Can I put solid wood treads on my existing staircase?

Usually yes, if the underlying stair structure is sound, and it is a good upgrade — solid treads wear well and can be refinished later. The cost is in the fitting rather than the material. Stringers in production-built houses are rarely square, so each tread gets scribed individually rather than cut to a nominal size, and the nosing profile has to stay consistent all the way to the landing.

Does a glued-down wood floor need expansion space?

Yes, and it is the detail that gets missed on big open-plan downstairs areas. Wood expands with humidity even when it is bonded to the slab, and if the perimeter has no room to accommodate that — including behind trim and around the base of the stairs — the pressure has to go somewhere. That usually means peaking somewhere in the middle of the great room. The gap is hidden under the base and quarter round; leaving it out is not a saving.

Hardwood Installation in Spring, TX

County: Harris County
Drive time from our base: 30 min from our Montgomery crews

Free measure in Spring (713) 377-1303

What hardwood installation involves in Spring

The hardwood question in Spring is nearly always about a staircase and a landing, because that is what these two-story houses actually need. The most common request is a wood or wood-look floor downstairs with a matching stair treatment, and the stair is where the specification gets decided.

Solid hardwood treads on a staircase are a genuinely good product and they are the right answer where the existing stair structure is sound — they wear well, they can be refinished, and they look substantial in a way applied materials do not. The work is in the fit. Stringers in these production-built houses are rarely perfectly square, treads have to be scribed rather than cut to a nominal dimension, and the nosing profile has to be consistent from the bottom step to the landing.

On the floor itself, the slab-age question applies as it does across this region: houses in this area built before the mid-1990s frequently have no vapor retarder under the slab, so moisture testing comes first and engineered glue-down is the specification. A detail specific to these open-plan two-stories is that the downstairs is usually one continuous field wrapping around a stairwell, and wood expands. Running that whole area with no expansion accommodation at the perimeter — including behind the base of the stair — is how a glued floor peaks in the middle of a great room.

The job we run most here

Engineered glue-down across an open downstairs in a Champions or Northgate Forest two-story, with solid wood stair treads scribed individually to out-of-square stringers.

What it costs in Spring

Engineered flooring runs $9–$16 installed. Stair treads are priced per tread and the fitting is the cost — production-built stringers are rarely square and every tread is scribed rather than cut to a standard dimension.

What’s included

Wood supplied and delivered ahead of the install date so it can acclimate in your house
On-site acclimation before installation
Moisture testing of slab and subfloor
Solid nail-down and engineered glue-down
Stair treads, risers, and custom nosing
Trim, transitions, and finish work

Materials we supply for this

Questions we get in Spring

Can I put solid wood treads on my existing staircase?: Usually yes, if the underlying stair structure is sound, and it is a good upgrade — solid treads wear well and can be refinished later. The cost is in the fitting rather than the material. Stringers in production-built houses are rarely square, so each tread gets scribed individually rather than cut to a nominal size, and the nosing profile has to stay consistent all the way to the landing.
Does a glued-down wood floor need expansion space?: Yes, and it is the detail that gets missed on big open-plan downstairs areas. Wood expands with humidity even when it is bonded to the slab, and if the perimeter has no room to accommodate that — including behind trim and around the base of the stairs — the pressure has to go somewhere. That usually means peaking somewhere in the middle of the great room. The gap is hidden under the base and quarter round; leaving it out is not a saving.

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