Carpet to wood stairs

[FauxHydon]

Hi,

I'm doing some redecorating on my stairs. I have removed the carpet that used to be on there and luckily the wood is in good enough condition so I won't have to replace the treads and risers.

I have two questions;
1. How do I fix the stairs as they are squeaking very loudly. I have no access to the back/underneath the stairs. I have seen videos of people fixing it but it seems risky as if it doesn't work, it will damage the wood eg. putting screws in the corners of the riser into the wall on either side. I was thinking about taking the nails out and replacing them but it would be difficult to do without damaging the stairs and I think they would be visible after staining.

2. After sanding the stairs down, are they in any condition to be stained? I'm torn between staining the stairs walnut (to match the laminate upstairs) or painting them brown but I don't know how it would look. How can I tell whether the stairs are in good enough condition to stain? I have never stained wood before.

I have attached some pictures of the stairs for reference. You can see what they look like before and after sanding (quite a lot of sanding). Would they look bad stained? I'm planning to paint the risers white, so the only issue I have is the risers.

I'm asking as I have no experience with this so if anyone with prior experience could shed some light, it would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.

 

[johnny2007]

The line on the risers will always be visible, so buy a few sheets of 5.5mm plywood and line them.
The steps are easy sanded and stained.
Finish it off with a couple of coats of floor varnish.
For the squeaking I can only suggest to get access to the underside, there's always a way even if it needs removing plasterboard.
It's unlikely that they bricked off access completely.

 

[fans]

You really need to get access to the back of the stairs to glue and screw bead to joints, you really should not have the underside of the stairs inaccessible, they might have dry rot in the stair treads for all you know which is making them squeak.. You will need to put a fire retardent plasterboard sheet on the underside though when you have got access

 

[Tigercubrider]

There are also cheap and expensive stair capping systems.
Fix the creaks and use laminate/solid timber cladding