperson.

I'm afraid that no amount of caulk or woodfiller will make your stairs look like a professional job. Like Joseph Corlett, I'm afraid you'll be seeing knots telegraph through the paint on the skirt boards forever. I shudder to think what the rail and balusters will look like....

You may want to stand back for I am about to speak my mind..

$700,000.00 +/- house. And you are letting this guy get by with this crap? Look where he sanded. Even that looks like jank.. if it was did right the first time you should never see a paint or shadow line where the two pieces meet.

End grain.. Paint and stain react differently when applied to end grain. It will never be smooth or look the same as the face (flat part of the board).

If I were putting up 700k for a house.. That stairway would come out and another built back and done RIGHT..

I would be ashamed to put my name on something like that.. I would not care if I were building a stairway for Donald Trump or a kids play house.

"I'm just trying to get over the small things"

Remember this you will be looking at this "janky" set of stairs every day for as long as you live in this house. Every day you will see the results of this "contractor". How you handle this is up to you but I tend to agree with mulemeat. Just my .02........................

Couldn't agree more with MM and MMW, This will look worst when you paint it or stain it and it will always open up.

The old saying comes to mind " The bitterness of poor quality will remain long after the sweetness of low price is long forgotten"

Being this a 700k house you better off spring for a little extra and hire someone to make this right. Being this a stairway that the focal point when you enter the house and is statement of its own in every house.

Good luck

"I'm just trying to get over the small things"

Make them fix it or it will drive you crazy. Two things in my kitchen that my plumber did incorrectly. First, the dishwasher was installed crooked. No big deal because it works fine and it's only off about a 1/2," but it drives me nuts. Second, my pot filler for my coffee pot was installed upside down. It's too low and I can barely get my coffee pot underneath it to fill it. The plumbing in my house is PEX which my DH and I have never worked with so we are afraid to try and fix things. It's been since April and the plumber has never shown up to fix it. Every time I use the dishwasher and fill my coffee pot, I get a twinge of anger in my gut. I pretty much use them daily. Try to get them to fix it for you.

What is it with builders, architects and stairwells. My architect and I argued about my stairwell and handrail designs until I finally told him that from the kitchen, I will look at this every day of my life and did he want me cursing him every time I looked at this stairwell? I am so glad I held my ground. After completion he came up to me and told me I was right about the stairwell. So, hold your ground and don't accept Janky J's bandaid fixes.

Also - just a comment or question about your top tread. Is it at the same level as your landing? If so, can't your whole stairwell be moved forward so that the landing is your top tread and then the step that protrudes at the bottom and bothers you can be scooted in? Does this make sense? I think this was brought up by a pro up-thread but I can't find the post right now.

Edited to add: I found the post re: your top tread. GN Bulders Sunday at 11:39.

thanks everyone I totally get what you are saying. I think I'll get him out of here first and then I'll fix the stairs. I could have patched it with wood over the end grain and he ignored what I told him was the fix, only to do a half ass sanding job. He doesn't have the skills to deal with this. At least with it being flush I can do something like cover it as a unit with wood veneer or do side trim along the entire skirtboard interface to cover up the jank.

the stairwell can't be moved now because there's a under staircase laundry area so shortening that might leave no room for the stacked machines. sigh...

So you're going to pay thousands of dollars to have the handrails installed, then remove the railings to install new stairs, and then reinstall the railings?

i think it can be done without removing the railings.

this is the type of railing we will be getting

it's definitely not my favorite style but I asked people what's the strongest and they said this style. and that's what the railing company said too.

Why or how is that stronger than wood? And I do not see how amyone will properly "fix" those stairs in place without removing treads and risers.

Sindy-

I don't understand how anyone could do work on the staircase with that railing in place. Even if it was only attached to the floor at the top and bottom, utilizing hand or power tools would be an inefficient nightmare with that in the way. I also suspect that, for strength, it will be attached to the floor at least at one intermediate point. Plan on that railing being temporarily uninstalled when you figure out what you're doing to fix your original problem.

To say nothing of holes and other mistakes!

It cannot be done without removing the railings.

After reading this thread one wonders what in the world in going on in this project...who is directing and managing it...one bad selection and decision after another...and now the railing has apparently been selected and installed. Ka-Boom!

For anyone who cares how this ended...

Automotive filler was used to cover up gaps and end grain followed by sanding.

So at least the edge is now seamless. it took me 5 hours.

One area we were able to fill in with an actual piece of wood then filled it.

Hopefully now he won't screw up the stairs painting. I would be livid if that happens. He just tried to spray paint the front fiberglass door with Rust-Oleum and it has a ton of overspray, drips, etc. they also stripped the NEW back metal door (that they messed up while painting) so raw that the original white on the metal got partially scraped off. I have to say now that there's nothing that could shock me now. I could do a better job.

oh and the contractor didn't even partake in the fix. we had to do it ourselves.

"He just tried to spray paint the front fiberglass door with Rust-Oleum"

It just gets better and better, smh...........................

The old Bondo trick...!

apparently even high end furniture makers hide end grain with automotive plastic fillers. never would have suspected this. don't like it in principle but there's good and there's good enough. I'll be sure to watch out for that if I ever get around to buying furniture.

My painters use bondo in place of wood filler quite often. It really does create a smooth finish. There were spots in my last house we lived in for 11 years and they were just as smooth at the end and paint still looked great.

It's one thing to use Bondo to hide end grain in a painted surface, and another thing to use it to cover up gaps and misalignments in finished carpentry due to poor workmanship .

you can see from the green color just how much we had to cover up. it's a total disaster. but doesn't affect integrity so I'll live with it for now. he didn't even acknowledge the problem or that we improved it. what ego. I hate working with people who are blinded by their ego. they'll make the same mistakes a billion times and call their work high quality.

Sindy, I'm glad you came up with solution. Hopefully the rest of the build will go better.

It would be interesting to see if any glue blocks were used to ensure the long run stability of this diy staircase.

Glue blocks.

Love how the top tread is level with the floor above. And I do admire your patience!

worthy - I will climb under the stairs and see if i can get the answer to that. That is a great question. The top is level only because they sanded it down to the same level.

Sindy-

I will be interested to see how it looks and what you think when it is all painted. It was unfortunate how this was first done, but I'm keeping an open mind about the final result :-).

Agree with kudzu - you've put more thought and sweat equity into this fix than your builder did that's for sure. I hope it works out well and you are satisfied in the end.

I think worthy just found out why your stairs stick out one tread at the bottom..... that top step shouldn't exist. And if it didn't, your stairs would end flush with the wall - as planned. (IIRC that was another issue with the stairs that you called out as a problem)

Yep.

Master stair-builder at work.

*****

This is a perfect illustration of why I've always used stair-building companies that build off-site and install. (And even then, I've had the odd one go back for correction.)

One of the issues is that the final, highest rister and tread should have been the second floor framing, and not another riser and tread on the stair stringer. That made the stairs longer by around 10"-12".

yep... the architect forgot to shrink the stairs when the city lopped off 2 feet. oh well.

this is what's under the stairs. might not enough room for machines if it was shrunk. though I have to say in general this entire room got screwed up as well because the sink was supposed to be under the stairs not the laundry machines.

"...yep... the architect forgot to shrink the stairs when the city lopped off 2 feet. oh well..."

No...I'm guessing the builder simply didn't construct and install the stairs properly.

I think he sanded some of the filler off at the corners. ugh. but I think this shows that it would be a fixable problem by somebody with high skill levels and attention to detail.