Dueling DIY staircase

[pitterwoo]

If you read DIY Diva diydiva.net/2013/01/dueling-diy-a-staircase-refinishing-throwdown/ or Ugly Duckling House www.uglyducklinghouse.com/2013/01/come-at-me-bro.html, they are competing against each other to complete their staircase projects.

So it made me think about my stairs which I also want to work on. Has anyone done anything interesting with yours?

What do you think about painted treads and/or painted risers? Runners? Any stair inspiration pics to share?

[boiler717]

When we built we ended up going with painted white risers and treads stained to match the hardwoods on the first floor.

No runner for us. I probably would but we have a back staircase that's carpeted.

[simpsongal]

I refinished our stairs last year - it's such a PITA and incredibly time consuming. I still have some poly touch up to do.
I love the classic look of stained treads and white risers. Depends on the style of the house. If you have wood treads, I would be hesitant to paint them. I think the wallpaper background on stairs looks cool but a bit tedious and subject to wear and tear. I'd be more inclined to use an interesting runner on a classic staircase.

[boiler717]

Another hard choice was what to do with the spindles and handrails. We did white spindles, stained handrails and then stained the box newel posts at the beginning of the stairs too. GBCN helped a lot with our decisions! So many to make on staircases.

[pitterwoo]

simpson and boiler you should both AW pics of your stairs.

I think I like painted risers, but I've never lived with them before and I wonder about how scuffed they might get.

I'll post pics of our stairs later to ask for more advice. They are in rough shape. No surprise there though.

[boiler717]

Here you go. Man it is hard to take a pic of our staircase!

[pitterwoo]

yum! I really like the contrasts.

[simpsongal]

Here's the old - the weird bannister was not up to code and there was no wall bannister. We had them professionally installed but I finished them and the rest of the stairs.

[simpsongal]

Excuse the mess, here's the refinished staircase.

[pitterwoo]

very nice, it looks so classic now, which I guess is odd since it's brand new but still that's how it reads.

[boiler717]

Jan 11, 2013 10:10:08 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

Excuse the mess, here's the refinished staircase.

Looks great!

[katecoop]

Boiler, your house is just gorgeous! Love that dark blue paint color!

[simpsongal]

Thanks Boiler - yours looks great too! I would love a more open entry and staircase, just wasn't going to happen in our price point (those start at $800K+ )

[boiler717]

Jan 11, 2013 13:39:05 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

Thanks Boiler - yours looks great too! I would love a more open entry and staircase, just wasn't going to happen in our price point (those start at $800K+ )

OMG! Yeah we did not spend near that! Gotta love LCOL areas

[pitterwoo]

I'm feeling inspired! I think I will stain the treads dark. I think that will help mask the damage too. Damage from previous carpet install, bad sanding and generally just tons of people living here over the years.

[simpsongal]

There's puddy at Home Depot for red oak and white oak floors. But beware, if you use it do so in small quantities because I found that it did not accept stain eventually. A wood conditioner may have helped, but who knows.
Another tip, despite sanding my stairs A LOT, they did not want to accept a full or multiple coats of stain. I ended up "painting" them with an alcohol-based stain that I didn't wipe.

[pitterwoo]

thanks for the tips, simpson. do you mean like a gel stain or something else when you say you didn't wipe it off?

[FoxInFiji]

Jan 11, 2013 14:30:42 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

There's puddy at Home Depot for red oak and white oak floors. But beware, if you use it do so in small quantities because I found that it did not accept stain eventually. A wood conditioner may have helped, but who knows.
Another tip, despite sanding my stairs A LOT, they did not want to accept a full or multiple coats of stain. I ended up "painting" them with an alcohol-based stain that I didn't wipe.

Putty and staining don't mix very well. A solvent based wood filler (not a putty but people often confuse them) like FIX is a better bet for staining. Otherwise the more sure fire way to get the right color is to stain the wood and fill it small areas later with a putty that matches the stained color of the wood. You'll probably have to mix two colors to get it exact. Also be aware putty doesn't dry as hard as solvent based wood filler so it will eventually scratch/crack/fall out overtime and need to be replaced. That is why filler is usually used on flooring instead of putty (which is for trim or furniture).

[pitterwoo]

oooh that's so helpful Fox! Is the filler sold near the putty? I'm just wondering why I've never noticed it. There have definitely been a few situations where it sounds like putty was the wrong choice for my project.

[FoxInFiji]

Yes it's sold right next to the putty but big box stores don't always have it. if they do it's usually something like this:



Which is water based and just a glorified wood putty. Solvent based comes in a little metal can and will need to be stirred up each time before using:



If you call a lumber yard or carpentry shop (something like Woodcraft) you'll have more options. I got mine from a local paint store (not national like SW or BM) that specializes in higher quality stains so they had various putties and fillers so that's another option if you have anything like that around you. I'm not sure where you're at but it was a Hallman & Lindsay store.

You have to make sure to keep the lid on when you're not using the solvent based it because this brand at least dries really fast (5-10 minutes). You use a little pieces of soft wood...we just used broken pieces of paint stirrers or your fingers to apply it before you sand. Test it on a spare piece of wood though first to see if it takes the stain you're applying. Different stains will react differently to filler and putty. The paint store I got the filler from let me bring in a sample piece of our HW, put a couple dents in it, and tried all of the colors that looked like they would match, let them dry, and sanded them right there to see how well they blended. Since they were just using a tiny amount the colors I didn't need went back on the shelf. Gotta love that!

[pitterwoo]

that's great service. thanks for explaining the difference to me, this will come in handy soon.