Matching stain on stairs

[Coles]

Hi,

I have taken layers of paint off one side of the stairs as you can see it is much lighter.

The middle part which I assume was hidden by a carpet runner is much darker.

What is the best way to try to match the middle part?

I thought perhaps using Van dyke crysyals.

Is the middle just darker due to a lack of light?

I didn't want to go crazy with the sanding.

 

[MatthewC]

The traditional way of carpeting stairs was to have carpet (held by stair rods or clips) in the middle with painted edges - exactly as you have. Presumably you are intending to have a bare wood finish on the stairs; from my own experience, I would advise against that as the noise of feet on the stairs can be quite significant and annoying. I love your floor tiles which I guess are original - they look fantastic.

 

[Coles]

The traditional way of carpeting stairs was to have carpet (held by stair rods or clips) in the middle with painted edges - exactly as you have. Presumably you are intending to have a bare wood finish on the stairs; from my own experience, I would advise against that as the noise of feet on the stairs can be quite significant and annoying. I love your floor tiles which I guess are original - they look fantastic.

Thank you. We will likely have a carpet up the middle, so you could argue I don't need to match the sides but I do like the oldy look of the middle.

We were going to paint the sides but I really love the look of the wood and feel it's a shame to paint over it.

I too love the floor, we were lucky it survived as it had stud walls over part of it which we removed and the floor was fine.

There are a couple of damaged parts which I have someone lined up to restore.

 

[MatthewC]

Thank you. We will likely have a carpet up the middle, so you could argue I don't need to match the sides but I do like the oldy look of the middle.

We were going to paint the sides but I really love the look of the wood and feel it's a shame to paint over it.

I did exactly that stripping job on the stairs at my parents' house in - errr - 1969 and it did look great for years. Then they used fitted carpet and covered up my handiwork which was still there when we sold the house in 2019 after they had died.

 

[Coles]

I did exactly that stripping job on the stairs at my parents' house in - errr - 1969 and it did look great for years. Then they used fitted carpet and covered up my handiwork which was still there when we sold the house in 2019 after they had died.

There was a positive to carpet (apart from the nails) to protect what is underneath. My house was turned into two flats so my stairs were covered with 2 layers of plywood and then sound proofing, plus carpet. It was great removing it all.

 

[Gothichome]

From what I am seeing, you have paint grade wood in those stairs so was never meant to be stained. What you may have was a tinted shellac applied originally giving it a darker look under the carpet. When you stripped off the paint the original shellac came with it. Looking at your stair, you will have a hell of a time getting all the white out. It can be done, just a lot of work and a lot of time. I spent six months of constant work to get our stairs done.
Before, during and after

 

[Coles]

From what I am seeing, you have paint grade wood in those stairs so was never meant to be stained. What you may have was a tinted shellac applied originally giving it a darker look under the carpet. When you stripped off the paint the original shellac came with it. Looking at your stair, you will have a hell of a time getting all the white out. It can be done, just a lot of work and a lot of time. I spent six months of constant work to get our stairs done.
Before, during and afterView attachment 16550View attachment 16551View attachment 16552View attachment 16553

Thank you. Your stairs look stunning.

Isn't paint grade one where you don't see the grain or knots? You can see it on this wood, especially the risers, one of the reasons I didn't want to hide it.

Won't sanding remove the whiteness or does it penetrate deep into the wood?

I had to remove the paint anyway as it was so cracked and damaged that it was never going to be a simple repaint job.

I was thinking of going over them with a stain and then sealing with shellac.

 

[Gothichome]

Different levels of paint grade. Yours was never meant to be seen, either covered with carpet or painted a solid colour. My stairs are stain grade. They were meant to have a heavy stain on them or in other applications faux grained. If the look of the wood is what your after then yes your going to need to sand and fuss with white paint in the divots and crevices. Use a pre stain (usually thinned out shellac) stain and shellac. An other option is to use a tinted shellac with no stain.
Oh, yes the colour will even out with the sanding.

 

[Coles]

Different levels of paint grade. Yours was never meant to be seen, either covered with carpet or painted a solid colour. My stairs are stain grade. They were meant to have a heavy stain on them or in other applications faux grained. If the look of the wood is what your after then yes your going to need to sand and fuss with white paint in the divots and crevices. Use a pre stain (usually thinned out shellac) stain and shellac. An other option is to use a tinted shellac with no stain.
Oh, yes the colour will even out with the sanding.

Thank you. It's not an easy job, especially with two children. two cats and two dogs. But i guess if it ends up not looking great I can go back to the paint.

There are some gaps between the treads and the risers. Is there anything that will fill them or no point as they will just crack?

Also some nail holes from the plywood I took off.

Any suggestions on what to fill them with prior to sanding and staining?


Thanks

 

[Gothichome]

No, your wasting your time filling the gap between the treads and risers with people going up and down and natural expansion of the wood they will just come back. If you clean out the gunk from the cracks it won't look so bad. You could try a flexible caulking that will take a stain if it really bothers you, maybe others can provide better info on that. For the divots and such, a good quality filler should be fine, try to find one which comes close to the wood colour.

 

[Coles]

No, your wasting your time filling the gap between the treads and risers with people going up and down and natural expansion of the wood they will just come back. If you clean out the gunk from the cracks it won't look so bad. You could try a flexible caulking that will take a stain if it really bothers you, maybe others can provide better info on that. For the divots and such, a good quality filler should be fine, try to find one which comes close to the wood colour.

Thank you. I'm not overly bothered by the gaps, I only mentioned it because a decorator made a big thing about it looking bad.

But I will fill the nail holes.