Do you have hardwood floors in your home that you want to refinish? If so, refinishing the floors are only part of the labor involved. You are also going to want to refinish your hardwood-covered stairs, which can be quite difficult. Here are some tips for refinishing those stairs.
Prepare The Stairs
If you had carpeting over the stairs, you will need to do a bit of preparation to the stairs to get them ready for hardwood refinishing. You'll need to remove all staples, nails, or screws that are holding the carpet and tack strip in place. You'll likely discover that a lot of staples were used to wrap the carpet tightly around the wood steps, and it will involve pulling them out by hand.
Determine What Kind Of Work Is Needed
The thing to keep in mind about wood stairs is that they may not be in as bad of shape as the rest of your home. If the wood looks fairly good and you are going to be keeping the same color for the floorboards, all you may need to do is give the stair a light standing that will help remove scuffs and surface scratches. Then you can stain the wood back to the desired color to have it match the rest of the floors, and follow it up with a sealant.
Stairs that are in really bad shape are going to require more work. You will need to work with a much heavier grit of sandpaper to get the surface smooth, and gradually work up to a fine grit of sandpaper. A lot more labor will be involved to achieve the same finished result.
Use An Air Purifier To Control Dust
A great tip for keeping the rest of your home clean while refinishing the stairs is to use an air purifier. The filter will catch airborne debris and prevent it from traveling through your entire home. Keep it running during the time that you are working on the steps.
Know How To Use An Orbital Sander
When using an orbital sander on the stairs, you will want to move the sander slowly across the grain of the steps. There is no need to put additional pressure on the sander since the weight of the sander is enough to get the job done. As you move across each step, overlap the sander with about half of the previous pass you just made. It helps to put a piece of cardboard up against the wall so that you do not damage it with the orbital sander.
Choosing flooring can be quite a challenge, mainly because you have so many options. On the lower end of the cost spectrum, you have things like sheet vinyl and vinyl tile. On the higher end of the cost spectrum, you have stone and ceramic tile. Then, there's carpet. It's installed over a subfloor, but most people do consider it to be a separate type of flooring. You can read more about flooring on this blog, equipping yourself to make a better decision about the flooring that's right for your home. You'll then have a better idea of what questions to ask and what factors to consider as you choose a floor.