XP - floors/stairs refinished - update of Can I afford this?

[patbutcher]

I haven't been on gbcn much the last few weeks because I decided to undertake the most ridiculous/time consuming Pinterest project ever. It's finally done.
 
I posted in the "Can I afford this?" thread a few weeks ago that I wanted to get my floors redone which in turn meant the stairs needed done too.
Basically I wanted to get rid of the 90's orange hardwood which would in turn increase the value of my house. I ended up getting the floors done professionally for $1700 but quotes for the stairs ranged from $5000-7000. So, In a fit of craziness and MMness, I decided to DIY them. I tell you, sandpapering 57 spindles is no joke. I told H I am going to pay myself $5K now.

Stairs before:




Stairs after:

[lurknomore]

Incredible! Looks great!

[cajunmom]

Gorgeous!

[xokell2]

Beautiful! I would love to do that to my banister one day

[Bad Dingo]

Wow impressive work!

[raangoli]

That looks great!

I think you've earned a "treat yo' self" something.

[dancingirl21]

That looks amazing! We bought a house and then had major renos done and had the stairs done like that as well. The guys doing the reno said painting stairs like that is so hard. Huge kudos to you for doing it yourself! I can't even imagine.

[patbutcher]

May 22, 2015 14:30:52 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

That looks amazing! We bought a house and then had major renos done and had the stairs done like that as well. The guys doing the reno said painting stairs like that is so hard. Huge kudos to you for doing it yourself! I can't even imagine.

I knew it must be hard because of how much I was quoted but It truly was mindnumbing. I was just wishing I had a couple of teenagers I could pay $2 a spindle to or something. I honestly got depressed at one point as it seemed to never progress.

[WinterWine]

Wow, that's a phenomenal improvement - it looks great!! I also have orange oak everywhere and would love to update! Did you get new floors or did you refinish yours? If you refinished, what type of stain is that? Massive props to you - time to definitely treat yourself

[patbutcher]

May 22, 2015 14:50:13 GMT -5 WinterWine said:

Wow, that's a phenomenal improvement - it looks great!! I also have orange oak everywhere and would love to update! Did you get new floors or did you refinish yours? If you refinished, what type of stain is that? Massive props to you - time to definitely treat yourself

 We got them refinished. It was $1700  instead of 5-10K to get new floors. We used Minwax Dark Walnut. They have a new low VOC one we used and it didn't smell at all. We used a water based poly on the top. (we have a baby so using low Voc stuff was a priority).

[circa1978]

Beautiful! How much square footage did you refinish? 

[patbutcher]

May 22, 2015 15:26:32 GMT -5 circa1978 said:

Beautiful! How much square footage did you refinish? 

Not that much - $500 sq ft. I got a lot of quotes and the cheapest was $1000 so could have got it done for cheaper but this guy lives in my subdivision so I felt more comfortable with him.

[IrishBelle]

What a transformation! You did a great job!

[aurora]

Wow - looks fabulous! And that's coming from someone who usually prefers stained wood to painted.

[lys]

Great job! Looks lovely.

I can appreciate what went into getting from BEFORE to AFTER - I hired out the refinishing of all the hardwood floors (2 floors of it) in our first house and then I refinished all the interior doors, stairs, baseboards and windows & trim work. It took me 2 years (one floor per year) as I worked on it slowly (with 2 small children at the time - that is the only way you can go.)

[Roc A Bee]

That looks amazing!

[scout8]

They look great! How bad was the refinishing while you were living there? I really need to get mine done, but it seems so overwhelming to do while we are living there. Moving everything out and then back in, and the dust. Ugh.

[AAM2012]

Wow!! Looks great!!

[M]

WOW! wow wow wow!

Amazing transformation! You sanded all that in 3 weeks? I'm impressed. It's beautiful.

[patbutcher]

May 23, 2015 22:29:55 GMT -5 scout8 said:

They look great! How bad was the refinishing while you were living there? I really need to get mine done, but it seems so overwhelming to do while we are living there. Moving everything out and then back in, and the dust. Ugh.

Honestly, it was a pain. We ate out every night and basically lived upstairs. We couldn't access the kitchen because of the layout of the house. The guy said it would take 2 days and it took 4. By the last day I just wanted my life back and I realized I'm not cut out for renos. I don't know how people live without their kitchen etc for months.

They were good about covering chandeliers etc up but the blinds and walls were covered in dust. I keep finding spots I missed.

[scout8]

patbutcher, thanks for the info. I figured it will be bad.

[starburst]

Wow, that looks great!

[marathon55]

Floors look awesome and for $1700 that gives me a good feeling because I thought we were going to need to replace our eventually but this shows that's not the case!!!

I

[orangeblossom]

Very nice. Great job.

Did you use a painter's mitt or a brush for each spindle?

[dancingirl21]

May 22, 2015 14:52:31 GMT -5 patbutcher said:

May 22, 2015 14:50:13 GMT -5 WinterWine said:

Wow, that's a phenomenal improvement - it looks great!! I also have orange oak everywhere and would love to update! Did you get new floors or did you refinish yours? If you refinished, what type of stain is that? Massive props to you - time to definitely treat yourself

 We got them refinished. It was $1700  instead of 5-10K to get new floors. We used Minwax Dark Walnut. They have a new low VOC one we used and it didn't smell at all. We used a water based poly on the top. (we have a baby so using low Voc stuff was a priority).

We have the same color on our floors. I love it. We have a 2 year old who pushes his toys around in the floor and there are no scratches from toys. We do have a few scratches from other times and they obviously do show more than on a lighter floor but DH recently used a pen in the same color by Minwax and that worked great.

[thedude]

Wow, it looks amazing! I'm normally wary when people say they're going to paint wood, but in this case it was definitely the right move. Changes the entire look of that area. Nice job!

[WhatYouSee]

Fabulous! Can I hire you to do ours?

[patbutcher]

May 24, 2015 10:11:51 GMT -5 orangeblossom said:

Very nice. Great job.

Did you use a painter's mitt or a brush for each spindle?

I tried all different things, I used an orbital on the flat bits and then just sheets wrapped round for the curvy parts.

[orangeblossom]

May 24, 2015 12:02:52 GMT -5 patbutcher said:

May 24, 2015 10:11:51 GMT -5 orangeblossom said:

Very nice. Great job.

Did you use a painter's mitt or a brush for each spindle?

I tried all different things, I used an orbital on the flat bits and then just sheets wrapped round for the curvy parts.

Oh okay.

I've never heard of the orbital. I used a painters mitt when I redid my rocking chairs. It made it so easy to work on the spindles.

[patbutcher]

May 24, 2015 12:06:01 GMT -5 orangeblossom said:

May 24, 2015 12:02:52 GMT -5 patbutcher said:

I tried all different things, I used an orbital on the flat bits and then just sheets wrapped round for the curvy parts.

Oh okay.

I've never heard of the orbital. I used a painters mitt when I redid my rocking chairs. It made it so easy to work on the spindles.

Orbital hand sander with the circular pads