As such, aim to find stair treads that leave roughly 1-2 inches of empty space on the sides and no more than 1 inch of empty space on the top and bottom. Most stair treads are 22-36 inches long ...

Instead, my treads were like a porous, MDF kind of wood. Also, there was a gap on either end of the stair pieces because of how they left room for the house to settle – my gaps were huge!