# Forum Home Renovation Stairs, Steps and Ramps  Easy way to add risers to open tread stairs?

## Hoolio68

Hi there, hoping some chippies may be able to help...we have open tread interior stairs with a plywood backing that have been painted in a light colour. Not only does it really show dirt and wear and tear, we have a curious young toddler, and would like to carpet down the centre of the stairs to minimise future fall impacts! This is tricky to do on open tread, so I'm wanting to know an easy way to add risers to these stairs, given there is not much access behind the stairs. Can they be pre-painted and then glued or is there a way of attaching that won't show on the treads? Thanks!!  :2thumbsup:

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## rhancock

Pocket hole screws can be used to fix risers.  Have a look at the review here.  If you search for posts by Dean on the Woodwork forum, you should find a post about these stairs.  I've seen them and they look great!

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## Ronaldo451

You might be able to screw battens along the underneath front of the treads, recessed by the depth of your infill material, to give you something for the risers to screw into but then you would be relying upon glue to hold the base of the riser in place so you'd need to tell the carpet layer to go easy on them. Alternatively you could run 2 or 3 battens depthways under the tread with an overhang at the back for the riser of the step above to rest on - that would give a bit extra support and gluing surface (I never like relying just on glue). 
Either way the risers could be prepainted with a bit of a patch up later on the screw holes.

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