basement-refinishingstairs
Stairs into basement
I'm not sure how the skirt-board should mate into the base molding? (Is this correct?)
And most important, where should I end the vertical cut from the stair nose (see arrow below)?
The wall will just be finished smooth with a drywall corner piece and mud finishing off the wall and ceiling. I'm not planning on putting in trim at this time.
The original contractor had cut the tread too short and I thought this would be a great finish to a mistake I'm stuck with.
The top step is not a tread. It's flooring. You buy the stair nose as part of your flooring purchase, not the stairway build. Most manufacturers of hardwood will provide a matching stair nose, but you may have to order it.
Note that the stair nose is a groove. You can also purchase a double-tongue that will slip in that groove converting it to a tongue should you need to.
Skirt boards are one of the hardest things in my opinion to do. I can rip apart a bathroom and have it put back together in 2-3 days and it might take me the same amount of time to make a couple of long stair skirts. All of your stairs wont be the exact same measurements, walls are not perfectly flat... One of the things that I source out now for sure.
The short answer is it depends. If the staircase will be carpeted or if there is no overhang on the treads then the answer is tread first. Basically this is faster because your treads don't have to be perfect. Also your skirt doesn't have to be perfect.
If your stairs will be showing the treads or if there is an overhang I would suggest installing the skirt and then the treads. This will give you a cleaner look. Also good luck notching out the skirt to match all of the overhangs on the tread if you decided to do it last.
Best Answer
I think this is a perfectly good solution as pictured. You could, I suppose, run a little longer at the yellow arrow, but I don't think you'd want to go all the way to a point.
The only thing that offends this trim carpenter is the direction of the grain... I'd have done it in line with the angle of the stairs. (So no end grain on top.)
But a bit of paint, coupled with the fact that this is the stairwell to the basement and anybody else looking at it will think it's marvelous... well, I'd say you're done.