Basement Stairway Makeover – Demo

I’m renovating my basement stairway and I’m SO excited. I’ve done so much work in the basement and it’s a space I love to be in. The stairs to get down there are just so boring. Hallways and stairs deserve some love and attention too! I’m so excited for this basement stairway makeover!

Here’s what I’m starting with:

(Hi Moose)

The plan is to totally transform the stairway. We’ve got some banged up walls, carpet, and lighting that I’m just dying to replace.

I want to continue the basement flooring up the stairs, add a stair runner, and install some fun wallpaper!

Flooring

The flooring we are using is LVP by CALI. The color is Golden Hour Oak. This is the third flooring I’ve used from them and they’re just so good! We are using the same basement flooring that I installed last year.

Carpet Removal

I started by ripping up the carpet.

This part is so easy, honestly. The carpet and carpet padding are just held in by staples. You have to give it a pretty good tug at the edge, but once you get a good grip on it, it’s super easy to remove!

Tack Strips & Staples

Ripping up the tack strips and staples is the worst part. I started by using a chisel and hammer. I wedged the chisel between the tack strip and the stair and lightly tapped.

But THEN I remembered I had a pry bar! This cut the time in half! It took a total of 5 minutes to remove all the tack strips and staples with the pry bar.

A hot tip!

Slide your pry bar around like a crazy person to remove the staples. Then, pry tack strips close to the nail heads so they all come up in one piece.

Stair Nose Removal

I had to cut off the stair noses with my jigsaw so the new flooring can fit onto the steps. If I just added another stair nose onto it, it would stick out way too far. Our new stairs already have a nose attached to them!

I marked with a pencil where the nose ends and just chopped it off with my jigsaw!

I put in a “fast cut wood” blade. This just seems to be the easiest to use. I can get super close to the edge and then just yank it right out!

Why not stain the steps as is?

While working on this project, I had a handful of people ask why I don’t just stain the steps as is. They are covered in paint and it’s the crappy, rough, knotty pine subfloor. But, that is what I did to the entryway steps! I filled in and sanded and painted over it all.

The basement stairs just needed a total makeover!

I can’t wait to install these stairs!

Here’s everything I wore this week for my basement stairway demo!