Clad reinforced concrete stairs with wooden treads, one side open.

Hello everyone,

we are currently in the middle of the shell construction of our house and have decided on a concrete staircase, whose treads we want to cover with wood. The basic idea is that we only set the tread flush with the edge and leave the rest in concrete, then paint it white. On the open side, a floor-to-ceiling glass wall will be installed. We would like to finish the wall side without a baseboard, only with an acrylic joint.

Is it basically feasible to implement it this way, or will it be difficult? I am especially concerned about the open side, that the transition from the tread to the concrete looks clean. Would it be advantageous here if the tread protrudes beyond the concrete? I must admit that I can hardly find any pictures online where it was implemented this way. In most cases, the riser was also made of white MDF. But even here I wonder how it is neatly processed on the side?

Thank you in advance for your tips!

For understanding, the steps are supposed to be solid wood? So a block step? Or with parquet? We had our staircase clad with parquet, but continuously, meaning both tread and riser. The "open side" was filled, wallpapered with fleece, and painted. The edge was covered with an aluminum profile. I wouldn't leave the concrete and paint it white... that won't be clean.

It should be a block step with 3cm.

Thank you for your feedback. Unfortunately, I also suspect that it won't work with the concrete like that.

Do you have an overhang on the tread, or is it flush with the riser?

Is the staircase already in place? So, with the last concrete staircases I saw in the shell construction stage, it quickly became clear that you can't just paint them. In my opinion, some kind of plaster has to be applied. Also because there are often bubbles or bumps, and it simply looks very uneven.

No, no overhang since we laid the parquet continuously.

With a block step you can do both. With overhang or without. With overhang the connection to the stairs is less noticeable. Just look at the concrete of your stairs. Normally you have small holes or "stones" protruding everywhere. You wouldn't have ordered it as exposed concrete stairs. Of course, you could also grind it, but that's a work without pleasure tax. Therefore, fill, fleece, paint. However, I would reconsider whether I want that on the risers. What do you think they will look like after a short time? So rather a white wooden riser.