Stairs From Carpet to Wood
11 Materials
$100
4 Days
Medium
My husband and I recently tore the carpet from our stairs and painted the wood underneath creating a fresh, clean, and modern look! We did this project over a full weekend and two additional weeks nights following.
This is our stairs before. The carpet was old and dirty giving the entry a very dark and dated feel. Our main goal was to rip off the carpet, see what wood was underneath, and create a brighter, more modern entry.
To see what was under the carpet, we began to tear at a corner piece, using pliers for assistance. You can also see here a gap between the treads and the risers. This gap was too big for caulk, so we decided we will have to buy trim pieces to cover this.
We were pleased to find that we had pine wood under our carpet in great shape! The rest of the carpet easily pulled off in two long strips.
The longest and most tedious part of this project was removing all of the nails and staples from the wood. This alone took about 1/2 day.
We initially wanted to stain the top of the wood and paint the risers white. However, the pine wood was so soft that removing the nails and staples left many big holes and indents in the wood. We filled these holes in with wood putty and rushed to Home Depot to get floor paint instead.
After the wood putty dried, we sanded down the wood. Then we primed the entire staircase using a quart of Kilz primer.
We painted the risers first in a white semi gloss stain resistant paint. After 3 coats of the white, we taped off the sides and painted the treads using a floor paint in dark brown. This took 3 coats.
After the final coat dried, we applied a coat of semi gloss polyurethane to the treads and applied the trim pieces to the back using wood glue for a finished look.
Voila! Our entry is much brighter and modern now with the old carpet gone! We also replaced the light fixture in the foyer to compliment our new stairs look.
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3 of 54 comments
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Shelly Randazzoon Apr 12, 2020
Love what you did we are trying to do the same and are trying to figure out how to fill the gap between stair and the wall. Any ideas?
- Carly McPhersonon Apr 12, 2020
We used quarter round trim pieces!
- Shelly Randazzoon Apr 12, 2020
Ok thank you for the info. We’re getting ready to try this.
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Have a question about this project?
When you tear all the carpet off and get the nails out full the holes in paint it what can you put down on the Step not to slip
You can buy (not cheap) rubber treads (or carpet strips) for this purpose. I never wear socks on my stairs, though. Too risky. However, I would never carpet the stairs I have.
Can you link to where you bought the new light fixture?
Where were the stair treads purchased
I believe these are the original treads that were hiding beneath the carpet.