Help! Stairs look horrible!
So my spouse and I recently decided to refinish our hardwood floors and staircase. There was nothing wrong with it other than the color. The living room, bedrooms and hallway were white oak and the staircase red oak. We decided that we wanted to go dark and settled on Spanish Oak penetrating stain by Old Masters (Old Masters being the stain our re-finisher prefers).
My staircase looks awful! We obviously aren't happy with it and wanted to resolve the issue before the poly coat was applied however our re-finisher thinks we are being "too picky" and that the wood has imperfections in it therefore it will not look like a prefinished/ engineered wood. I am obviously not an expert in flooring/refinishing however I feel like this is not an acceptable job and that stain application was rushed because time was lost re-sanding the stairs twice.
The first time the stairs were sanded by hand due to all the grooves in the posts. This didn’t allow the stain to absorb the dark color correctly and therefore required to be completely re-sanded a second time by machine. The stain has taken darker now but we are left with blotchy stain. I feel like we once again need to sand it all down and start again which is turning into a nightmare.
To top it off, the person we have hired has decided to quit today and suggested that we find someone else to finish the job because we are being “too picky” and that this is as good as we are going to get. Thoughts!? Are we being too picky here!? Is there a way to fix this??
Ps: trim is to be painted white
Comments (18)
PROJoseph Corlett, LLC
6 years ago
Todo23
6 years agoRelated Discussions
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6 years agoapell2000
6 years agoYou are definitely not being picky. This is BAD. He walked away because now it is going to be double or triple the work to fix it. I also think is too much dark color. Maybe consider having a painter do some white in between steps to break it up (see photo) if you end up redoing it. So sorry you are going through this!
Todo23 thanked apell2000Todo23
6 years ago
Melissa R
6 years agoWell that DOES look truly awful. I don't think the fix will be that bad though, I think you could even do it yourself if you have any DIY skills. I would do the Java gel stain like flyr suggested but do it on the treads only then a nice white on the risers and sides.
If you can't DIY it then hire someone to do it but then I'd take the first"professional" you hired to small claims and try to get some of money back you had to pay to fix his mess.
Todo23 thanked Melissa R
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