We refinished the wooden staircase in our 130 year old home. It was a daunting task, but we are happy with the results.

Read more: Refinishing Wood Stairs Old House

A few years ago we bought a lovely old home to exact our restoration passion – as a retirement project – be careful what you ask for but for me, these things are always a labour of love.

It seems like just yesterday that we refinished the wooden staircase leading to the second floor. It was actually September – November of 2020! I just found the pictures today (Thanks Google) – so here is the story:

Our Renovation Philosophy:

• Recognize our capabilities and limitations – We know we are not skilled tradespeople and so we leave dangerous or highly skilled jobs to the experts.
• In achieving our goals make sure that we cannot use what is there before tearing something down – I think too many projects start with an absolute tear down rather than using what you have and therefore losing the original charm.
• For every project, we watch ten Youtube how to videos and visit the home improvement store three times to ask questions (OK – maybe more…..)
• We will never be sending the family to Disneyland while the renovation takes place (like on HGTV shows). We plan projects, buy the stuff – and as soon as the house is less crowded – get started! My husband claims we still have dust from all the sanding.
• Always be safe – older homes were often built with asbestos materials. Before starting any project make sure to have the house tested. (More soon about Asbestos Testing)
• and…..when there are disagreements and spats (these never happen) my husband must always give in and later take me to dinner where I will enjoy a glass of wine

We had previously refinished each upstairs bedroom floor and the upstairs landing. This was an unpopular project as the house had been a dusty mess. Sorry (not really sorry) – but it was worth it. We had left the stairs for last – as everyone goes up and down those stairs daily – but they needed to be done – so it was time.

The stairs had been covered in a thick brown carpet and underpadding – which I’m sure looked great in 1990. It would have been the type of carpet I would have liked to slide down the stairs on as a kid (not that that was in 1990). Unfortunately, the carpet was now lumpy and a tripping hazard – and impossible to keep clean.

Pulling up the Carpet, Underpad and Staples

My husband pulled up the carpet, and then the underpadding and disposed of the mess. He then spent hours and hours and hours pulling up staples with a flathead screwdriver and needle nose pliers. There were thousands……….

Sanding the Stairs

To our delight the original wood was in pretty good condition and we elected to use a hand orbital sander to sand the stairs. I couldn’t imagine hauling a heavy floor (100+pounds) sander and balancing it above each stair – and the little sanders get into small spaces. We also pulled out our little detail electric sander to get into the corners.

The sanders worked well – because we had large packages of 60 grit sandpaper rounds – they can be changed quickly – and each step needed several rounds.

Each tread and riser and the molding needed to be sanded – and we elected to just do a few at a time – as it was tedious work. Some of the steps and the lower landing also had a thick layer of glue – which we also applied a layer of stripper and hand scraped.

The Old Shop Vac Trick

To absorb the dust as the sanding occured – I attached the hose of my trusty Shop Vac vacuum to the dust attachment (normally a little bag) on the end of the sander. I put a really long hose on the Shop Vac – and put it outside on the front porch – so that the dust leaking from the vacuum would spray outside! I plugged in the shop vac and turned it on when I turned the sander on AND most of the sanding dust sprayed outside!

Painting the Risers

We couldn’t get the white paint or glue off of centres of the risers – so we elected to paint the risers white to contrast with the dark woodtones.

Applying the Stain

Once the stairs were sanded to the best of our ability – we cleaned up all the dust and cleaned with a damp cloth.

We elected to use a Min Wax Gel Stain – in Dark Walnut. This is one of my favourite products. There were some dark marks and stains that just couldn’t be removed with sanding and scraping. (Those stairs are 130 years old after all). The Dark Walnut – covers everything, but still shows the grain of the wood. Gel Stain will adhere to mystery substances – like ancient shellac, paint or polyurethane.

We stained every other step – so that we could get up and down the stairs – no need for the treadmill during these times.

When it was time to work on the alternate steps – I left sticky notes on the stairs that were dry – saying “it’s ok to step here”. There was a lot of confusion. This got worse when all stairs were stained and then every other stair had Polyurethane applied.

Polyurethane Finish

After staining each of the stair treads, (and waiting for the stain to dry completely) we applied Minwax Fast Drying Polyurethane in Clear Satin. This product dries quickly – which is important when you want to get back to using your stairs. We eventually applied three coats using the every other step approach (we really needed the sticky notes).

Satin Polyurethane

The Satin finish is clear with a little shine – but not too much. A glossy finish would show too much dust!

Staining the Railing & Trim

We struggled with what to do with the railing, as it was not representative of the time period but decided to keep it as it was in pretty good shape. We gave it a quick hand sanding and then applied a layer of tinted Polyurethane (Urethane mixed with stain) over the trim, the railing, banister and upper landing – they just needed an even colour application, and the colour is a little bit lighter – almost matching the up and downstair hardwood flooring colour.

Painting the Risers

Finally, we applied painters tape around the edges and painted the risers white with a latex paint and primer. This was a fussy job and we had to clean up a lot of white paint drips on our beautiful new stairs. I also acquired a dark brown paint pen (from Amazon), which I used with a ruler – to go over the edges between the paint and stain – wherever there was a jagged or rough paint/stain line. (There were a lot of those!)

Old House Staircase – After

We finished sanding, staining, varathaning and painting the staircase. We were lucky we had no carpentry to take care of – but the job was tedious and messy. With patience and a lot of cleanup – this job was not at all difficult but did take 6 weeks.

The downside of the project is that it took a while to get used to the new slipperiness of the stairs. This is definitely a hold the railing and take it slow staircase.

We are really glad the old carpet is gone, and the staircase now looks clean and fresh. As with most projects, we just took one step at a time. We are happy to have made this a “do it ourselves” project – it isn’t perfect, but I think that we took more care than a contractor might have taken!

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