I looked the SlipDoctor product up on Amazon after seeing their website, and the reviews weren't great. I also have to disagree with how slippery the hardwood is compared to carpet. Carpet can be slippery, but let me tell you, hardwood, when you're in socks, is much more slippery and hurts so much worse when you fall on them, flat onto your back! We have two long steps that lead down into our family room, my foot caught the edge of the second one as I stepped down, and I landed right on the edge of it with the small of my back. I was sure it was broken. Thankfully it wasn't, but I'm not taking another chance and have been searching for something to save me or someone else in my house from having this happen to them. I'm looking at some sort of clear tape. I'm hoping to find something that isn't going to ruin the new floors. If it does ruin them, it's better than ruining me!

Joslin, I think your assumption that the stairs have to end at the dormer is the flaw here. We have a back staircase that goes to an attic space that has no dormer - it's a small Victorian with a peaked roof. The stairs enter the attic from the side, so if you looked at it in cross section, the stairs and the roof are parallel. THat is why you can go up them without hitting your head at any point. The stairs emerge into the attic about 3 feet in from the shoulder wall. It will take me some time to do a sketch and or some photos, but I'll work on that. The tall part of the staircase is right along the outside wall. When you would hit your head, the stairs turn toward the centre of the house and emerge in the taller part of the attic. Hope that helps to break the logjam a little till I get some photos. Karin L

Ctlane - How long did you wait until you took the tape off? I had to use a utility knife (I did use frog tape) and it wasnâÂÂt as easy as I imagined. Still going to need to do some touch ups. I did post on the paint forum when I hit a month and it was suggested to call SW. It seemed to get a little better so I just figured IâÂÂd wait it out. Thankfully itâÂÂs only faintly tacky now compared to after I first did it. Our basement is below. Door at the bottom of the steps. We have a dehumidifier running in the basement. It was warm/humid here this summer but not in the house or basement. I donâÂÂt remember it being too bad around Labor Day, which was when I did this. The house temp. was set around 72-74 degrees during the process. ItâÂÂs been about 70 over the past few weeks. I did have a box fan at the steps at first and maybe IâÂÂll dig it back out. With three cats, when I had the big light and fan near the steps they were very nosey and wanted to walk on the area. Put them in a room during the primer and painting processes, put everything away and prayed theyâÂÂd leave the steps along. Thankfully since everything looked normal they werenâÂÂt interested. The can of paint says you can recoat in 4 hours. I was originally going to wait a day. About three days later it was still tacky and I was really getting impatient so I did the second coat while crossing my fingers. I shouldâÂÂve known if the first coat was still tackyâ¦.. I guess maybe it just needs more time. I probably should leave the tape for a while yet. I canâÂÂt believe I wore my sneakers last night while doing that. Stupid. One more question, can or should I put a coat of poly over the treads? If so, oil or water? (probably should wait until theyâÂÂre no longer tacky) Would it add extra protection or do you think itâÂÂs not necessary? Possibly covering up the scuff marks? Someone told me it would make them slippery.

We have stairs! Lots of finishing left to make them pretty, but now we have decent access to finish the attic space. And...I need your help on the downstairs reconfiguration. Space is a bit tighter than anticipated. We punched a hole in the kitchen wall, and it turns out that was original, as the flooring is continuous to the hall. Straight ahead is the bathroom door, to the right needs to be the new bedroom door opening. This bedroom wall is only 30" from inside corner to outside corner. We'll extend the wall across the stairwell (~37"), but that makes it a tough putt for fully opening the door. And here's the former bedroom door, destined to become a closet door. We have room for a 24" wide bedroom door. Obviously NOT ideal, but I measured some of our furniture and depth of the casework is all 18-21" so presumably stuff would still fit through the door. The original closet door is 24" wide, so if we shift it towards the corner we will miss all but a couple inches of stringer in the upper corner. Then there's the whole interfering swing deal with the bedroom and closet doors. Would it be too weird to in-swing the bedroom door to the left? Recommendations to solve this conundrum? Or improve on our 24" clashing door scenario?