# Finishing bare wood stairs



## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

For some reason, the stairs leading to my second floor are unfinished. I'm not sure what type of wood (pine maybe?) they are.

What is the best way to finish them? I was thinking the stair backs would be white, so sanding/priming/painting that section seems easy.

I've never done any staining before. WHat do I do with th tops? Sand..stain...then polyurethane? 

Thanks.


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## housepaintingny (Jul 25, 2009)

If your stair treads(walking surface) is bare wood and your staing them, you'll have to sand them, wipe them down with a tack cloth to remove dust, use a wood cleaner(such as nuwood), if it's pine then you'll need to use a wood conditioner, because pine is a soft wood(minwax wood conditioner) apply your stain, sand between coats with 220 grit sandpaper, de-dust, apply a floor polyurethane(sand and de-dust between coats) its easier to stain and poly the stair treads first, because when you paint your risers(the back part of the stairs) you don't want to get paint onto the treads, it will bleed through the stain, so if the treads are polyed and you get paint on them the paint will wipe rite off.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

Awesome info, thanks. Sounds like a lot of work, but worth doing. How do I know what type of wood the stairs are?


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## mark942 (Feb 2, 2008)

From the looks of the pictures there is a sheen to your stairs. That would make me think there is a sealer or a poly on them already. If you could post up some better pictures ( Closer ) a comment could be made about what type of wood you have. Your flooring to the stairs or landing looks like it is still raw/ unfinished.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

I don't see any sheen, but the hardwood at the bottom is finished. I took these pics quickly this morning,I'll try and get better ones if these aren't good enough. Thanks.


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## Big N8 (Oct 28, 2009)

You will still need to sand the stair even if there is no sheen. This will if nothing else give you the best chance at a good result.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

Big N8 said:


> You will still need to sand the stair even if there is no sheen. This will if nothing else give you the best chance at a good result.


Oh I plan on sanding it anyway. It has lots of marks on it.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

I also plan to re-finish my downstairs '50s oak floors. I assume I should pick the same color stain for that as I do the stairs. Can my (pine) stairs take the same type of stain?

Also, I see oil-based and water-based poly and stain. Recommendations?

How many coats of stain?
How many coats of poly?

Thanks!


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## Rcon (Nov 20, 2009)

In your photos above it looks like the stairs have got a clearcoat on them. If that is the case then you won't be able to stain them with anything unless you strip the finish off first (followed by a lot of sanding). 

As for stains, you can use the same type on Oak and Pine but they will look different as Pine is porous and Oak is not. A wood conditioner would help even the look out, but doing samples first is always advisable. Oil based wiping stains are some of my favorites. 

As for the Poly topcoats, waterbased poly has come a long way and gives a nice durable finish - don't skimp on your finishes get the best stuff you can find. MLC makes good clear finishes. Ideally, you want a sealer coat over the stain and at least 2 topcoats.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

If they "basically" look the same, that'll be fine. I'll try to get some better pictures of the stairs. They don't look finished at all to me, but if you guys are seeing sheen, you're probably right. Tough to see in those crappy cellphone pictures though.

I'll probably post here before buying the actual stuff to make sure all the products (conditioner, stain, poly, etc) will work together.

Is the sealer coat a different product than the top coats?

Is the minwax stuff I can get at Home Depot good, or should I go to a specialty store to get some higher quality stuff?


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## housepaintingny (Jul 25, 2009)

secutanudu said:


> I also plan to re-finish my downstairs '50s oak floors. I assume I should pick the same color stain for that as I do the stairs. Can my (pine) stairs take the same type of stain?
> 
> Also, I see oil-based and water-based poly and stain. Recommendations?
> 
> ...


 I would use an oil based stain, the amount of coats that you apply will depened on the look you want to achieve, at least two coats are usually applied, as for what poly to use, water based poly is low oder, dries fast, cleans up with water and is clearer than oil based, oil based poly has more of an amber glow to it, takes longer to dry, cleans up with chemicals, but requires fewer coats, Both offer good protection, a water based poly will require up to 3-4 coats, an oil base 2-3 coats and to prepare your floor to refinish it you will need a drum sander and edger. You can rent them, but if you have never used them you can damage the floor.


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## Rcon (Nov 20, 2009)

housepaintingny said:


> I would use an oil based stain, the amount of coats that you apply will depened on the look you want to achieve, at least two coats are usually applied, as for what poly to use, water based poly is low oder, dries fast, cleans up with water and is clearer than oil based, oil based poly has more of an amber glow to it, takes longer to dry, cleans up with chemicals, but requires fewer coats, Both offer good protection, a water based poly will require up to 3-4 coats, an oil base 2-3 coats and to prepare your floor to refinish it you will need a drum sander and edger. You can rent them, but if you have never used them you can damage the floor.


A drum sander would be all but useless on the stairs (too big) which is why I suggested stripping the finish. It would work on the floor though. 

A palm sander might work on the stairs with some very coarse sand paper if there isn't a lot of build to the finish on them (which i'm guessing there isn't if you don't think they're clear coated). 

As for your products, don't get them from HD, get them from a cabinet supply store (or wood finishing supply store). They will have every product you'll need for that project in 1 place and will be able to give you advice on how to use them properly (not to mention there will be no concern of about any of the products not being compatible with eachother). 

Like I said before, spend the money to get high quality finish products, you're just wasting your time trying to save a few dollars buying them from the box store and you'll be very dissapointed with the finshed result. Don't skimp.


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## housepaintingny (Jul 25, 2009)

Rcon said:


> A drum sander would be all but useless on the stairs (too big) which is why I suggested stripping the finish. It would work on the floor though.
> 
> A palm sander might work on the stairs with some very coarse sand paper if there isn't a lot of build to the finish on them (which i'm guessing there isn't if you don't think they're clear coated).
> 
> ...


Why would anyone try a drum sander on stairs? I was talking about the drum sander and edger for the floor restoration. I do know better, as we also specialise in custom staining and floor restoration...a palm sander on the stairs would work well


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

Are any of you folks in the UK?
Reason I ask is I can't seem to find duraseal here. I'm wanting to stain an old stairway in the house.

The stairs are over 125 years old. Have gone through numerous reincarnations through the years.
By the time we bought the house it had ugly carpet on them. We have removed carpet, stair rods, nails and several layers of paint, filled holes and sanded. A couple of questions to pose.

1. The middle of each tread is a darker colour, even though it has been well sanded. Will this colour difference be solved after staining?
The sides of the treads were painted like the risers. The middle area of the treads was not painted through the years.

2. Not sure what sort of wood the treads are made of. There are no knotholes. The risers are of different wood and are now painted in white gloss.
Can you tell from the Picts if the treads are pine or oak?


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

Sorry, it seems the last pict I submitted turned itself sideways in the process.
How does one delete a pict once it has been posted? I went to edit but only the text showed up for editing.

Guess who wants these stairs finished by Dec. 1st of this year?


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

Hmmmm guess no UK people here to give me feedback.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

I'm not in the UK but the treads look like pine. Have you tried to do a search for the product you are looking for in your area?


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

jiju1943 said:


> I'm not in the UK but the treads look like pine. Have you tried to do a search for the product you are looking for in your area?


Thanks for taking both the time and trouble to reply to my question. 
Yes, I have tried to find duraseal wood stain in the UK, but to no avail.

Thanks also for your feedback on possibly pine treads.
I guess I'll have to treat them before staining if I don't want a blotchy appearance.


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

tea lady said:


> Thanks for taking both the time and trouble to reply to my question.
> Yes, I have tried to find duraseal wood stain in the UK, but to no avail.
> 
> Thanks also for your feedback on possibly pine treads.
> I guess I'll have to treat them before staining if I don't want a blotchy appearance.


I did a search also and couldn't find that brand. Hopefully you will find a product that will work for you, sorry I wasn't much help.


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## marins (Nov 5, 2011)

Just put a new stair treads an risers over existing one – looks like your stairs in the condition when you will spend a lot of time to send it to the condition you can apply finish. One more thing – it really looks like pine what is not good for stairs at all. It is very soft and easy to scratch wood. Doesn’t matter UK or US or Australia pipe is a pine oak is oak, and I didn’t find that somewhere invent something what can make a pine as hard as oak. Other thing it’s appearance – if you want so – so quality try to refinish otherwise put a new ones. I believe they have good flooring retailers where you can find any finishing products. I had similar stairs in 50 years old house here in US and I bought unfinished steps and risers – installer did a nice work with installation and staining it in a darker color – beautiful. If you didn’t do it before though – nearly impossible do it yourself – It might cost not as cheap, but I don’t know – I paid like $80 per each step. Have no idea what they charge in UK.


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

That's ok. You were kind enough to try.
I'm nervous about staining these treads and want them to look fabulous in the entry hall.
After all of this hard work, I certainly don't want to ruin the project by choosing a wrong type of stain.

Was hoping somebody in the UK would be able to tell me which product is the best and which product they have used personally and liked. Also, now that you have said pine, I need to find a product to apply first so the stain doesn't go blotchy.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

I'm no expert, but I wouldn't bother getting hung up on manufacturer. I think if you get your supplies from a wood flooring supplier as opposed to a big consumer store, you are better off.

Keep in mind that commercial-grade products are also more toxic while they are drying, so be sure to get air and wear a respirator if necessary, though the stairs look pretty open.

My guess would be the manufacturer of the finish (poly) is probably more important than the stain. That's what really takes a beating.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

For what it's worth, i used normal Minwax wood conditioner. Make sure you wait approximately the same amount of time after conditioning to stain for each step.

Meaning...dont condition 10 steps, then stain. The conditioner will not work the same if it is let to set for varied amounts of time. I just kept my process to 3-4 steps at a time. Conditioned 3 steps, waited 20 minutes, stained, waited a few minutes, stained again, waited a few minutes, moved onto the next set of 3.

Go buy a piece of pine if you are worried and do a few test runs with different # of coats of stain, different amounts of time to let them sink into the wood, etc. Once you find the combination of # of coats and drying time you like, repeat that on your stairs. I found that 2 coats of stain with about 5-10 minutes of dry time each coat worked for my taste.


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

marins said:


> Just put a new stair treads an risers over existing one &#150; looks like your stairs in the condition when you will spend a lot of time to send it to the condition you can apply finish. One more thing &#150; it really looks like pine what is not good for stairs at all. It is very soft and easy to scratch wood. Doesn&#146;t matter UK or US or Australia pipe is a pine oak is oak, and I didn&#146;t find that somewhere invent something what can make a pine as hard as oak. Other thing it&#146;s appearance &#150; if you want so &#150; so quality try to refinish otherwise put a new ones. I believe they have good flooring retailers where you can find any finishing products. I had similar stairs in 50 years old house here in US and I bought unfinished steps and risers &#150; installer did a nice work with installation and staining it in a darker color &#150; beautiful. If you didn&#146;t do it before though &#150; nearly impossible do it yourself &#150; It might cost not as cheap, but I don&#146;t know &#150; I paid like $80 per each step. Have no idea what they charge in UK.


Thanks for your feedback. However, after doing up the entire house there is no money left over for buying new treads or paying a professional to come and install them. This is a project we have to do ourselves and we have worked hard over the past 3 years to keep as many of the original features of the old house as we could. 

After painting the risers, the treads have been cleaned and sanded again ready for the staining. I'm just uncertain of what products to use to give the best result.


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

secutanudu said:


> For what it's worth, i used normal Minwax wood conditioner. Make sure you wait approximately the same amount of time after conditioning to stain for each step.
> 
> Meaning...dont condition 10 steps, then stain. The conditioner will not work the same if it is let to set for varied amounts of time. I just kept my process to 3-4 steps at a time. Conditioned 3 steps, waited 20 minutes, stained, waited a few minutes, stained again, waited a few minutes, moved onto the next set of 3.
> 
> Go buy a piece of pine if you are worried and do a few test runs with different # of coats of stain, different amounts of time to let them sink into the wood, etc. Once you find the combination of # of coats and drying time you like, repeat that on your stairs. I found that 2 coats of stain with about 5-10 minutes of dry time each coat worked for my taste.


Your process is very helpful. thank you.
Do you live in the UK? I have also had difficulty finding minwax products over here. 

When doing my homework and pre-reading before starting this project, most of the DIY help I found was from Americans and they talked about Duraseal and minwax products. However, finding those brands here have been most difficult.


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## secutanudu (Mar 15, 2009)

No, I'm in the states. Is there a wood flooring supplier near you? I'd just go talk to them...


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## BigJim (Sep 2, 2008)

A lot of folks don't like pine for treads but I have restored many old antique homes of the early 1800s and the old growth pine is beautiful and will hold up much better than the new growth of today. I always had the stairs and other parts of the old homes finished so I really can't give you a lot of advise there. I would talk to a paint store with a good reputation and see what they recommend. I don't know if your treads can be bleached or if the dark spots can be sanded out.

There is a fellow on the forum who has lived in England and now lives in British Columbia and knows his stuff on finishes and wood working, check out the link in my signature and PM him, coco is a really nice guy.


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

thanks I will do that. I too love this old house and the old wood in it.
Also, thanks for the encouragement.


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## tea lady (Oct 28, 2011)

jiju1943 said:


> There is a fellow on the forum who has lived in England and now lives in British Columbia and knows his stuff on finishes and wood working, check out the link in my signature and PM him, coco is a really nice guy.



Well several hours later, I can't take my eyes away from reading about his island home. 
He is amazing.


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