Refinishing Our Carpeted Stairs
3 Materials
$45
20 Hours
Medium
When we moved in to our home (that was built in 1969), three years ago, one of the first things we did was to remove the ugly, worn, stinky carpet in the home and on the stairs. We were pleasantly surprised that the stairs were hardwood and would only need to be sanded, stained and refinished.
Our stairs when we moved in to our home in 2014 - carpeted with old, dirty, stinky carpet. We removed the carpet, three years ago and just now are getting around the refinishing the wood stairs.
You can tell that they are not in bad condition and that they have a nice wood grain - guess the carpet helped protect them over the years. Thousands of holes had to be filled with wood filler - very time consuming, but worth it.
Sanding was another long tedious chore, using a palm sander seemed to work the best for them. After filling in all of the nail and staple holes with wood filler and letting it dry completely, the sanding process began.
Stain was applied and then a polyurethane top coat - letting both dry completely in between each and doing thin coats will allow it to dry faster versus doing a heavy thick coat. We did two coats of stain (walnut) and two thin coats of poly.
Love the new look of the stairs, we will be adding a little trim work.
Here is a final look at the refinished stairs and the walls - we painted over the paneling and added wood-look flooring to the walls where the wallpaper was hanging. We really love the updated look - now on to our next DIY Project!
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2 of 48 comments
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It's so worth doing things yourself-great job!
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That looks beautiful!! Great job!!
Frequently asked questions
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I have the same old place with ratty carpet too. It feels like the treads are lower in the center than the edges. I am praying it's just old deflated padding and carpet and not the treads themselves. Did you experience this too? Did it turn out to be the carpet/padding? Did you need to replace treads? My place was built in 1970.
I have wooden floors with some scratches etc any advice as to how to repair ?
We have beautiful 1922 staircase & have kept it carpeted because of the worry of slipping. Do you not worry the stairs are slippery & dangerous for seniors & children?