Treatment for pine stair treads
Hi!
I'm trying to refinish the wood stair treads in my house. They're just junky ones (probably the construction-grade ones that were installed 25 years ago under carpet) but I think they will look ok with a carpet runner. The problem I'm having is that every treatment I attempt to use on the stairs is causing the wood to go about 4 shades darker and very orange. I tried clear, oil-based urethane, a very light colored stain plus poly, and clear, water-based polycrylic. All three ended up the same dark orange color. Lame!
I want the treads to be a nice light color because the floor is hickory and is a light color with no orange in it (see picture). In the pictures, the top stair is clear oil-based, the middle stair is light stain, bottom stair is clear water-based.
Does anyone know of a way to keep the beautiful light color that the natural wood has?
Comments (10)
clg7067
10 years agopuffie
10 years agoRelated Discussions
Pine floor people, stair treads?
Comments (5)I have pine risers/stringer and oak treads. Not my choice (thought I was getting all oak) but I don't think it looks bad. If you want more contrast, and have painted trim, then painted risers would look good too. BTW, my DR is Brazilian Cherry so super big contrast with pine trim, stairs, and oak treads, furniture! You can just barely see them at the bottom of the stairs in this pic:...See More2x12 stair treads cracking inevitable?
Comments (6)Many thanks to the two posters who responded. Thanks to them, and some other research I've done I came to the following conclusions : 1) There is definitely discussion about whether it is truly necessary, but leaving pressure treated wood to dry before painting is still common practice. The goal is to allow the chemicals to fully dry. Recommended durations seem to range from 2 weeks to 6 months, with 3-4 months the most common. 2) Some splitting and cracking will occur as it will with any piece of wood this size. Causes include changes in temperature and humidity, etc. Ways to minimize it include careful selection of the individual boards used, and being careful to pre-drill holes, especially if they're within a few inches of the ends of the boards. There was another method in a post above that sounds both very effective, and somewhat complex. So my contractor was right, or at least following common practise, on all counts. I'm going to ask him to replace a couple of the treads with the worst cracks, and all the new risers he put in to replace the cracked ones - all with pressure treated wood - and we'll delay the painting. I hadn't mentioned it before, but he had to replace the previously installed pressure treated risers as he used the wrong dimension of boards (too small, leaving noticeable gaps), and he tried to use kiln dried wood so as to get our painting done quickly. However, I would rather delay the painting and have more longevity on the structure. Hope this is of value - R....See Morepine stair treads
Comments (13)No carpeting. We considered a runner - but with the starter stair so much would be exposed anyways I don’t think it’s going to make a difference. I’ve looked at a lot of pine and it seems like if done correctly it can look very nice. We have decided to not spend nearly 5 grand for them to rip up our stairs for oak treads and instead see how they wear for a few years. Every cite I look shows that interior stairs can be replaced for 5 ish grand. So I don’t see me paying that today and being no better off....See MoreStair Tread refinishing - Dust/Paint on sides of Treads
Comments (1)Overall, the stairs look nice, although some of the detail work could be better. So I wouldn't go with #3 or #4. I think you can cautiously fix what you have. I don't have any more to add, though....See Morekai615
10 years agokai615
10 years ago
weedyacres
10 years agokirkhall
10 years agopuffie
10 years agoThanks for all the info, everyone!
I have to use a carpet runner on these stairs, because the center area is pretty trashed. One had the lip of the stair partly broken and another one had a big open knot. They're not pretty enough to stand alone, but i think they will look fine mostly covered up. I'm hoping i won't regret using the water based stuff, but the part of the tread that shows won't really be walked on.
Here are pictures. the treads have two coats of polycrylic right now, and I'm planning to add a third.
puffie
10 years agoThis pic shows how different the wood looks with the various treatments i tried. The dark orange patches are supposed to be plain, clear polyurethanes. The rest of the stairs are treated with the diluted whitewash and then two coats of poly.
This post was edited by puffie on Sun, Aug 25, 13 at 9:37
puffieOriginal Author