How to Raise Stair Treads to Fix Uneven Steps

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When we added new flooring in our 1970’s home remodel, it made the top basement stair taller than the others. See how we easily and quickly raised the stair treads to fix the uneven steps and correct the rise of the staircase. 

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Fixing Uneven Stair Steps by Raising Stair Treads

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As I mentioned in the basement remodel update, our basement stairs were uneven after we added new flooring in the upstairs. The bottom stair was also shorter than the others to begin with.

This might be an old-house remodel quirk that some people would just choose to shrug and live with, but I wanted to fix it! #youmightberemodelaholic 😉

Here’s what the stairs looked like in the last video update:

basement remodel - fixing uneven stairs

Our top stair was about 2 inches taller, and the bottom stair was about 2 inches shorter, so we needed to update the rise of the stairs to make nice even steps.

After some thought and planning, we came up with an easy and relatively quick way to do it! So here’s what they look like now:

Basement Remodel, Fix Uneven Stairs By Raising Steps, Remodelaholic

Note that we are putting carpet on the stairs, so this stair tread fix didn’t need to be pretty since it will be covered by the carpet.

Prep for the Stair Remodel

We had already removed all the old carpet, so that was done before I started working on the stair remodel.

Raising the steps also meant that we needed to remove the handrail, since it was now 2″ too low. I removed that and patched all the holes.

We’re going to refinish the original handrail to match the now-visible open beams in the basement ceiling before reinstalling with new hardware, since the old hardware was breaking.

How to Easily Raise Stair Treads Without Removing the Old Tread

Rather than demoing the old staircase or removing the original treads, I just built new treads right on top.

If you watch the remodel update from a couple weeks ago, you can actually see the first step already done!

  1. I trimmed the old stair tread to the same depth as the stair riser. We cut off about 1 1/4″ using a circular saw.
  2. I layered 2 pieces of 7/16″ OSB, cut to fit the stair, and glued and screwed those together and to the old trimmed tread.
  3. Then I added the new bullnose 1″ wood stair tread on top, and glued and screwed it in place.

Quick And Easy Way To Raise Stairs To Fix Uneven Steps, Basement Staircase Reno, Remodelaholic

These new stair treads are SOLID!

Depending on the height you need to add to balance out the heights of your stair steps, you might not need all the layers that I did.

What did it cost?

A few sheets of OSB (plus what I already had on hand) cost $75-100, and each stair tread was around $10. So our 13 stairs cost around $130 for treads. Grand total around $250 in materials.

How To Raise Steps To Fix Uneven Stair Rise, Basement Stair Remodel, Remodelaholic

What’s Next in our Basement Remodel

We’re going to sand and paint to finish all the walls and finish the lighting before we get the carpet installed.

Be sure to subscribe to see our basement progress — next I’ll be sharing how we hung our new custom doors!

See more DIY stair remodels and makeover ideas here.

Fix Uneven Stairs Without Demolishing Staircase, Basement Stairway Remodel #remodelaholic

 

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