Rough sandstone stairs - improving appearance?

[Ian Bond]

Hi

I've removed the stair carpet, and found that the stone stairs are in need of some TLC (please see pic).

The stairs are made from large stone blocks, rather than separate treads and risers - quite rustic.

Looks like they've been painted at some time, and the rough, lighter patches are where something abrasive has been used to get the paint off, as a guess?

So please can someone recommend a suitable treatment to improve the appearance, and make the horrid patches less obvious?





Cheers

Ian

 

[Penners]

Hi Ian

Here are a few thoughts about this problem - probably the way I would have a go at improving the look of the stone. I would of course test each of these suggestions on an insignificant small area, before treating the whole staircase.

First I would use a paint stripper to get the remaining paint off the stone. I'm not sure what type of stripper would be best for sandstone, but if you give Strippers of Sudbury (01787 371524) a call they will probably be able to recommend which of their formulations is best for your type of stone and paint. You can buy test pots to try before committing yourself to a big order.

Do you then need to smooth off the patches where someone has abraded the stone to get paint off? If the sandstone is quite soft, you might find that scrubbing it with a harder, flat piece of stone might work. If not, try one of those hard carborundum blocks that you use for dressing grinding wheels. Be sure to lay in a good stock of elbow grease!

As for the final finishing, my wife used to work for a company who lay Cotswold limestone floors. For finishing those, they first put on a coat of linseed oil cut 50% with white spirit. When that's dry, they put on a final coat of neat linseed oil.

As I said, test everything first, but I hope those suggestions help.

Good luck - you'll need it!

 

[Ian Bond]

Hi David

Thanks for all those suggestions, much appreciated!

I will certainly be in touch with Strippers of Sudbury - Ironic that I need them now I'm living all the way up here in Yorkshire - up until a year ago I spent a great deal of time in the Essex/Suffolk borders.

The sandstone fortunately is not crumbling away. It is all fairly rough- certainly not smooth and polished like more refined stone stairs.

And it really is quite hard, must be quartz in it. Until I bought my SDS it was a nightmare trying to drill into walls.

So I don't think I'd get much joy trying to polish with a harder stone - just RSI On softer stone that would be a damn good plan though. I did consider trying a donkey stone, if I could find a suitable colour.

However the linseed idea sounds like a possible winner here. I do not want to paint the stone, as this would retain the texture but make the stairs a uniform colour, and they'd lose a lot of character. If linseed darkens down those light areas then they'll blend in a lot better with the surrounding stone.

And I don't expect the linseed will flake off eventually like paint would. Hopefully I could then wash down the stairs and keep them clean without problems.

I'll give it a go on a small area, and see if it darkens down.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Penners]

Linseed definitely won't flake off, because it doesn't form a surface skin. And when the floor starts to look dry and lifeless, you just wipe on another coat of oil.

I spent a great deal of time in the Essex/Suffolk borders

It's my experience that anyone who talks about living on the Essex/Suffolk border invariably lives in Essex but they want to be associated with Suffolk. If they live on the Suffolk side of the border, they just say that they live in Suffolk!:wink:

 

[Moo]

What a snob. You surprise me, David.

 

[Penners]

Naaaah - I'm only teasin'!

 

[Ian Bond]

I spent a great deal of time in the Essex/Suffolk borders

It's my experience that anyone who talks about living on the Essex/Suffolk border invariably lives in Essex but they want to be associated with Suffolk. If they live on the Suffolk side of the border, they just say that they live in Suffolk!:wink:

That made me laugh, David

As an ex-pat Lancastrian living in Yorkshire, I try and keep out of inter-county wars!!!

Where I stayed was most certainly Essex - Wivenhoe, near Colchester. But a great deal of time was spent mucking around in lovely Suffolk too - there are some beautiful bits in both counties.

I've got my linseed oil, so I'm going to do a test on the stairs today!

Ian

 

[Penners]

Wivenhoe's lovely, Ian. There's a gorgeous walk along the river.