Talk to me about sanding my stairs

[Iceache]

I’m pretty competent at decorating so I know the steps are:

strip carpet
pull out tacks etc
strip paint
sand

Can anyone talk me through this in more detail? What do I use to strip the paint (have you tried and tested something GREAT). How long is this project likely to take me?

We’re doing our bathroom after Christmas which will be followed by the landing being decorated and touch ups to the hallway so it makes sense to do the stairs now, but I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed at the thought of knowing where to start (other than impulsively pulling up the carpet whilst my husband is out and facing his wrath 🤣)

You want kilngstrip from atripper of Sudbury it is the best paint stripper available..

I mean why do you want to sand them ?

If you are hoping there is mahogany underneath the carpet you might be hoping in vain.

I have just put 2 stair runners in on a new-ish build. Removal of carpet discovered MDF risers and somewhat battered treads.

I removed all the hardware, then smoothed out the visible bits of the treads (not where the runner goes) with a combination of sanding and filler and then painted. I also had to do a lot of caulking on the staircase to remove gaps.

It now looks great and the whole project was cheap although a little labour intensive. But I doubt whether it would have looked good with just the bare wood staircase in place. Most are just too beat up to come up good and if that is really what you want you are probably talking new staircase.

How old is your house? Just mentioning lead paint, as this was often on the stairs in older houses. Ours is 1920s and was painted on the stair treads. So worth doing a test and taking precautions before sanding or stripping if you have an older house. Especially if you've children in the house

I have nothing useful to add, but I read your first sentence as "I’m pretty competent at decorating so I know where the steps are" and I thought, "maybe I am more competent at decorating than I thought!"

I don’t really understand this comment?

Thank you - I hadn’t actually thought of this! Our house is 1936 so I will definitely test!

What do you mean by "stairs"? Are we just talking the steps here, or the banisters as well? Skirting? If it is an older property with detailed wood trim, you're facing a much harder job. Also, bear in mind for the vast majority of normal homes, stairs were never designed to have unfinished wood - you are likely to find various types of wood that aren't particularly nice looking and don't match. Even in a Victorian house, the risers could well be ply and the floorboards, skirting, banisters etc completely different colours. It's definitely worth doing a few small experimental discreet areas to investigate exactly what you are dealing with before you pull everything up and go crazy, only to discover it would look better painted again.

I want to sand them because we have original tongue & groove hardwood floors throughout our downstairs so my ultimate plan is to also sand the landing to match. I may or may not install a runner (woven rather than carpet) eventually up the stairs and along the landing, but certainly for now my plan is to have polished wood steps and painted stair risers. Our house is 1930s but the craftsmanship is fairly ornate and our stair treads are nicely bevelled. I’d describe the style as similar to your American kind of Cape Cod / New England wood-heavy interiors so I’m confident sanding the stairs would give new life to them! Theyre likely oak or pine though same as our bannister.

I think the poster was making a joke. They read your first sentence as “I know WHERE the steps are”.

I thought so too but was unsure.

I’m slightly beyond the knowing where my stairs are level of decorating 🤣

@Tupster just the stairs. Our bannister is French polished and a beautiful dark wood. Our skirting, panelling and plate rail are all fairly ornate and having had a look at the stairs, they seem similar: solidly crafted with a little detailing underneath the treads. It’s a 1930s house but more arts and crafts style than some of the plainer ones you see.

I've done it once myself and got it done by professionals once. Both 30s houses and the stairs were pine and came up well. However, it is a big job. I used paint stripper and also a blow torch to get the paint up (not together obviously).

The professionals just used a heavy duty sander on all of it (when you hire a floor sander you also usually get a smaller orbital version to use at the edges - it was like that) plus a detail sander for the corners.

Don't struggle with a low power sander. If you're going to do it, get a really powerful one with a good dust collector - ideally attached to a vacuum cleaner.

Well good luck. It will take probably a long time. And generate plenty of nasty dust which you will not want to be breathing in, irrespective of whether it does or does not contain lead.

As others have mentioned you will probably need industrial machines to do it, and preferably expert operators which will all cost.

If you are going to paint the risers and have a stair runner you are literally going to go to all that hassle for two tiny strips of wood each side of the runner. You're literally going to spend ages/££££ sanding only to then cover it mostly with carpet.

Most people would probably just clad it, or minimally condition it to get it into shape for painting, which is what I did.

OTOH people want what they want and if you've got the cash and time go for it.

@GasPanic I do get what you’re saying re mess & hassle. Honestly though I think a lot of jobs done properly are similar, and it’s about weighing up whether the end result will be worth the pain I guess. This is our forever home and it’s a beautiful house, so I think yes, the mess & upheaval will be worth it. I’m not convinced it’s a DIY job though 🤣

DH replaced our stair treads with reclaimed dining table tops (mainly edwardian) so mostly mahogany. I love them! Much easier to keep clean than carpet.

DH sanded them to remove the original finish.

Sanding anything causes dust which will somehow or other go just everywhere. And regardless of how you strip the paint (also a messy job), the stairs will still need some sanding. On that basis, and because the job is a PITA which will take an amateur ages to do anyway, I'd hire someone with the right dust limiting equipment to do the job. But it is likely to be an expensive job.

I originally wanted to do the same as you, when we pulled the carpet up we had unfinished wood down the centre of the stars and painted sides (Victorian house, so presumably from original runner). After sanding all the other floors in the house we lost motivation and had had our fill of dust so left them for a couple of years, with the intention to sand one day.

We were always slipping down the stairs! Finally after my friend's kid went flying we decided to just fit a runner. So worth bearing that in mind!

If it's just the stairs and not all the fiddly bits, it does sound a lot more doable, but there are a lot of corners to get into which will be hard. Personally, I'd just lift the carpet on the bottom stair for some exploratory stuff - see how much comes off with stripper, wwhat's underneath etc, but at least if you don't like what you find then you can just pop the carpet back down over the top and you aren't stuck with a mess.

@Tupster good advice! Yep it’s just the stairs but honestly I’m not married to the idea; just that in my old house I had decision fatigue by the end of renovating and always regretted carpeting my stairs rather than putting a runner down, so I’m trying to make sure I don’t make the same mistake here!

@Pleasehelpmedress I hadn’t thought of this! I polish my bannister weekly and actually nearly fell down the stairs myself last week because it was so slippery, I lost my grip. So worth bearing this in mind!

Honestly look into kilngstrip .it is easy to use, not particularly messy as it is a paste and it gets paint off all the knobbly bits. You basically just plaster it on and cover with cling film and leave it for a few days and then scrape it off.