Hardwood acceptable for garage->kitchen stairs?

[recurvearcher]

Here on the west coast it's common to find red oak used as transoms for entry doors. They just require normal maintenance to prevent the blackening of the grain from moisture.

[a1gutterman]

Red oak is commonly used for thresholds. When new, with a finish applied, it is very durable. Even after use, when the finish has been worn from foot traffic, it holds up well. Oak is also commonly used for pallets: Unfinished and often left in the weather. It may discolor, but it lasts a long time.

[reible]

Hi

If I'm understand this right you have a garage and the entryway to the house is by way of a couple of steps into the house, is that correct? So the steps will be inside and the only weather would be tracked in rain/snow/mud and the likes?

I'm also guessing that the stringer is maybe 2x8 out of pine or such sitting on the concrete of the garage floor?

Are you then looking to upgrade the looks of the steps with the oak or maybe match the flooring in the house? If so is the sill on that door also oak and matching?

If it were me and I wanted the entry to match I would replace the door sill and the threads and try and save the stringers.

If I wanted to just replace just the threads I'd go with yellow pine pre-mades and paint and get the plastic guards/noses for protection. Called a good Midwesterner solution.

If you want to go the full boat and make the stringers I check to see how oak and concrete like to be next to each other... oak is an acidic wood and concrete is very basic... no direct reference I can give you but I would check it out before sticking them together to sit for the next 20-30 years.

Chuck made a good point on the oak test... however without looking this up I think there are nearly 500 species of oak... maybe Chuck knows the number off the top of his head.

Ed

Hi,

I have not really "stairs" but 2 "steps" from the garage to the kitchen. They are aging OSB or some other composite wood, and are starting to look really bad.

I have enough recycled scraps of Oak (probably red oak, I think) to build these steps. They would not ever get direct rain, but they would see temps from the 10s to the 90s during the four seasons. If I account for wood expansion in the design, is oak a good wood here? Or should I go for some ultra-stable wood?

Your opinions welcome....

[nuhobby]

Hi Ed,

Your description is correct. I do have some ignorance on the exact construction method. Rather than stringers & step-boards, it is more like a large torsion-box ('step A') with a smaller box ('step B') on top of it. All in this ugly OSB painted green and chipping away with the "sands of time."

It's very cold now so I haven't pried around to see how these things mount to the wall or the concrete floor. Good point on the wood/concrete chemistry; I'll keep that in mind.

(Right now, sounds better to stay in the warm basement and work on a pen....)

[reible]

I hate to tell you this but it sounds like the builder had put in a temporary system and never got back to putting the real ones in. What you describe minus the paint is what my son had in his new house until the end when they put the real steps in a few days before final inspection....

Ed

[a1gutterman]

Whatever wood you use, put down some "tar" paper or moisture barrier, between the wood and the concrete, EVEN if you use treated wood.

[nuhobby]

Hi again,

Thanks for all the tips! Finally I got around to this job. I used some recycled oak (for steps) and recycled cedar (for risers). I basically pre-fabbed all the new step pieces, then started demolishing the old junk. Then the new steps went in pretty fast.

Here shown is the new set of steps (with part of the old Green OSB sitting across them).

(Spring is Here)

[Gene Howe]

A way to tell weather wood is white or red oak (besides the color, which sometimes is very similar) is to rip a piece of each wood about 12" long, submerse one end in a tub of water and blow on the other end. Red oak will make bubbles from the end under water,white oak will only get wet.

Wow! I did not know that. That's really interesting. Gonna try it, too.

[recurvearcher]

The steps look great!

[a1gutterman]

Anti skid strips too!