Exterior wood staircase rebuild in Los Angeles — a 14-step run leading up to a second-floor entrance. The original wood stair had reached the end of its service life: rotted stringers in two spots, tread splits that were catching heels, and railings that had gone soft around the mounting bolts. We tore the whole thing out and rebuilt it from framing to finish, with warm-brown composite-board treads and fresh white square-baluster railings on both sides.
The job
Second-floor exterior entrance stair, open on one side and against the house wall on the other. Fourteen risers, straight run, no landings. The homeowner wanted the look of stained wood — that warm honey-brown you see on classic California wood stairs — without having to restain the treads every year and without fighting dry-rot in the wettest months.
Why composite treads
Real wood treads on an LA exterior stair are a known maintenance job. Summer sun opens the grain and fades the stain. Winter rain gets into any failed finish, then into the wood itself, then under the fasteners. Every year or two you are either restaining or chasing a soft spot.
Composite board — a wood-plastic composite with a woodgrain-pressed surface and a warm brown color pigmented all the way through — reads as stained wood from a few feet away but does not need staining, does not rot, and does not swell at the fastener holes. It handles the LA sun-rain cycle without the yearly touch-up. The trade-off is a slightly firmer feel underfoot and a faint plastic sheen up close, which most homeowners decide they can live with for the maintenance savings.
What we built
Pressure-treated stringers sized for the span and the live load, bolted into the existing ledger at the top and anchored to a concrete pad at the bottom. Fresh risers and nosings in matching composite. Treads bolted down from above with concealed structural fasteners so the heads sit flush and there is nothing to catch on.
- 14 risers, straight run, warm-brown composite treads with woodgrain texture
- Pressure-treated structural framing — stringers, ledger, blocking
- White square-baluster railings on both sides, code-height, with graspable top rail
- Grape-vine trellis along the house-side wall left in place and reset against the new structure
White square-baluster railings
Railings are a vinyl-sleeved wood system — a wood core for strength, bright white vinyl sleeves on the balusters and top-and-bottom rails so there is no painting to chase. Square balusters at code spacing on both sides, run continuously from bottom to top with a graspable top rail. The posts anchor through the tread into the stringer below so the rail has real pull-out resistance, not just surface screws.
Project summary
- Scope: full exterior stair rebuild — demo, framing, treads, risers, railings
- Run: 14 risers, straight, second-floor entrance
- Treads: warm-brown composite board, woodgrain texture, concealed structural fasteners
- Structure: pressure-treated stringers, ledger-attached at top, anchored to concrete at the base
- Railings: vinyl-sleeved square-baluster, white, both sides, graspable top rail
- Finish: no staining required — composite holds color through LA sun and winter rain
Planning a stair rebuild or want a composite-vs-wood walk-through for your property? Get in touch — send a photo of the existing stair and the run, we reply with a ballpark the same day.