Custom Stair Case Build (Lots of Pics)

This is a project my father and I have been working on since June for my wife and I house will just moved into this past summer.  It has been such a fun project and it turned out so awesome that I had to share it with you guys.  Hopefully we will be putting the final touches on it this weekend.

Started by making the treads that I refurbished out of the rafters of the house that my wife's grandmas house she was born in.  I've estimated that when the wood was a tree it had to be at least 250 years old.  Here is what it looked like before we started.



We ran these through a planner to clean them up since they had been sitting in my father in laws barn for about 30 years.  The stuff was so hard that we had to flip the blades every three boards.



After the planner we cut them to about the width we wanted for the treads.  Had to glue and lag two together to get the depth we needed.



Once the glued dried I found a place that had a large wire brush machine that could clean out the soft would that was in the grain.  This would allow there to be some grip to the wood.  After that we sprayed on a clear coat sealer to help prevent splintering of the wood.



Meanwhile we were also installing our stringer for these to sit on.  We had a local company make us 2 C channel beams and risers.  I painted these will black Rustoleum hammered finish paint.  If you have never used or seen this paint, I would highly recommend it.  It is a very cool paint.  We had to get the beams in place first before we put the risers on.  The two channels alone combined for 425 pounds.  We used a "pulley-man" device to get it lifted up into place.




After getting this secured to the wall and floor we moved on to installing the risers and used temp treads to help get them level and lined up.





After this was getting the actual treads on.



Next step was to prevent someone from falling into the hole for the basement stairs.  We fabricated all the railing for this at my dads machine shop.  We bought the stainless steel rope and fitting online.  I painted the posted and hand rail with the same hammered finish black paint.



Now it was time to get the hand rail going up the stairs completed.  Also, the little one is now crawling all over the place so we need to put a gate up so she wouldn't fall down the basement stairs.  We used self closing hinges we found on amazon with a locking latch.



Finished painting the rail for the loft last night and will hopefully be getting it up this weekend.  I'll post pictures of the final when we get it up.  Feel free to ask any questions.