If you are considering redoing your stair railing, it is likely you will need to decide what to do with your current stair treads. Ripping out old railings, like balusters, leaves holes in the existing treads. This leaves you with the time consuming option of sanding, refilling, and refinishing your treads, or simply replacing the current steps with brand new, pre-finished treads.
Each tread is crafted in our facilities in the USA by expert craftsmen and craftswomen who take great pride in the finished product. Utilizing top-of-the-line machinery, high-grade lumber, and furniture-quality finishes, the wood stair parts are of the highest quality. Check out our tread offering and find the perfect surface for your next modern stair railing. Wood species with a Janka rating of 950 and higher are recommended for treads.
Thick Treads
Modern thick treads are quickly becoming very popular options for any open stair system. The tread’s solid construction and thick body provide a strong, durable surface. These are often featured in floating stair systems, such as Viewrail FLIGHT*, and are a design centerpiece. Thick treads come in a standard butcher block or beautiful Cascade tread.
Tread Visualizer Tool
To learn more about some of our most popular wood species and finishing options, check out our Tread Visualizer Tool.
Thick Tread Products
*Please note, thick treads used with our FLIGHT system will differ in price due to the custom routing and manufacturing process.
1″ Modern Stair Treads
1” Treads are the industry standard for most staircases. Most stairs are built with 1” thick treads in mind as they provide a cost effective, but durable surface. Typically, these are used on either a new construction stringer, or when completely replacing existing treads. They are designed to fasten directly to the stringer or stair structure.
Replacement Treads
Replacement treads are typically used to refinish the surface of an existing tread or similar surface. They are designed with a thinner body to sit over the top of an existing surface, and have the thicker nosing of the tread overhang. Many times they are placed directly on the construction treads. If you are not wanting to rip out the existing structure, these are the perfect treads.
Risers
Risers are decorative products used on any enclosed staircase to help pass code. Sometimes called kick plates, risers are installed vertically between stair treads or replacement stair treads on traditional stairways. Stain-grade, high-quality wood is formed and finished to blend effortlessly into your stair design.
The 1” tread is used when there is no substructure tread in place, and when you are tearing out the existing tread. The replacement tread is used when you are keeping the existing substructure or tread and simply need a new tread to slide over place.
Any wood species with a janka rating of 900 or above is considered a good option to use for tread material. As a product designed to withstand repeated and concentrated foot track, it is important to use a dense enough wood to withstand years of use.
Regardless of whether you use tread returns or not, the width of your tread should match the width of the surface you need to cover. This is called the “throat cut.” Returns are additional pieces designed to overhang open space, and are not included in the tread width dimension.
A tread return is additional material on the left or right side of the tread body that is designed to overhang “open space.” These are rounded to match the front of the step, or bullnose, and provide a beautiful finished edge. Each return is 1 ¼” wide, and is additional to your tread width. For example, if you select a 36” tread with returns on both sides, the total tread width including the returns would be 38 ½”.
Tread depth is the total front to back measurement of the tread. Unlike tread returns, the 1 ¼” front nosing is included in this measurement. For example, if you have a 11 ¼” deep tread, only 10” of that measurement is designed to sit on the structure.
Tread Wood Grain Variation
Completed FLIGHT Projects
Viewrail Durability Guarantee
Viewrail products are built to last, and backed up by one of the best warranties in the industry.
10 year structural warranty | 5 or 10 year finish warranty*
*Applies to all products that are installed by a Viewrail installation technician.