Prefinish treads in closed stringer stair
I am building a closed stringer stair. I am wondering if I should prefinish the threads and risers before gluing and wedging the parts into the stringer. Does it affect the glue assembly if there is poly in the way?
Replies
depends on the glue
You can pre-finished the exposed faces only w/o adversely affecting your wedged PVA glued joints. Leave the bottom and back sides unfinished in order to bond your raw wood wedges to the treads and stringer mortises. If you're planning on using urethane based PL adhesive, then pre-finishing those components on all sides won't matter much.
Raw wood guled together with PVA is probably a stronger bond than PL bonded to a film finish coat. However, both would probably serve your boxed stair purposes equally well.
Prefinish Stair Treads
In addition to Deadnuts' comments it's a lot easier to prefinish treads and risers before installing. As deadnuts said, just keep the poly off the backs and bottoms.