Hi, i'm looking to hardwood my stair treads and not sure what type of
wood to use. The floors i have are a honey colored birch and i was
told, after the fact, the birch is a soft wood and not suitable for
stairs. So now i want to do the stairs and match the existing floors.
The stairs now are carpet. Any advice on this and on installation wood
be appriciated, as my name says, I NONOTHING. Thank You
[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >I doubt the wear would be noticed to any extent even in 30 years
> >unless house traffic was incredibly heavy and abusive. While different
> >birch woods have different hardness values, and we don't know which
> >birch was used (honey birch is a stain), it is a decently hard
> >wood...can't find my Janka scale right now, but...should be fine.
I'm curious. If you take the carpeting of the stairs to show the
stained birch,
are you going to leave the treads open or put a runner down the
stairs? It might
be the difference in what your looking for.
Lou
On Jan 5, 12:36 pm, "Leon" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "nonothing" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:6244a4e5-0f80-4c99-ae3e-26b106ed8651@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Hi, i'm looking to hardwood my stair treads and not sure what type of
> > wood to use. The floors i have are a honey colored birch and i was
> > told, after the fact, the birch is a soft wood and not suitable for
> > stairs. So now i want to do the stairs and match the existing floors.
> > The stairs now are carpet. Any advice on this and on installation wood
> > be appriciated, as my name says, I NONOTHING. Thank
>
> Yellow Birch on the Janka Scale has a 1260 hardness rating.
>
> Red Oak, 1290, and is a common wood used in this application.
>
> Hard, Sugar Maple has a 1450 and has a very similar grain to Birch.
Good suggestion. The two are changed off in cabinetry with some
frequency.
On Jan 5, 9:53 am, "Edwin Pawlowski" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "nonothing" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:6244a4e5-0f80-4c99-ae3e-26b106ed8651@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Hi, i'm looking to hardwood my stair treads and not sure what type of
> > wood to use. The floors i have are a honey colored birch and i was
> > told, after the fact, the birch is a soft wood and not suitable for
> > stairs. So now i want to do the stairs and match the existing floors.
> > The stairs now are carpet. Any advice on this and on installation wood
> > be appriciated, as my name says, I NONOTHING. Thank You
>
> My son's house had pine for the stair treads and the wear is noticeable. Of
> course, it may make a difference since his house was built in 1752 and these
> are original.
>
> Birch would not be my first choice from scratch but if I wanted to match the
> rest of the house, I'd go with it and worry about the wear in 25 or 30 years
> from now. If you are diligent about keeping a coat or three of poly on them,
> the poly will take the wear before the wood. You can play with other light
> hardwoods and stains to get what you want. Maple would be a good choice as
> it is light colored.
I doubt the wear would be noticed to any extent even in 30 years
unless house traffic was incredibly heavy and abusive. While different
birch woods have different hardness values, and we don't know which
birch was used (honey birch is a stain), it is a decently hard
wood...can't find my Janka scale right now, but...should be fine. If
the OP is interested in more depth, he can Google "Janka scale" or
just "Janka" and see the wood's relative hardness.
On Jan 5, 5:49=A0am, nonothing <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi, i'm looking to hardwood my stair treads and not sure what type of
> wood to use. The floors i have are a honey colored birch
Stair treads have to be thick wood, typically 5/4 lumber or thicker,
but you only need 'short' pieces. That means the local wood market
has already decided what dried woods are available this year
(and they decided at the lumber mill two years ago).
Ask at a millwork shop, or at a good lumber supplier, you
might find the affordable options very limited.
If it isn't a match for your floors, finish it to add contrast.
Claim, in future years, that this was always your clever plan...
On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 07:18:23 -0800 (PST), Charlie Self
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
>I doubt the wear would be noticed to any extent even in 30 years
>unless house traffic was incredibly heavy and abusive. While different
>birch woods have different hardness values, and we don't know which
>birch was used (honey birch is a stain), it is a decently hard
>wood...can't find my Janka scale right now, but...should be fine.
I agree. The birches I've used are pretty hard and durable.
When birch is cheaper, I've used lots of it in place of maple,a nd I
doubt many can tell the difference.
"nonothing" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:6244a4e5-0f80-4c99-ae3e-26b106ed8651@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Hi, i'm looking to hardwood my stair treads and not sure what type of
> wood to use. The floors i have are a honey colored birch and i was
> told, after the fact, the birch is a soft wood and not suitable for
> stairs. So now i want to do the stairs and match the existing floors.
> The stairs now are carpet. Any advice on this and on installation wood
> be appriciated, as my name says, I NONOTHING. Thank
Yellow Birch on the Janka Scale has a 1260 hardness rating.
Red Oak, 1290, and is a common wood used in this application.
Hard, Sugar Maple has a 1450 and has a very similar grain to Birch.
> I'm curious. If you take the carpeting of the stairs to show the
> stained birch,
> are you going to leave thetreadsopen or put a runner down the
> stairs? It might
> be the difference in what your looking for.
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Lou
Wow! did this "soft" thing open a can.
I was hoping to find out the best type of wood to use as stair treads.
Plywood is what is under the carpet now and I will be adding a runner,
I believe.
As to the whole "soft" thing, as stated earlier, I was talking about
the hardness and suitability for stair tread not the origins.
Now having read all the posts I can assume that as long as I keep
polying every so often and with the runner Birch would not be a bad
thing to use.
Ross Hebeisen wrote:
> birch is not a soft wood, soft wood is conifer
> which has needles, birch has leaves.
While correct, the discussion here is on actual "hardness" of the wood
itself, not the classification of the tree.
Actually, common US NE birches are about the same hardness as maples
other than soft maple.
See...
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/HardwoodNA/htmlDocs/betula1.html
http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/TechSheets/HardwoodNA/htmlDocs/acersp11.html
--
Charlie Self wrote:
...
> I doubt the wear would be noticed to any extent even in 30 years
> unless house traffic was incredibly heavy and abusive. While different
> birch woods have different hardness values, and we don't know which
> birch was used (honey birch is a stain), it is a decently hard
> wood...can't find my Janka scale right now, but...should be fine. If
> the OP is interested in more depth, he can Google "Janka scale" or
> just "Janka" and see the wood's relative hardness.
I agree Charlie and just posted a couple links for the maples and
birches from the US Forest products site. Wasn't Janka scale, but
serves same purpose.
--
On Jan 5, 11:30 am, [email protected] (Ross Hebeisen) wrote:
> I just wanted t clarify that birch is not a soft wood as it was
> stated. infact some of the hardwoods are much softer than some of the
> soft woods, butternut, basswood as examples.
> ross
Correct. For comparison purposes, paper birch is 970 (Janka), while
white ash is 1320, and hard maple and white oak list at 1450. BUT, and
keep this in mind, sweet birch is 1470.
Charlie Self wrote:
> On Jan 5, 11:30 am, [email protected] (Ross Hebeisen) wrote:
>> I just wanted t clarify that birch is not a soft wood as it was
>> stated. infact some of the hardwoods are much softer than some of the
>> soft woods, butternut, basswood as examples.
>> ross
>
> Correct. For comparison purposes, paper birch is 970 (Janka), while
> white ash is 1320, and hard maple and white oak list at 1450. BUT, and
> keep this in mind, sweet birch is 1470.
Except whoever told OP it was "soft" was pretty clearly talking about
the hardness and suitability for stair tread not the origins (although
as Charlie notes it isn't necessarily so, either) and I suspect OP had
no clue of a "softwood" as opposed to a "soft wood"... :)
--
"Ross Hebeisen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> birch is not a soft wood, soft wood is conifer
> which has needles, birch has leaves.
> ross
>
Balsa is also considered a hard wood. Southern Yellow Pine, a softwood, is
harder than many hard woods.
"nonothing" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:6244a4e5-0f80-4c99-ae3e-26b106ed8651@m34g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> Hi, i'm looking to hardwood my stair treads and not sure what type of
> wood to use. The floors i have are a honey colored birch and i was
> told, after the fact, the birch is a soft wood and not suitable for
> stairs. So now i want to do the stairs and match the existing floors.
> The stairs now are carpet. Any advice on this and on installation wood
> be appriciated, as my name says, I NONOTHING. Thank You
My son's house had pine for the stair treads and the wear is noticeable. Of
course, it may make a difference since his house was built in 1752 and these
are original.
Birch would not be my first choice from scratch but if I wanted to match the
rest of the house, I'd go with it and worry about the wear in 25 or 30 years
from now. If you are diligent about keeping a coat or three of poly on them,
the poly will take the wear before the wood. You can play with other light
hardwoods and stains to get what you want. Maple would be a good choice as
it is light colored.