Sprucing up a staircase might seem like a chore, but replacing wood stair treads might be easier that you though. Here's what you need to know.

Tried-and-True Advice “A lot of the time, wooden stairs start squeaking due to fluctuating humidity levels, which cause the stair treads and risers to shrink or expand.

A reader’s puppy chewed through the wood — and wood filler — on this stair tread. There are a few solutions to this problem, such as using faux paint on the patch, covering the tread with ...

Q: My puppy chewed through the wood on a stair tread. My husband put in some wood filler as a temporary fix, but it’s white and looks awful.

Hardwood stair treads are primarily finished by hand. You may be able to use a belt sander on a wide portion of the flat tread, but you must be very careful not to sand too much wood.

Stairs are similar to wood floors in this way: On a set of stairs, there is flooring that your feet walk on, called treads. Many stairs also have risers, which are the vertical surfaces rising ...

The treads and risers can also be cut from treated lumber, but are often made from whatever material is used for decking, such as cedar, redwood, composite lumber, PVC boards, or exotic hardwood.

If the stair-tread finish is intact with no bare wood showing, you can restore it to like-new condition with a good cleaning.

Common techniques are to paint the whole staircase a single color or to use two contrasting colors for the stair treads (the horizontal parts) and the risers (the vertical parts).