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Woodworking Flooring Design Dilemma

Refinishing stairs

5 years ago

Hi all, I hope you can help me out as I have been wracking my brain on what to do....

We want to install white oak floors throughout our home. I am looking for a whitewash with a subtle grey undertone in it but want to keep it soft. We will be replacing all of our railings with a custom iron railing in black. Our current stair treads are red oak and we will be stripping them down.

Question is, do we attempt to match to our white oak floors with the same stain on the red oak treads or do we do a darker stain/paint (like dark grey) on the treads and keep the risers white?

I'm just worried that the wood grains will never match. Any recommendations on darker stains that would cover the wood grain on the stairs so it almost looks like paint?

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Comments (5)

PRO
G & S Floor Service
5 years ago
Use "live sawn white oak" with Nordic seal and traffic HD. The nordic seal will give you the white wash. The mineral streaks will give you the gray. HD will provide the proper protection.

If, you match what you have, you will not get the look you want.
comitale_j thanked G & S Floor Service
comitale_j
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank you however we were not planning on replacing our stair treads. Just too costly. We need to work with the red oak to try to match to the floors.
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Before you go cap treading its better to first understand Run and rise along with FFT. Finished floor thickness at landing and adjoining levels along with maximum nosing compliance.. Theres a lot of handymen that will gladly put you right out of code compliance while taking your money and installing topical cap treads. Your local municipality should have clear staircase compliance on their website or in office.
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I’m not the OP but this question relates to my current dilemma. We are replacing treads on stairs and the “discussion” is stuck on the risers. Should they be stained to match or painted white. I have seen both but it seems more recent design is going with stained risers. Since the last time we tried to redo these stairs was 13 years ago and we couldn’t agree on a lot of things and scrapped the project, I don’t want to get stuck again. The pics are of our staircase ripped out carpeting, a pic with stained risers, and a pic with painted risers. Since we are going through the work and expense, I want to make sure we aren’t putting in dated design from the get go. The other point we are discussing is wood spindles vs metal.
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@Patricia Colwell We were originally looking to install the vinyl in the upstairs portion as well as on the stairs. Would use a bullnoses and vinyl for the treads, but the two people I spoke with that the bullnose wouldn't be the best due to the 'wear and tear'. Then the convo shifted towards re-doing the stairs.
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PRO
Patricia Colwell Consulting
5 years ago
Then do the treads in a dark gray since the 2 oaks will take stain much diferently
comitale_j thanked Patricia Colwell Consulting
PRO
Johnson Flooring Co Inc
5 years ago
I agree with Patricia Colwell. White isn't forgiving when attempting to match White and Red Oak. Best to pick two complementary colors.
SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
I suggest you go with a dark stair tread and white risers if you are keeping the red oak treads. I would even look at something as strong as a "black" tread. Match the risers with the "soft" white you are achieving on the floor. That's how you can get everything to tie together.
comitale_j thanked SJ McCarthy

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