Refurbishing Stairs

K09

Hi,

We have an old staircase (probably there from when house was build in 60s). There is carpet on it, which now looks horrible. I am thinking of taking up the carpet and varnishing the stairs.

I checked under the carpet and the stairs are painted as well!! How difficult would it be to remove the paint?

Is it possible to refurbish the stairs without spending too much cash? Any advice on how to do this?

Thanks!

Tom44

K09 wrote: »

Hi,

We have an old staircase (probably there from when house was build in 60s). There is carpet on it, which now looks horrible. I am thinking of taking up the carpet and varnishing the stairs.

I checked under the carpet and the stairs are painted as well!! How difficult would it be to remove the paint?

Is it possible to refurbish the stairs without spending too much cash? Any advice on how to do this?

Thanks!

Check out lamanated step covers and uprights. Looks good and real + hard wearing.

cletus

Would it be possible to rent something like in the video below

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vrzVYMIiID8

Like what you would rent to sand a floor, but smaller

Graces7

I came on with an almost identical query.. not dared look under the carpet yet but it is appalling. Has to be a low cost and low labour deed. Is there any special paint or varnish i can get please?

Graces7

K09 wrote: »

Hi,

We have an old staircase (probably there from when house was build in 60s). There is carpet on it, which now looks horrible. I am thinking of taking up the carpet and varnishing the stairs.

I checked under the carpet and the stairs are painted as well!! How difficult would it be to remove the paint?

Is it possible to refurbish the stairs without spending too much cash? Any advice on how to do this?

Thanks!

Just seen your photo; the carpet here is or was cream so you may imagine...

K09

Anyone used something similar to this?

Would this be worthwhile?

BryanF

K09 wrote: »

Anyone used something similar to this?

Would this be worthwhile?

Each stairs rise should be equal, if you add 15mm to each step, do you add 15mm to ground & first floors? Or the hallway & landing at least..

peter bermingham

Be careful with some of them gimmicks like covering the stairs with them kits, look into it you could end up toughing good money after bad. Lift up a bit of the carpet and have a go at sanding to see how you get on. I can tell you now its not going to be easy to get a white stairs back to pine. The way i would go around it would paint stripper first maybe do it twice with the stripper then sand start with 80 grit and work up to 240 grit. Only do 3 to 4 steps at a time. Because if you cover the whole stairs in stripper by the time its worked and you get halfway up the paint stripper will have dried in and you will have to apply more stripper. Also by doing 3 to 4 steps at a time it wont seem as such a big job. Get all the paint stripping done first and then you will be able to do the sanding in one day, will make it cheaper if you have to hire a sander. So strip whole stairs sections at a time. Sand start with 80 120 180 240 grit. Stanley blade is good for getting into the tight spots. Sealer and varnish

db

Removing the paint with stripper and sanding will be a pig of a job. If the wood used is good enough to make it worthwhile stripping it back and varnishing a heat gun might be the best option for stripping the old paint. Otherwise, why not just replace the carpet?

mloc123

We did a similar job a few years back.. lifted the carpet, sanded the wood back (it was not painted), stained and varnished the steps and painted the uprights. Took a weekend and made a huge difference. I will get a picture later on... paint needs touching up again now.

mad m

If it was built in 1960's I'd say you will have lead in old paint so be weary if you decide to strip it.