Advice and encouragement needed - staircase project

[Lurvnos]

Now that the upper floor is starting to look finished, the staircase looks even worse. The house was moved in 1920 and has a timber frame. The stairs had glued plastic carpet which I painstakingly removed. Underneath the carpet, it looks really dull, with gaps, wear, and crooked nails. Everything is loosely attached and it creaks so infernally. Initially, I planned to invest in step kits, but now I'm feeling more radical, replace the whole mess! The post around which the stairs curve is also ugly and skewed, it would be nice to replace it with a straight one. The steps are now made of tongue and groove wood 33mm thick, and I'm thinking of doing the same, gluing tongue and groove boards together, cutting out the same shape, and replacing the old steps. I plan to use glued laminated wood for the vertical pieces, as they will be painted later. There is no stringer, the steps are set into the timber wall and the center post. I'm thinking of first removing the vertical boards, replacing the center post, and then swapping one step at a time to not be without stairs during the construction. Does the new wood need extra drying beforehand? Will it be more dimensionally stable if relatively narrow boards are used, so they warp less? Anything else to consider? Creak prevention? Glue+screws? Grateful for tips and advice.

 

[David]

If you already have a stable framework, I would recommend "cladding" the stairs with worktops from Bauhaus. Gypsum the side and you'll have the cheapest and nicest stairs you can get. Material cost 2-3,000 SEK.

Best regards,
David

 

[Lurvnos]

Thank you, David! In fact, I have already been to the lumberyard and came home with 36 lm of 28x110 tongue and groove. I also ordered a 90x90 glue-laminated beam for a post, which should arrive in 5 days. Budget so far: 620 SEK for the wood and 300 for the glue-laminated beam. With some odds & ends, I should manage under 2000. I'm currently working on chipping away through tretex and old beadboard to expose the steps all the way to the timbers. 30 degrees hot, phew! The wood will rest for a few weeks, then I'll mount the steps with just one screw at each end. Next summer, I'll screw it together properly and sand the steps, which should have settled by then. It wouldn't be bad with furniture-dry wood, stored for 30 years... Well, according to the guy at the lumberyard, the wood I bought was initially dried to 7.5%.